I was with Him!

As we approach the celebration of the greatest event that has ever taken place, the resurrection of Jesus, perhaps we need to examine our hearts to make sure that we have not allowed this focal point of the Christian faith to simply be noted as another holiday. The resurrection of Jesus is the message of the New Testament church. It is what we are to proclaim to the world until He comes. It was the message of the church of Acts that God confirmed with great signs and wonders. Mark 16:20 says, “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” It is the same message that He still confirms today.

When we think of Jesus being raised from the dead, we tend to think of Him alone on the cross, alone in the tomb and alone in resurrection power. To think of it this way leaves out the very reason He overcame death, hell and the grave ... Us! There’s an old song that says, “When He was on the cross. I was on His mind.” I beg to differ! When He was on the cross, you were with Him! Let’s look at some scriptures that show us this.

Romans 6:5 says, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” These scriptures here in Romans 6 use terms like “with” and “together” and “united.” They show us what happened in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus from heaven’s perspective.

When He died on the cross, we were with Him. We were united together in the likeness of His death. It wasn’t just Him there on the cross. I was there with Him. He was there for me, taking my place, dying the death that I deserved.

He wasn’t dying just a physical death, but a spiritual one. The problem He had to take care of was not a physical problem, but a spiritual one that had to do with the very nature of man. Because of Adam’s transgression we were dead spiritually. Jesus’ death and punishment was a payment for that spiritual condition of man. When He was on the cross, I was with Him.

After His death, He was buried, and suffered the greatest suffering. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 12:40 that as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

It was there that Jesus paid the wages of death. It was also there that Romans 6:4 says we were buried with Him.

Jesus wasn’t raised from the tomb, He was raised from the very grips of spiritual death. Everything that would have had to happen to you if you died in a spiritually dead condition, He had to experience. Jesus’ body went to the tomb, but His Spirit went to the place where we were all destined to go. The place of torment. He had to pay the full penalty of death in order to ransom us. He did it. He was buried, and we were buried with Him!

The story of the cross is incomplete without its resurrection ending. The cross was a place of suffering. It was actually a secular place of execution in its day. It could easily be likened to an electric chair. It was brutal and horrific. It is definitely not where we want to camp out and sing songs for 2000 years.

The cross ended in absolute victory! New life is found when you move past the place of suffering to the place of triumph. There was Jesus, in the heart of the earth, stricken and smitten with the sins of humanity.

Isaiah 54 notes that God had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. There, suffering the fullness of death’s penalty, God the Father spoke and the Holy Spirit went into those regions and raised Jesus from the dead. All of sin’s power was now rendered powerless as Jesus came up from death’s grip. He was raised, but the greatest news of all is you were raised with Him!

As we come to the season of celebration of Christ’s resurrection, may God give you a spirit of revelation to truly see the freedom that is in knowing the resurrected Christ, and the power of resurrection life!