The Heart of Apostolic Faith

Romans 1:1-6

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.[1]

O

f course, there was no observance of Easter among the Apostolic churches. Certainly, there was no holiday such as our modern observance. The early believers did, however, celebrate the Resurrection of Christ on an ongoing basis. Each Lord’s Day service was a celebration of the victory of Christ the Lord over death, hell and the grave. The practise of having a particular season set apart for commemoration of the resurrection would have seemed foreign and utterly unnecessary to those first Christians. The formality of this Easter season would have seemed contrived to the first saints since they worshipped the Living Son of God always.

I am not suggesting that it is wrong for us to celebrate Easter, but I do note that if all we observe is an annual memorial of the Resurrection of Christ our Lord, then we are at best sub-Christian in comparison to the New Testament saints. What we should endeavour to recapture is the heart of Apostolic Faith. When we expose what lay at the core of faith in the days of the first blush of the Faith, we will discover that the Resurrection was central to faith and practise. In order to explore this vibrant first faith, join me in reviewing the initial verses of Paul’s letter to the Roman saints.

Paul Believed God was Personal and Knowable — Note the intimacy intimated and openly expressed in these opening words. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God… Indeed, Paul considered himself to be a servant of Christ Jesus. It is regrettable that we are so sensitive in our modern age. The translation in my Bible, as is true of most modern translations, softens the Greek term δοῦλος to read servant instead of slave, which is closer to the usage of the word in New Testament days. “We have here an emphasis on serving as a slave. In this word we have a service which is not a matter of choice for the one who renders it, which he has to perform whether he likes or not, because he is subject as a slave to an alien will, to the will of his owner.”[2]

At this point, you may question how I can speak of intimacy when Paul is using such strong language concerning his service to God. The answer to the question lies in two lines of thought. First, Jesus emphasises the role of His people as slaves to God. What may best be described as a synonym of this Greek term is another Greek word διάκονος, which we usually translate into English as servant or sometimes as deacon.

The difference between the two concepts is that in the verbal forms, δουλεύω stresses subjection, whereas “διακονέω has the special quality of indicating very personally the service rendered to another.”[3] Jesus uses the two terms essentially interchangeably when speaking of the Christian. He came to serve. He was a servant. Those who will be first in the Kingdom of Heaven must be servant to all. Therefore, when Paul speaks of himself as a slave of God, he is not negative, as we might think.

Again, Paul says he is “called an apostle” (lit. translation of κλητὸς ἀπόστολος). It is true that he is called to be an apostle, but he is emphasising the action of God in setting him apart to this particular service. He makes much of the fact that God has personally intervened in his life as he writes in his various letters. Consider a few of the instances where the Apostle speaks of God’s appointment.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus [2 Timothy 1:1]… Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope [1 Timothy 1:1]. Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead [Galatians 1:1]…

At issue is the fact that God is not a distant God who serves as sort of an absentee caretaker of the world following creation. Rather, the True and Living God longs for fellowship with His creation and actively involves Himself in directing the affairs of those who have yielded their lives to Him. Therefore, the Apostle could write at a later time, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus [1 Timothy 1:12-14].

Why does God’s personal involvement matter for us? That God can be known should encourage each one who is yet outside the grace of God. Since He is knowable, we can have a personal relationship with the Living God. This is not an invitation to mere religion consisting of rote exercises, it is an invitation to an experiential faith in which the God of all creation seeks to make Himself known to each individual.

You need not guess whether God accepts you, but rather you can know that He accepts you, just as Jesus has said. Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light [Matthew 11:28-30].

How powerful is the invitation that God issues through Isaiah.

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

[Isaiah 1:18]

To each Christian, there is great comfort in this because we know that we are not simply wandering souls hoping that somehow we can please God. He knows me and He calls me by name. He directs my steps and watches over me as His beloved child.

Paul Believed God Gave the Word — Unquestionably, the prophets and evangelists who wrote the Word of God were assured that the words they penned was God speaking through them. Listen to the Apostle. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures [Romans 1:1, 2]. The Bible is not simply a collection of ancient writings, but it is the very Word of the True and Living God. God promised a Saviour. He announced from the Fall of our first parents a Deliverer. This is the Gospel, the Good News of God.

Even as God pronounced judgement on the deceiver of our first parents, He promised a deliverer.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.

[Genesis 3:15]

In this protoevangelium, God promised that the seed of the woman (lit. to translate the intent of the Hebrew phrase וּבֵין זַרְעָהּ הוּא). Her seed would crush the head of the serpent. What is so amazing is that Hebrew people counted seed as being from males, but a woman would produce a seed—a child—that would crush the serpent’s head.

Down through the ages, repeatedly God promises One who will set His people free from sin and deliver them into the glorious light of God’s goodness and grace. Through a wayward prophet for hire the Living God prophesied a star … out of Jacob and a sceptre … out of Israel [Numbers 24:17]. In this, that wicked prophet spoke of the coming Saviour who would crush sin.

Isaiah penned a prophecy that reads more like history than it does prophetic words. Isaiah’s words written 750 years before the Advent of Christ still thrill our souls.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned every one to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for sin,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

[Isaiah 53:4-11]

Paul accepted that God had promised a Saviour—One who would suffer because of the sin of His fallen creation. However, in the sacrifice of His own life, the suffering Saviour would make atonement for sinful man. This is the message that declares the fulfillment of divine prophecy, just as Paul has written.

While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation [Romans 5:6-11].

God promised a deliverer throughout the long years leading up to the incarnation of His Son, Jesus the Messiah. All the prophets from Moses to Malachi point to Jesus as the promised fulfillment of all the promises of God. How great must the astonishment have been for those early disciples when Jesus walked with them and opened their understanding as He cited the Holy Scriptures.

Meeting Cleopas and another disciple, the Risen Son of God walked with them. After listening to them as they spoke of the empty tomb, hearing the dejection and grief in their voices, Jesus at last spoke. When He spoke, He gently rebuked them for their unbelief, for He had previously promised all these things would take place.

He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself [Luke 24:25-27].

Later, these two disciples would confess to one another, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures [Luke 24:32]? This Word is true! We need an interpreter to understand it, but when the Spirit of God takes up residence within our hearts—as He does when we have at last believed—we read and we have the same understanding that creates a burning within just as these two disciples experienced. This Word is alive and it changes our lives.

Paul Believed God Sent His Son to Die Because of Our Sin — Whenever one speaks of the death of God the Son, he enters into a great mystery. The movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” has excited considerable controversy. Many people, and certainly many casual Christians, are astonished to think of what Christ suffered because of our sin. However, though we may be astonished at the physical brutality inflicted on the Saviour, no mere human can understand what it meant for the Son of God to be separated from the Father. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son.

Luke, who was himself a physician, provides us with medical insight into the stress that our Lord experienced on that night when He was betrayed. You will recall that the Master had just observed the institution of the Lord’s Table with His disciples. Judas, prior to the institution of that meal, left with the deliberate intent of betraying Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders. Judas knew that the religious and civic leaders of the nation intended to execute Jesus, but for the price of a slave he nevertheless delivered the Lord into the hands of wicked men intent on ridding themselves of this Judean gadfly.

Following the Meal, Jesus took the remaining disciples, together with a few individuals who appear to have been closely associated with the band of disciples, to the garden where He often prayed. Peter, James and John were asked to walk with Jesus into the depths of the garden, and the remainder of the disciples waiting near the edges of the olive grove. There, in the depths of the garden, Jesus prayed. Listen to Doctor Luke’s description of that prayer session.

Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground [Luke 22:42-44].

There is divine mystery shrouding the agony of the Master. The stress of anticipation, the stress of struggle to fulfil what He had come to do, the stress of knowing that He would shortly be separated from the Father, caused Him to sweat great drops of blood. The unknown author of the letter to the Hebrew Christians spoke of this struggle that the Master experienced. That author wrote, In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him [Hebrews 5:7-9].

How liberating and how powerful are the words of that same writer as the Scriptures are opened to us. Under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him [Hebrews 9:22-28].

This hope of the Apostolic Church is the hope of Christians to this day. Salvation from sin, freedom from judgement, and life everlasting is ours in Christ the Lord. Amen.

Paul Believed the Resurrection Proved Jesus to be the Son of God — Listen again to the words with which Paul opens this missive to the Christians in Rome. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Many people throughout history have sacrificed themselves for one cause or another, but none of those who gave themselves in behalf of another ever conquered the grave. The tomb held fast all who dared enter there—except for One.

I remember speaking with a man in Pitt Meadows on one occasion. I had stopped on my way home from a fishing trip to fill my tank with gas. The attendant was idling about as the tank filled, and I hated to waste time, so I struck up a conversation with him. I inquired if he ever gave much thought to spiritual matters. He informed me that he was a Muslim and that he was very careful to observe all the laws associated with that faith.

I might have spoken of Heaven, but he could have easily claimed to anticipate Heaven. I might have spoken of worship, but he doubtless could speak of even greater devotion to religious practises. I might have spoken of the Scriptures, but he had holy writings that he revered. Instead, I spoke of Jesus as the Risen Son of God.

As a Muslim, the man considered Jesus to be a great prophet, but he could not accept that He was the Son of God. I asked if he had ever been to Medina to the Prophet’s Mosque where the prophet Mohammed is buried. He had indeed made that trip. I asked if he had ever been to Jerusalem. The man had never been to Jerusalem. “In Medina,” I stated, “you have seen the tomb of the prophet and you know very well that the remains of Mohammed are in that tomb. We Christians rejoice to note that there is also a tomb in Jerusalem, but that tomb is empty. Jesus the Messiah is not there. He is risen from the dead.”

The tomb of Lenin is at the Kremlin in Moscow. The tomb of Marx is in London. The tomb of Mao is in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The tomb of Buddha is in Kusinara at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains. Confucius is buried in the middle of the town of Qufu. All these tombs are filled with dead men’s bones. Christ’s tomb is empty.

I fear that we fail to preach often enough on the Resurrection of our Saviour. By His Resurrection, we are born again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time [1 Peter 1:3-5]. According to the Word, our inheritance is secured by His resurrection from the dead.

It is on the basis of His resurrection from the dead that we obey Him in baptism [see 1 Peter 3:21, 22]. In His resurrection is our power to witness, giving life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins [cf. Philippians 3:10]. Our hope of eternal life is based on the fact that Jesus is raised from the dead [1 Corinthians 15:12, 20]. Our power to live a holy life is solidly founded on the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead [Romans 4:24]. Hope and joy and peace and victory are the heritage of the Christian, and all this is because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

Paul Believed Salvation was Through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus — Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Consider the preaching of the apostolic churches. Peter, speaking at Pentecost and to the very people who had crucified Jesus spoke of the resurrection of the Saviour. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified [Acts 2:29-36].

Later, speaking within the same city, the Apostle Peter again stated of Jesus that God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness [Acts 3:26].

Peter and John were hailed before the courts. There, Peter declared, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved [Acts 4:8-12].

Later, it is declared of all the apostles, With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all [Acts 4:33].

Throughout all this preaching by Peter and John and the remainder of the disciples, all that was necessary to halt the growth of this Christian movement would have been for the authorities to produce the body of Jesus. They had executed Him. They had placed a seal of the Roman Empire on His tomb. They had set a guard over a dead man. All that would have been necessary to destroy the message these first believers were declaring would have been to display the rotting body of Jesus of Nazareth.

Do you not think that the fact that no one questioned the empty tomb, the fact that no one ridiculed the declaration that He was alive, serves to verify that all the populace recognised that something momentous had occurred? Apparently, those present and witnessing the repeated instances when the first believers proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead were themselves convinced that Jesus was alive.

When the Good News at last transcended racial prejudice and Gentiles for the first time heard the message of life, the resurrection of the Saviour was central. Peter attested, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name [Acts 10:38-43].

And it was that same message of the conquest of death that was at the heart of Paul’s preaching. Before Agrippa and in the presence of Festus and Bernice, he declared, To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles [Acts 26:22, 23].

Think of this. God is personal and knowable. You can know God personally. You can be received as His beloved child, enjoying loving intimacy with the Living God. The authority for such a declaration is this Bible, which is the very Word of God. It is authoritative and accurate. It is infallible and inerrant. You can depend upon what God has communicated through this Word. According to this Word, God sent His Son to die because of our sin. Jesus, the Son of God, took our sin upon Himself and provided atonement through the sacrifice of His own life. No one need be separated from the love of God, because the means for freedom from condemnation has already been provided. The proof that this is true is evidenced through the fact that Jesus raised from the dead.

There is a grand and glorious purpose for our worship. We worship so that Christ who is alive may be glorified. There is a purpose in our declaration of this message that the Son of God is alive. It is so that you may believe and be saved. Salvation, the gift of God offered to all who will receive the personal reign of the Living Christ provides forgiveness of all sin, freedom from condemnation, adoption into the Family of God, access to the throne of God, the promise of transformation into the likeness of the Risen Christ, and best of all, the presence of God with all who believe.

I can think of no greater gift to offer to all who will receive it than the gift of life. That life is offered to all who are willing to receive the sacrifice that Jesus has provided. Eternal life, that new quality of life that is nothing less than the life of God lived out through us, comes through believing that Jesus is risen from the dead and that He stands prepared to receive all who call on Him as Master of life. This is the Word of God.

This is the message of faith that we proclaim: if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. Now the Scripture says, No one who believes on Him will be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [Romans 10:9-13].[4]

Our prayer is that this Easter may become a glorious celebration for you as you rejoice for the first time as one who is truly alive. Free of condemnation! Free of guilt! Free of fear! Free of sin! Free to enter into the presence of God! Free to worship in spirit and in truth! Free to receive all the glorious gifts that the Father delights to give to His own beloved children! Free at last! Free at last! Free at last!

When you believe this message of Christ the Lord you receive all that God longs to give to His own beloved children. Receive Christ today. Believe this message and be born from above. Amen.

Indeed, Paul considered himself to be a servant of Christ Jesus. It is regrettable that we are so sensitive in our modern age. The translation in my Bible, as is true of most modern translations, softens the Greek term δοῦλος to read servant instead of slave, which is closer to the usage of the word in New Testament days. “We have here an emphasis on serving as a slave. In this word we have a service which is not a matter of choice for the one who renders it, which he has to perform whether he likes or not, because he is subject as a slave to an alien will, to the will of his owner.”[5]

At this point, you may question how I can speak of intimacy when Paul is using such strong language concerning his service to God. The answer to the question lies in two lines of thought. First, Jesus emphasises the role of His people as slaves to God. What may best be described as a synonym of this Greek term is another Greek word διάκονος, which we usually translate into English as servant or sometimes as deacon.

The difference between the two concepts is that in the verbal forms, δουλεύω stresses subjection, whereas “διακονέω has the special quality of indicating very personally the service rendered to another.”[6] Jesus uses the two terms essentially interchangeably when speaking of the Christian. He came to serve. He was a servant. Those who will be first in the Kingdom of Heaven must be servant to all. Therefore, when Paul speaks of himself as a slave of God, he is not negative, as we might think.

Again, Paul says he is “called an apostle” (lit. translation of κλητὸς ἀπόστολος). It is true that he is called to be an apostle, but he is emphasising the action of God in setting him apart to this particular service. He makes much of the fact that God has personally intervened in his life as he writes in his various letters. Consider a few of the instances where the Apostle speaks of God’s appointment.

I remember speaking with a man in Pitt Meadows on one occasion. I had stopped on my way home from a fishing trip to fill my tank with gas. The attendant was idling about as the tank filled, and I hated to waste time, so I struck up a conversation with him. I inquired if he ever gave much thought to spiritual matters. He informed me that he was a Muslim and that he was very careful to observe all the laws associated with that faith.

I might have spoken of Heaven, but he could have easily claimed to anticipate Heaven. I might have spoken of worship, but he doubtless could speak of even greater devotion to religious practises. I might have spoken of the Scriptures, but he had holy writings that he revered. Instead, I spoke of Jesus as the Risen Son of God.

As a Muslim, the man considered Jesus to be a great prophet, but he could not accept that He was the Son of God. I asked if he had ever been to Medina to the Prophet’s Mosque where the prophet Mohammed is buried. He had indeed made that trip. I asked if he had ever been to Jerusalem. The man had never been to Jerusalem. “In Medina,” I stated, “you have seen the tomb of the prophet and you know very well that the remains of Mohammed are in that tomb. We Christians rejoice to note that there is also a tomb in Jerusalem, but that tomb is empty. Jesus the Messiah is not there. He is risen from the dead.”

The tomb of Lenin is at the Kremlin in Moscow. The tomb of Marx is in London. The tomb of Mao is in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The tomb of Buddha is in Kusinara at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains. Confucius is buried in the middle of the town of Qufu. All these tombs are filled with dead men’s bones. Christ’s tomb is empty.

It is on the basis of His resurrection from the dead that we obey Him in baptism [see 1 Peter 3:21, 22]. In His resurrection is our power to witness, giving life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins [cf. Philippians 3:10]. Our hope of eternal life is based on the fact that Jesus is raised from the dead [1 Corinthians 15:12, 20]. Our power to live a holy life is solidly founded on the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead [Romans 4:24]. Hope and joy and peace and victory are the heritage of the Christian, and all this is because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God’s good news—which He promised long ago through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures—concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh and was established as the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness. We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations, on behalf of His name, including yourselves who are also Jesus Christ’s by calling:

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[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Ó 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2]Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. Edited by Kittel, Gerhard, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-c1976.

[3]Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. Edited by Kittel, Gerhard, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-c1976.

[4] Holman Christian Standard Bible, Nashville, TN, Holman Bible Publishers, 2000

[5]Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. Edited by Kittel, Gerhard, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-c1976.

[6]Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. Edited by Kittel, Gerhard, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-c1976.