HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!

R is for redemption.

E is for eternal life.

S is for the Spirit of God.

U is for unity.

R is for restoration and reconciliation.

R is for righteousness.

E is for evidence.

C is for confidence.

T is for transformation.

I is for imperishable.

O is for the only one.

Today we celebrate as no other religion can. All other faith leaders, despite their claims to speak for God, lie cold and dead in their graves. Mohammed is entombed beneath a large green dome in Saudi Arabia. Buddha was cremated and his ashes were distributed to eight locations. Many spiritual teachers have lived, and all of them died or will die. Jesus is the ONLY ONE who lived, died, and rose to live again!

Followers of Jesus gather at the tomb He borrowed, not to mourn His death but to celebrate the fact that it is empty. We celebrate because the resurrection means that Jesus truly is the One He claimed to be, and He accomplished what He came to do.

Jesus clearly proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God.

Luke 22:70 – And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.”

Matthew 3:16-17 – After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Matthew 17:5 – While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

Jesus proved it. He is the only one who rose from the dead by His own power. He raised Lazarus, the widow’s son, the daughter of a synagogue official to illustrate His power, and by His own resurrection took the keys of death and hell and forever removed the fear of death from those who believe in Him.

Hebrews 2:14-15 – Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Jesus clearly proclaimed Himself to be the only way of salvation.

John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Luke 9:21-22 – But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”

He proved it; He is the only one who lived a perfect life without sin and was crucified to pay the wages of death for the sins of the world.

John 17:1-4 – Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.

1 John 2:1-2 – My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 – Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis expresses very well why Jesus is the ONLY ONE, in the oft-quoted “liar, lunatic, or lord” argument. While I don’t agree with everything Lewis taught, in this case, I believe he is exactly right.

Jesus [. . .] told people that their sins were forgiven. [. . .] This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. [. . .] I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Jesus is the only one who rose from the grave, and He is the only one who can grant eternal life to those who repent of their sins and put their faith in Him.

Do you believe that He is the only one?

Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, I risk my whole eternity on the resurrection. –Charles Spurgeon