“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25).  Resurrection Sunday is about the justification of man.  This great work of redemption was not complete until there had been a complete victory won over death, hell and the grave; amen?  He had experienced the wrath of God upon Himself.  It’s hard to imagine that as He hung there in torment and cried out, “…my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)?  We can’t comprehend that.  He was eternal with the Father from the beginning.  The second member of the Godhead, the Creator, the Word by Whom all things were made.  They were made by Him, and they were made for Him; amen?

He finds Himself now isolated.  I don’t think we can even comprehend what that spiritual forsaking was, or how it manifested itself.  But the torment of His soul, the cry in the garden, “If it’s possible, let this cup pass from Me.”  It wasn’t about the taking on of sins; it was about the rejection of the Father.  “How can I live without You?”  We’re talking about the man, Jesus.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we had that dependence?  He, a man full of the Holy Ghost without measure; think about that.  The power of God, without measure.  All of the gifts of the Spirit working in Him proficiently.  The wisdom and the knowledge of the Scriptures, without measure.  At twelve years old He confounded the doctors of theology in the temple.  He amazed all of the teachers, for no man ever spoke as this man.  He speaks as somebody with, not only authority, but experience.  Yet, in His whole ministry, He didn’t speak a word that didn’t originate with the Father.  He had no agenda, and He said “I’ve come to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34).

All of the disciples were overwhelmed.  When He died on that cross, none of them understood the Resurrection.  They were broken-hearted.  Their love for Him was seen very evidently in the women rising early and coming to minister to Him in burial.  What a great question: “Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen…” (Luke 24:5-6).  So, for you and I, as we celebrate the resurrection story; let’s remind ourselves that it’s not just a future event.  The rapture of the church, the blessed hope, we look for on a daily basis.  But that same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, and is making alive these mortal bodies.  That same Spirit, the Scripture said here, that caused that resurrection, was for our very justification.  Pronounced righteous.  He was able to ascend back to the Father.  He was able to take that precious blood, once for all, into the Holy of Holies; praise God.  Hear it.  “Once for all.”

I won’t get us sidetracked into it, but the one thing that this Resurrection shows us, as we understand in Hebrews, is that the High Priest had to first offer for himself, and then for the people.  Jesus ascended once for all.  We’ve got to get our minds away from that, and we spent a lot of years now teaching on it, the thought that we have to get saved again, and I’ve got to somehow, “I’m backslidden.”  It is a very, very difficult thing to break communion with God, in the life of the true believer.  The reason I say that is because in justification, us having been pronounced righteous, right with God, our sins blotted out, separated from us as far as the east is from the west.  This is what was occurring following that great Resurrection; the entering in to the throne room of God.  Now He lives to make intercession for us.  When you sin, Jesus is praying for you, just like He did for Peter.  “Satan desires to sift you, but I’ve prayed for you” (Luke 22:31-32).  Praise God.