I say this morning what Peter proclaims in 1 Peter 1:3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. . .”
Words fail to capture what happened on that day when Jesus rose from the dead. It was a conquering of sin forever. It was a restoration of what was lost. It was a promise that we’d forever live in God’s presence because the righteous requirements of God’s law were now fully satisfied.
We cannot understand how conquered we were, how lost we are, how separated from Him. We cannot know the distress and death that sin works in us apart from Jesus. We are foolish, distracted, and temporarily believing happiness and meaning exist apart from Him. We claim such intelligence in a culture moving away from the reality that we are dead in our sin. We do not know what life is. We do not know the joy to be had in His presence.
We rush on past this resurrection Sunday. We miss the turn on our journey. But maybe today, you won’t miss this divine signal. You won’t miss His call. You’ll know that all the pain and confusion of your life has everything to do with how far you’ve turned from Jesus.
He is risen!