Monday, April 25, 2005
Acts 13:32-33 And we declare to you glad tidings - that promise which was made to the fathers, God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You."
GLAD TIDINGS
The Easter message is glad tidings. Not because it is spring and getting warmer. Not because the snow is gone and the birds are singing and the trees are turning green again.
Paul associated the glad tidings of Easter with the fulfillment of God's promises to the fathers. Since Paul spoke these words in a Jewish synagogue, it is clear that by the fathers he meant the patriarchs of Genesis, the children of Israel led by Moses as recorded in Exodus, and the judges and kings and prophets and people in the many years when the Jews lived in the land God gave them. The Jewish Old Testament is full of these promises from God. The main promise was always the same: a descendant of Abraham, a descendant of King David, a king will come to be a blessing to His people and in fact to all nations and families in the entire world.
This coming One was known as the Messiah, God's anointed One. In the second Psalm this Messiah is even called God's Son. Yes, the Messiah must be a man, for He is a descendant of Abraham and David. But at the same time He is one who has been begotten from the Father. He is the Son of the Father. He is the eternal Son of God.
But is this really good news, that God's Son has come to earth? Is this not frightening news, that the almighty and holy God sent His Son, who is just as holy and almighty as the Father? Did He not come as a Judge to this sinful world of ours? Should we be glad that He came?
Yes, it is good news that He came. It is glad tidings. It is Gospel, which means good news. It is good news because God's Son did not come to be our Judge but to be our Savior. He did not come to condemn us for our sins but to take them away. The Old Testament promises pictured Him as God's suffering Servant to whom God transferred our sins and guilt so that He could atone for them. The Old Testament promises also indicated that He would be successful in doing what He came to do, that He would not only die but rise again and live forever as our only Savior.
Jesus' resurrection is good news not just for the sake of seeing again a Friend who had been taken from us, but for what His resurrection means for us. Jesus, burdened with our sins, suffered and died on the cross. Jesus, triumphant without our sins, rose from the dead. What happened to the sins? They are gone, taken away, as far as the east is from the west, buried in the depths of the sea, tossed behind God's back. Jesus' resurrection is the good news of forgiveness, forgiveness of sins for everyone.
The second Psalm ends with these words: "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."
