Life is Found in His Death

If we want the “life of Jesus,” we must embrace His death.

The confidence, competence, and the adequacy of Jesus’ power and presence are found in His life, death, and resurrection. And we can experience all of these things as we reckon ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11).

Jesus has given each Christian—at the moment of their rebirth—His resurrected life, giving us entry into the family of God forever. Let’s look at the three years of Christ’s life after going public with His identity as our Savior.

Our Lord entered our messy world and spoke of every person’s brokenness and His Father’s love for mankind.

While doing so, He also clearly expressed His hatred of mankind’s sins, becoming a living example of the importance of God’s unwavering truth. Jesus was crystal clear that all mankind is separated from God because of sin.

Throughout His life, Jesus stood in divine truth, even calling the religious establishment a phony and its leaders “whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27)." These religious leaders rejected Him and claimed He operated for the enemy, but Jesus still went to the cross for their sins.

It’s honoring to die for a friend or loved one. But Jesus extended His sacrifice even to His enemies, including you and me.

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” –Romans 5:10

Why would He do this? Because “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)."

Now the tough question: In light of all Jesus has done to reconcile us to God, why do we let fear stop us from speaking about Him?

Our Lord and Savior told us no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). But when fear trickles into our thinking we remain silent. This is where we have to fight for faith—confident in our hope in Christ and the Holy Spirit working in and through us in a lost world.

“Such confidence we have through Christ before God. ... Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” -2 Corinthians 3:4, 12

The Apostle Paul’s hope in Jesus and conviction of the truth of the gospel allowed him to speak boldly in the face of any difficulty or affliction.

And brothers and sisters, the same can be true for us. Our fear can be overcome with courage because of the certainty of our hope in Christ Jesus (Hebrews 11:1).

God’s message of salvation is true, so we can be bold in speech and faithful to our call to share it with all people. When we do so, we get to experience the immense pleasure of God’s active presence.