Five Reflections on Easter

Every year, the calendar inevitably brings us back to this place – a place where, as we stare down the corridor of time, we are compelled to remember and reflect.  It was a different age, a different time, a different place in history, but it was a place where all of history, all of time, and every age would find its meaning.  Two scenes seem to crowd our mind – that of our crucified Savior and that of an empty tomb.  As I reflect on these two scenes, as I recount the story of my Savior, crucified yet risen and exalted, five crucial truths keep reoccurring in my mind:

THE GRAVITY OF WHAT WE DID IS BEYOND US

Amongst true Christians today, nobody would deny the fact that it was our sins and our wickedness and vileness that nailed Jesus to the cross.  Isaiah 52 and 53 so descriptively paint the picture of what happened on Calvary so very long ago.  However, Isaiah in this passage always magnifies the fact that Christ is on the cross because of us: “he was crushed for our iniquities” (v5), “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (v6), etc…. But even we as followers of Jesus Christ can never fully understand the weight or the gravity of what we did.  He was God and we were nothing and we nailed Him to a tree.  Jesus was all powerful and magnificent yet he allowed us to crucify.  Yes, we may realize that we are bad but we will never recognize the depth of sinfulness.  What we did as sinful mankind is beyond me and it is beyond you.  Yet Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, looked down on us from the cross with love and compassion and interceded for us.  From His parched lips He beseeched His Father to forgive us, for as He said “they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

WE HAD NO HOPE FOR THREE DAYS

Scripture tells us that as Jesus died the earth was covered in darkness – DARKNESS (Matthew 27:45).  That darkness, brothers and sisters, was not just merely physical.  The three days between the death of Christ and the defeat of death in Christ were the darkest the world has ever seen.  Our Hope was in the grave, our Savior dead, the Light of the world extinguished.  The man himself who claimed to be the Son of God, it seemed, would fall prey to the inescapable clenches of death.  Let us not get confused and think for those three days that there was hope, for there wasn’t – He was dead.  Mary Magdelene was in deep mourning (John 20:11), the disciples had given up and returned to their previous occupations (John 21:1-14), all of Creation it seemed would groan forever (Romans 8:20-22).  The story of what was going to happen that Sunday morning was only a reality in the mind of God himself.  For every created being, there was only darkness, nothing else.

CHRIST IS MORE THAN MERELY ALIVE

The fact that Christ rose from the dead is awesome and amazing – so awesome and so amazing that it is often the major stumbling block for critics of Christianity.  Apart from faith, we can hardly comprehend the fact that Christ is alive.  But in our quest to remember our Risen Savior, let us not forget our Exalted Savior.  Scripture says that He is seated on the throne (Hebrews 1:8).  Where Christ was once weak and destitute on the cross as the wrath of God was being poured out, He is now alive, almighty and all-powerful.  He sits on the throne where He sovereignly decrees all the happens in the universe (Job 23:14).  Yes, He is our Savior; yes, He is Risen; but let us not forget that He is Lord and He is King.  If He were not then the promises that are so dear to us and that we cling to so earnestly would be meaningless, because He would have no Authority to make them.  But Scripture tells us that all authority in heaven and has been given to Him (Ephesians 1:22).  He is so exalted that when Isaiah describes His position, he must settle for the word “high” (Isaiah 52:13).  Any description of where He is is beyond us.  High is the only word that can describe Him in relation to us.  Of course we should remember His resurrection and cling to it with all our heart, but He is more than alive, He is on the throne.  He is our risen LORD.

THE ADVENT, CRUCIFIXTION, AND RESURRECTION WAS UNLIKELY

Who would have ever thought that the story of our redemption would have happened the way it did?  Who would have thought that the Son of God would be born of a virgin? (Matthew 1:23)  Who would have thought that the Incarnate God would bring himself so low that He would be composed of nothing more than dust?(Genesis 2:7)  But not only did He make himself dust, He was scorned by the dust He created (Isaiah 53:3).  He was viewed as worthless by those who he had instilled with inherent worth (Genesis 1:27).  The world was looking for a political Savior, but He redeemed every aspect of His creation.  And when we had killed Him, He conquered death and extended His love to us.  Who would have thought that it would have happened in this way?  It transcends the wisdom of man (I Corinthians 1:18-21).  It breaks all laws of logic.  Yet the story of our redemption could not be more magnificent.  He is our God, He is our Savior, and He is our Lord; and though we may not understand it, it is the very essence of our being.  Praise God that He is transcendent and that His ways aren’t known to us (Isaiah 55:9).  We would serve a very small God if we could confine Him to our little minds.  But let us never forget that though we serve a God that we might not understand, we do serve a God that we can know (Galatians 4:9).  He is beyond us, but He is not far from us.

HE DID IT ALL BECAUSE OF LOVE

I do not know why He loves us.  Why He cares is beyond me.  Why He would redeem our sinful and rebellious race that seeks to hate Him makes no sense to my mind.  But He does love us.  He LOVES us.  Love was the reason He came.  Love is the cornerstone of our faith.  I suppose I could try to describe and define love, but any description of love I could give would be insufficient of His love for us.  I will never be able to understand the depths and the reasons for His love for me, but in looking at the cross, I can be assured of the fact that He loves us.  Though we may not understand why He would die for us or what the theological repercussions of the Easter story are, the story of the cross leaves no room for doubt about the fact that HE LOVES ME AND YOU.

                                                                                                             --SR

Introduction

Before I get started in this endeavor, I’d like to share a few things.  This site is not intended to be just “another Xanga site,” for if I wrote about my own life I think I’d bore myself to death.  This page will, Lord willing, feature short articles by me, that I pray will encourage and challenge you to grow.  This website was first conceived of in my mind in early December.  Since that time, I have really struggled with whether or not to do it and even now am quite leery.  The praises of man used to be of much import to me, and I am not entirely free of that bond.  In the past few months, I have prayed much about this site and the purity of my intentions.  In that time, this website was the frequent topic of my conversations with several people whose advice I hold with much esteem. They have all encouraged me to do it.  I have entitled it “Unto Your Name” based out of Psalm 115:1, because that is what I want it to be about from its beginning to end and everywhere in the middle – bringing glory unto the name of God.  If it helps you to grow and you think it should be shared, feel free to post it on your info or webpage or anything else.  If it doesn’t, I apologize and you don’t ever have to read it again.  If you have the time, I would really would love your comments (especially critical ones for they sharpen me).  Well, anyway, enough of this boring stuff.  So without further ado, I present to you (I always wanted to say that) “Unto Your Name.” 

--Sean Roberts

The Glory of God

The Glory of God – it is foundational to everything we have ever known or experienced. There is nothing under heaven, nothing above heaven, or nothing in heaven that does not rest in His glory.  Anything that we have ever known or will ever know inevitably and inescapably finds its ultimate purpose in it.  The histories of the world, from conquests and rebellions to enlightenments and reformations, as well as the laws of science know no other meaning than that God is to be glorified.  It was this glory that first spurred us into the repentance that brought us under grace.  It was the experiencing of this glory which has caused the pivotal turning points in our Christian life (2 Chronicles 7:3).  And it is through the practice of this glory that we lay up our eternal treasures.  In short, the glory of God is the beginning, the end and the in between of all of Creation (Isaiah 6:3) with the exception of God Himself (who is not confined to a beginning, an end, or an in between.)

One might ask why this is so important.  Of course we know that God is glorious, but what of it?  Why did the Reformers feel that, in writing the Westminster’s catechisms that were to teach their children for generations to come, the very first question needed to be “What is the chief end of man?” and the answer to that question be “To glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.”  What is so necessary that we understand the glory of God?

I chose this topic out of several as my first for this very reason: until we come to terms with the glory of God, we will and can never have deep understanding of God or His plans and purposes in our lives.  It is, as stated above, foundational.  Why did God create the universe?  For His glory! (Psalm 19:1)  Why did God raise up Moses and harden Pharaoh’s heart? To demonstrate his glory! (Exodus 14:4)  Why did God allow his Son to step out of realms of glory to be posted to a tree- beaten, battered and bruised? For His glory! (Psalm 79:9)  Why did God lift up Christ from the dead and in doing so conquer the very grip of death on his people? For His glory! (Romans 6:4)  And the list could go on and on ad infintum.

Not only that, but throughout our lives, it has been those times when we experience the glory of God that have been our defining moments.  The closer we come to the glory of God, the more appalled we become at our own sin, for the closer we are to His holy presence the more exposed our wickedness is.  As a matter of fact, it is the very glory of God that brought us to repentance, for it wasn’t until we experienced His glory, that we realized the gravity of our own sin and our unworthiness to stand in His presence apart from the righteousness of Christ (as with Isaiah in Isaiah 6).

It is crucial that we come to terms with the fact that everything is about and for God’s glory.  Even the sin that would nail Christ to a tree was part of a grand plan that would bring God glory (Psalm 21:5).  When we come to terms with that and realize how important God’s glory is to Him, and that all things are sovereignly ordained for that purpose, we find that end for God has called us.  The fact that we know all things are for the glory of God allows us to withstand trials and temptations.  It helps understand our mission in a chaotic, lost and dying world.  When we base our worldviews, our theology, yea, our very lives on the glory of God, then we quickly become meaningful and secure.  For in it rests everything, and to it we are all called (Psalm 29:2).

            --SR