Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Luke 24:2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
ENGRAVED IN STONE: PAID IN FULL
While Mary Magdalene ran to tell the other disciples, the other women continued to the tomb and went inside. They found, to their surprise and confusion that the body was gone. The tomb was empty.
Actually, the tomb wasn't entirely empty. While the body was gone, the Word of God carefully describes exactly what remained in Joseph's tomb. When Peter and John later arrived at the tomb we are told what they saw (John 20:6-7): " ... he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself."
The grave clothes, the linen strips were lying were the body had been, but no body. They weren't strewn about, but lying exactly where they had been. The piece of cloth that had been carefully wrapped around His head was folded together in a place by itself as if carefully set aside by one who no longer had need of it.
There is one more thing that we may picture as remaining in the tomb: Our sins. For Christ took up our sins in His body on the cross. They were nailed to the tree with Him and buried in His tomb. They are like so many cancelled checks, stored there forevermore, our debt paid in full. We have been set free of them, and by faith in Christ may daily arise to live God pleasing lives of thanksgiving and praise.
So it is written (Romans 6:4): "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
