Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
scriptures point to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and that the person and work of Jesus Christ moves inexorably toward events occurring over the span of 3 days: betrayal, desertion, arrest, mocking, torture, agony, death, burial, salvation, resurrection, ascension, glorfication and enthronement. All this happened in a short span of time, yet it was presaged again and again, both in prophetic type, and in the life of Jesus the Nazarene. I use the word "salvation" in the middle that word string deliberately...
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Psalm 9:13 "L
ORD, have mercy on me. See how I suffer at the hands of those who hate me. Snatch me back from the jaws of death." (NIV)
When God snatched Jesus back from the jaws of death, it was validation of the life that Jesus had lived. Jesus' moment-by-moment living in the Father's presence was validated by the Father in saving Jesus from the power of the grave.
Acts 17:31 "For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."
Romans 1:1-4 "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord."
I believe that the release of the man Jesus from the power of the grave was a divine appointment; it was irrefutable proof to all that this is God's Son, the Lord and Christ. His living was entirely according to the will of God the Father. If you didn't realize this, and like Peter you set your mind on the things of the flesh, you got a quick and unequivocal, "Get behind Me, Satan!" To Jesus, the struggle to abide in the Father's kingdom was not the great bye-and-bye, but it was real, and immediate.
The 1,000 year 'interregnum' of John's Apocalypse is real; it is there in the holy revelation. But its exclusion isn't some crude Hollywood B-movie prison. The darkness of disobedience presses upon us continually. Jesus made it through alive and well, and His example is a clear invitation for us to follow. It is real, it is now, it is immediate, the power that raised our Savior from the dead. Theology won't save us, no matter how many verses we've carefully arranged to "prove" our position. Salvation is now.