The Beauty of The Resurrection
Happy and Blessed Resurrection Day!
I am going to tell you all about a resurrection plan that a loving Father enacted so His beloved children could be protected and thrive in His Kingdom forever. In order to do that, the Father had to sacrifice one of the most precious treasures that He had – another Son.
Are you a parent? Do these scenarios sound like something you would do for your children? These could be called principles. It’s certainly human decency. They are biblical principles.
When a loving Father looks at His children and sees them hurting, His heart hurts also. He’s going to look for a solution to heal that hurt.
When a loving Father sees His children in danger, He’s going to take the steps to protect them permanently.
When a loving Father sees His children in great need, there is nothing that can get in the way of His enacting a great plan for their salvation out of that great hopelessness.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. (Matthew 3:13-15 NIV)
One of the last things that Jesus did before He went to the cross was to get baptized. Why is that? If Jesus was sinless, what would the purpose be for Him to go through baptism, which is solely for the repentance of sins? The answer is one of the most amazing revelations in the Bible – and of course, it starts with our loving Father!
All through the Bible, the story of redemption is interspersed along with a Father God Who is merciful and loving. The next step in His redemption plan for us was for Jesus to be baptized. Jesus went through it to fulfill our righteousness, not His. His plan has always been to walk through every situation for us first, let us see how He handles it and overcome anything that can come against us in the process. For what loving Father makes His children walk into a situation without having looked into the circumstances first and then giving His love and support throughout?
So even before Jesus went to the cross, He had it set up for us that ALL righteousness would be fulfilled at the cross. Step one was done at baptism when our sins were washed away by the water “to fulfill all righteousness”.
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 (Matthew 3:16)
After Jesus was baptized He went down into the water. Again, that action is not for Him. That is for us because it was to show that we are buried in death with Him because of our sins (Romans 6:3-4) However, what happened next is extremely powerful: Jesus came up immediately from the water. Jesus walked through the resurrection for us at His baptism. This happened immediately. He was raised up for us at the baptism, taking care of our sins through the washing of the water. When we were dead and in sin, we were living below the water – in the deep. However, when our sins are forgiven, we are raised up immediately and the heavens are opened to us.
Later, on the cross, we were washed through His blood. This explains why this happened: Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (John 19:34)
A Father’s Great Love
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6 NIV)
Because of the great love of the Father, and the tremendous sacrifice of Jesus, we are now permanent sons and daughters. This verse tells us that we were “raised…up with Christ” Jesus walked through it first at the baptism for us and then we went through the resurrection with Jesus once we were saved. We operate out of a place in the heavenly realms because right now we have a seat next to Him. This is because of our Father, because of Who He is and because His heart is so great. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. (1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT) Our lives are completely new and different because of our Father and His grace and love.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)
When we went down into the water in baptism, that’s the last time we died. Because of the Father and His amazing grace-plan, we will never taste death. Because we are already seated in the heavenly realms, our focus can be on heavenly, spiritual things. The only thing that we operate in now is life and the abundance of it.
He Already Went Through It
Every moment of the New Testament was walked out in real life and experienced first by our Lord and Savior. He lived our pains, our highs, and our lows. He walked through the footprints of our lives before we could even walk ourselves. So now, when we need Him He truly knows what we’re going through because He already went through it. He raised us up, saved us and gave us everything!
~Anne Schickowski
© Copyright Anne Schickowski, 2019
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