HE IS RISEN... INDEED!

by Frances J. Harvey, Director of Operations
Turning Point Counseling

HOLY WEEK
What is it and why do we celebrate?

The term “Holy Week” - in Latin words: Hebdomas Sancta or Hebdomas Maior,  means "Greater Week" – and INDEED IT WAS – and is – A GREAT WEEK!

Let’s Look at Jesus’ Life and the Events of the Week Before Easter...

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Palm Sunday: Accompanied by his disciples, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, while crowds of people covered the streets ahead of Him with their cloaks and with palm branches waving them shouting “Hosanna!”

Monday: Jesus chased the money-changers out of the Temple.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Jesus preached and taught in Jerusalem.

Thursday: After washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus celebrated the Feast of the Passover, instituting the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  After the supper, Jesus and His disciples went to Gethsemane to pray, where He was arrested by the Temple guard and taken to an illegal night session of the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin.

Good Friday: Jesus was taken into Roman courts, before Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas, who sent Him back to the Jewish court. Roman soldiers took Him to Golgotha, the place of the skull, where He was crucified.

Saturday: Jesus rested in the tomb while his disciples observed the Sabbath.

And then..HE AROSE and HE LIVES!   But “WHY” did JESUS Have to Die?

God is Holy

Though God is all merciful, all powerful and all forgiving, God is also Holy, righteous and just.

Isaiah 5:16 - But the LORD Almighty is exalted by His justice. The holiness of God is displayed by his righteousness.

Sin and Holiness are Incompatible

Sin entered the world through one man's disobedience - Adam, and now all of us are born into this "sin nature."

Romans 5:12 - When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard.

Sin Separates Us from God

Isaiah 35:8 - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.

Isaiah 59:2 - But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Sin's Punishment is Eternal Death

God's Holiness and justice demand that sin and rebellion be punished. The only penalty or payment for sin is eternal death.

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

Romans 5:21 - So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Atoning Sacrifice

Our death is not sufficient to atone for sin because atonement requires a perfect, spotless sacrifice, offered in just the right way. Jesus, the one perfect God-man, came to offer the pure, complete and everlasting sacrifice to remove, atone, and make eternal payment for our sin.

1 Peter 1:18-19 - For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

Hebrews 2:14-17 - Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Only Through Jesus Christ

Only through Jesus Christ can our sins be forgiven, thus restoring our relationship with God and removing the separation caused by sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Corinthians 1:30 - It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

The Messiah - Savior

The suffering and the glory of the coming Messiah was foretold in Isaiah chapters 52 and 53. God's people in the Old Testament looked forward to the Messiah that would save them from their sin. Though he did not come in the form they expected, still their faith looking forward to his salvation saved them. Our faith, looking backward to his act of salvation, saves us. When we accept Jesus' payment for our sin, his perfect sacrifice washes away our sin and restores our right standing with God. God's mercy and grace provided a way for our salvation.

Romans 5:10 - For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life.

In Summary, when we are "in Christ Jesus" we are covered by his blood through his sacrificial death, our sins are paid for, and we no longer have to die an eternal death. We receive eternal life though Jesus Christ.

...And this is why Jesus had to die.

Resources:
http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/a/whyjesushad2die_2.htm
http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/holyweek.htm


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