October 3
The Continual Burnt Offering" B ut now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive."
Apart from the fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, Christianity would be just another religious system, or philosophical speculation. It is because of His triumph over death that our great High Priest is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to God by Him (Hebrews 7:25). What converted Saul of Tarsus and changed him to Paul the apostle was the revelation that Jesus, who had been crucified, is now alive in highest glory. He had seen Him and heard His voice, and he never doubted afterward (1 Corinthians 15:8). Everywhere he went he preached Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:18). A message that sees in the cross simply a martyr’s death is not the gospel. The good news revealed from Heaven is that Christ died for our sins, (1 Corinthians 15:3) and that He has been raised again for our justification (Romans 4:25). Today this same gospel is the power of God unto salvation when proclaimed with no uncertain sound in the energy of the Holy Spirit.
Once we stood in condemnation,
Waiting thus the sinner’s doom,
Christ in death has wrought salvation,
God has raised Him from the tomb.
Now we see in Christ’s acceptance
But the measure of our own;
Him who lay beneath our sentence
Seated high upon the throne.
Quickened, raised, and in Him seated,
We a full deliv’rance know,
Ev’ry foe has been defeated,
Ev’ry enemy laid low.
Now we have a life in union
With the risen life above,
Now we drink in sweet communion
Some rich foretaste of His love.
—G. W. Frazer