Free at Last

Introduction

Jesus rose from the dead — He was dead and then he was alive. He was gone and then he was back. Jesus ceased to exist in any tangible, conscious way to those living on earth and then He rose from the dead, His Spirit reentered His body and He was again alive to everyone on earth again.

Death seems final doesn’t it. We have stood over caskets and the scene seems to be a big goodbye. And we know, as much as we push it out of our mind, someday we are going to personally face death the same way our loved ones did before us.

Death is a curse…mankind has feared death since the fall in the garden. There is a great deal about it that is unknown and it involves a complete loss of control.

T Boone Pickens just died at the age of 91. He was one of the richest men in the world. The power which came with his money was immense. Yet, with all that power and money he died like the poorest man on earth, like everyone and anyone else on earth…He stopped breathing and ceased to live. He could not control the time he had on earth…there came a point when life was going to end for him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The fear, loss of control, seemingly finality of it all, all of these make death the most dreaded of all events in the life of human beings.

Yet, you then have someone like Billy Graham, who said, “I look forward to death with great anticipation, to meeting God face to face.” In a 2010 interview Graham said, “I have a tremendous amount of hope, because I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. And I believe he’s alive right now. My wife is already in heaven, I look forward to seeing her, definitely, in the near future, because I’m 92 now and I know that my time is limited on this earth. But I have tremendous hope in the fact that I’ll be in the future life, and I’ll be there based on what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and by the resurrection. This gives me a great deal of hope.”

“I have a tremendous amount of hope, because I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. And I believe he’s alive right now. My wife is already in heaven, I look forward to seeing her, definitely, in the near future, because I’m 92 now and I know that my time is limited on this earth. But I have tremendous hope in the fact that I’ll be in the future life, and I’ll be there based on what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and by the resurrection. This gives me a great deal of hope.”

How can a man face death with hope, anticipation and joy? We know the answer don’t we? He looked forward to death because He knew Jesus had conquered death and the grave. He knew he could trust Jesus…he didn’t need to be in control…need not fear what was coming…need not dread what was to come.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…Because Christ loved me, He died for me. In so doing He paid the penalty for all of my sins…but then He rose from the dead…and in the resurrection something else was given to me…something else done on my behalf.

There are two parts to what the resurrection accomplishes for the believer in Christ.

Conquered Physical Annihilation

The body wears out and dies because we exist in a sinful world. The creation was subjected to sin by the rebellion of man and the results have been catastrophic.

Romans 8:20–21 NASB95

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The physical realm was doomed by sin and in need of redemption. Jesus was the firstborn of the resurrection. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. The resurrection of the dead has begun through Jesus!

1 Corinthians 15:20 NASB95

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

Because of Jesus we have hope every time we place the body of a believer in the ground. That body is not going to stay there forever. It may decay in time because of the curse and futility of the created order under sin…but it will not be left to decay…never left in the grave.

“Death is not extinguishing the light from the Christian; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” We do not cease to exist, even for a time, when we leave our bodies. We go to be in the presence of God. And then...

One day Christ will return and all the disembodied souls of those who had faith in Christ during their lifetime will return with Him.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 NASB95

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

They will be joined again to their body just as Jesus was rejoined to His body in the tomb. These resurrected bodies will no longer be subject to the curse of sin and death.

So the resurrection gives us hope…hope that we will never face a physical annihilation…that our bodies will never turn back to dust forever. We will rise again because Jesus did. The resurrection gives us hope that life itself will never end…hope for eternal life.

New Life in Christ

The resurrection of Jesus does something else for us…and this is more powerful than we can wrap our minds around.

When we place faith in Christ for our salvation, God removes us from the spiritual lineage of Adam and puts us into the lineage of Christ. When Jesus hung on the cross, we hung on the cross in Him.

We are no longer standing at the foot of a tree eating an apple with Adam…we are hanging on a cross with Christ. And when He died we died with Him. Our old man died there and was put into a tomb. But just as Jesus rose from the dead, in Christ, we did too.

Romans 6:3–4 NASB95

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

When Jesus died, we died and when He rose, we rose. We are not the same person. Our old sin nature died on that cross and we rose from that tomb a new creation, with a new nature. Nothing is the same! See

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB95

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

We don’t come to Christ in order to become better people. We don’t come to experience “life change.” We come to Jesus in order to die and be resurrected from the dead to new life…die to the person we were and be resurrected to a completely new life.

The resurrection of Christ is assurance that God never intends to leave us to the consequences of the fall…either physically or spiritually speaking.

We are washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, free from our sins, free from the power of sin…we are no longer under the curse of sin, death and the law…we are free in the grace and love of Christ demonstrated to us through the cross and resurrection of Christ.

Romans 8:8–9 NASB95

and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Left to our old person we could never be pleasing to God but resurrected as the new man or woman in Christ we are always pleasing to Him. We belong to Jesus and have new life in Him.

Conclusion

A father and son had been ship­wrecked. Together they clung to the rigging until the son was washed off. The father was rescued in the morning in .an unconscious state. Several hours later he awoke in a fisherman's hut, where he was lying in a soft, warm bed. In an agony he remembered his boy. But as he turned his head he saw his son lying beside him. One by one we are being swept away with the billows of time. Some storm will carry the last and stoutest heart of us away. But when we awake beyond the raging of the sea we shall be together again. When our eyes open in the Heavenly morning, nearby us, in the bowers of Paradise, we shall see those "whom we have loved long since, and lost awhile."

One by one we are being swept away with the billows of time. Some storm will carry the last and stoutest heart of us away. But when we awake beyond the raging of the sea we shall be together again. When our eyes open in the Heavenly morning, nearby us, in the bowers of Paradise, we shall see those "whom we have loved long since, and lost awhile."

This life is not the end and we face the end of our time here differently than those who do not have hope in Christ.

Hope — Expectation of good. Like Billy Graham said in the earlier illustration…We expect something after this life is over…and what we expect is good. We expect eternal life and to forever be in the literal presence of God. We expect to live forever…to worship God with loved ones who have gone before us…have fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ and worship our God with them forever.

Our new life has already begun. We are a new creation right now. You are, right now, God’s masterpiece. He has adopted you as His child…He loves you infinitely and unconditionally…You are holy, consecrated, set apart for His work…you are filled with the Holy Spirit…you are accepted and He is pleased with you.

You are a priest of the most High God…you are His servant…you are created with purpose and His plans for you span eternity past.

The resurrection confirms and affirms our identity…we are an eternal, holy, child of God…and instrument of His purpose and our life will never end.

Death is a veil…a doorway…a rite of passage from our starting point in a broken, sin filled creation…to our intermediate point in Paradise and final eternal home in the New Heaven and Earth. God has taken its sting…its finality and power over us…God has defeated death and the grave and hell…He has given us hope and eternal life in Jesus.