Thursday, May 10, 2007
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
JESUS' EASTER VICTORY CHANGES US, THANKFULLY
It is good manners to thank someone when he has done something for you. It is even considered good manners to thank a professional after he has provided you with a service at a charge; but in a way, we thank a professional through our proper payment to him.
Expressing our thankfulness is most appropriate when someone has done something for us in exchange for nothing at all, expecting nothing in return. Sometimes, even if we wanted to, there is no way we could ever repay someone for the things he or she has done for us. In a case like this, all we can offer to that person is our heartfelt thanks.
No one fits this description better than our Lord Jesus. The Easter victory could only come to us by the hand of Jesus. We could never satisfy the righteous requirements of God's Law on our own. Try as we might, we are doomed to fail again and again by our sins. Our sins against God's law require our death.
But thanks be to our Lord Jesus who kept the law in our place and who took the punishment for sins! Through Jesus our sins have been taken away and by faith we are now credited with His perfect record of righteousness. For all of this, we could never even begin to repay Him. This has been given to us as free gift. For all of this we can only offer our heartfelt thanks to Jesus through the thoughts in our hearts, the words on our lips, and by the actions of our lives.
