From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday

 

For Christians, Holy Week gives us the opportunity to consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Ultimately, it is this week in human history that gives us the opportunity to know and follow Jesus. Holy Week culminates with resurrection Sunday. 

Many of us are concerned with the ethics of Christian living. Or we’re troubled by how to practice our faith in an increasingly secular and post-Christian society. Sometimes these internal challenges result in a tepid faith. But let me remind you that the resurrection changes everything. Author and preacher, Tim Keller addressed this tension when he wrote: 

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”
― Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Here are four specific ways we can prepare our hearts and minds this Holy Week. 

  1. We should somberly ponder the reality of our sins in light of Christ’s cross. Jesus became sin for us. Jesus took upon himself the curse of sin in our place. While we should not dwell too deeply or too long in the depths of our sinfulness, we should both consider and confess our sins in light of the cross. Jesus paid for all our sins on the cross. Our sins today inhibit fellowship with Jesus. This holy week in the life of the church is an important time for reflection and confession of our sinfulness as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. 
  2. We should set aside time to consider the weight of sin that rested on Jesus on that cruel cross so many years ago. The weight of sin Jesus carried is impossible for us to quantify or to even comprehend. The holy Christ took on himself what is vile and evil. Jesus, as both God and man, accepted a period of separation from his holy Heavenly Father because he became our sin (2 Cor. 5:21). Let us not gloss over the intensity of Jesus’ prayer in the garden or the weight of sin on the cross because we are too familiar with the story.
  3. We should be thankful that the resurrection occurred in space-time history. Jesus’ resurrection is not just some personal truth for Christians as postmodernism might explain it. Jesus’ resurrection is not merely a spiritual resurrection in the hearts of believers as theological liberalism might explain it. Jesus’ resurrection is historical reality. There is an empty tomb. There is no body. There were hundreds of witnesses. Many of the first witnesses died for their belief in Jesus’ physical, historical resurrection from the dead. There is a thriving, growing, universal church today because Jesus’ resurrection occurred in space-time history. If it did not occur as testified in Scripture, then, as Paul affirmed, “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).
  4. We should be ready to rejoice greatly this Sunday as we worship the Risen Lord. It is true that every Sunday is Easter for the follower of Jesus. The first disciples began worshiping together on Sundays because the first day of the week was the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Fascinatingly, the first believers were Jews whose day of worship was the Sabbath. So the resurrection caused the first Jewish believers to willingly change more than 1,000 years of worship history! But Easter is special. It is the day we celebrate the event that changed EVERYTHING! So get to church early. Sing loudly. Worship corporately. Proclaim boldly. And celebrate this Easter Sunday joyfully!

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash 

Jesus’ Atoning Work on the Cross

As we enter Jesus’ Passion on our calendars celebrating Palm Sunday, March 29 and Easter, April 5, let’s remember what Jesus did when he went to the cross.

On more occasions than I can count I have uttered the sentence, “Jesus died for our sins.” That Jesus died for our sins is the crux of the gospel. The glory of that sentence, “Jesus died for our sins” is even more meaningful than we often imagine. Jesus’ death atoned for our sins.

The atonement is a theological term meaning the satisfaction of divine justice in Jesus’ act of obedience on the cross.

Theological liberalism is embarrassed by the concept of divine wrath against sin and has avoided a theologically robust definition of the atonement. As Christians, we must grasp the truth of the atonement to better understand the glory of our salvation.

The Bible teaches the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. Don’t be intimidated by these terms. Penal means that we are sinful, and that our sins deserve punishment. Substitutionary means that Jesus took our place when he atoned for our sins by taking the punishment we deserve.

In his excellent book, The Cross of Christ, John Stott underscored the importance of this doctrine.

All inadequate doctrines of the atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and humanity. If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to his, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it. When, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge that we are, namely “hell-deserving sinners,” then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.

Stott, Cross, 111

The biblical doctrine of the atonement reminds us of three staggering truths that are deeper than we will ever fully grasp this side of eternity.

  1. God is more holy than we imagine.
  2. We are more sinful than we think.
  3. Jesus loves us more deeply than we deserve.

Only a grasp of what Jesus did on the cross—the doctrine of substitutionary atonement—can prevent spiritual distortions. . . . Only this doctrine keeps us from thinking God is mainly holy with some love or mainly loving with some holiness—but instead [he] is both holy and loving equally, interdependently. Only this view of God makes the spoiled or the neglected into the healthy and the loved.

Tim Keller

The atonement emphasizes God’s wrath against sin. The Bible is full of divine judgment against sin. From Adam and Eve being kicked out of the Garden, to the flood, to the plagues on Egypt, to the 40 years of wilderness wanderings, to the judgments and exiles upon Israel, to the cross, and through to the judgments described in the book of Revelation, the Bible is a book that declares judgment. Why does God judge so often? Well, God is supremely holy. He is more holy than we can imagine, and his standard for humanity is absolute perfection and holiness.

The other reason the Bible describes God’s judgments so often is that we are sinful. We are more sinful than we’d like to admit. Our motivations, desires, and longings are sinful. Our actions and dreams and words and ways are sinful. We are sinful.

Our sin deserves judgment. Thus, the cross and the penal substitutionary atonement. Jesus took our place, received in his body the punishment for our sins, and satisfied God’s wrath against sin (penal substitutionary atonement). Jesus’ death on the cross shouts loudly the staggering love of God for sinners.

At the cross in holy love God through Christ paid the full penalty of our disobedience himself. He bore the judgment we deserve in order to bring us the forgiveness we do not deserve. On the cross divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God’s holy love was ‘satisfied.‘

Stott, Cross, 91.

What do we do with this glorious theological truth?

  • Meditate on the holiness of God.
  • Thank God for sending Jesus to take your place.
  • Worship God for the depth of his love.
  • Love God because he so loved you.
  • Follow Christ with your life because this is the only appropriate response to the atonement.

Photo by Luis Vidal on Unsplash