Dear BPCWA worshipper, We considered last week how Christ had to endure physical suffering vicariously on our behalf. Though far exceeding what we have or will ever feel physically, His spiritual sufferings were even more intense and beyond what we can personally know. Christ came in the flesh, but He was sinlessly perfect. All that He suffered was for our sins alone. When we want to yield to our lusts and pride, His sufferings must remind us to hate these sins which caused these unspeakable sufferings on our beloved Saviour. How can we even consider flirting with sin anymore? Just 2 days ago, we commemorated Good Friday. It is a time around the world when faithful Christians gather in churches to reflect on Christ’s suffering and death as our vicarious atonement and to express our unworthiness for what He did. Today, at Easter, we celebrate Christ’s resurrection! Has it occurred to you that if man did not die, there would be no need for a resurrection? We cannot talk about the resurrection without the death that first occurs.

Death is the curse of sin. We know that every man dies. This is because all have sinned. Death is the curse for sin, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Ge 2:17). To fallen man today, what Adam and Eve did would be considered a “petty” disobedience or a “minor infraction”, if they even think it is sinful! It teaches us what a great punishment even a “petty” (in our mind) sin deserves. We witness death all around us. A few weeks ago, we were reminded of it again with the passing of an ex-worshipper. The body in the coffin once sat in our pews and once spoke and ate with us. When we see that, we are faced with the realisation that one day, death is an event that each one of us will experience, however “alive” we may be today. At each funeral, we are reminded of the curse of sin, that one day we will “return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken” (Ge 3:19).

Christ’s physical death & bodily resurrection. To be our substitute in paying for our sins, Christ not only had to endure suffering as He paid for our sins. The Incarnate Son of God had to experience bodily death for those He came to save, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb 2:9). It is because Christ died as the Son of man that there is a bodily resurrection that the children of God can look forward to in the future. This is an important fact that every true believer must subscribe to. At our previous Sunrise Services, we saw how, with the intent of going to His tomb to embalm His body, the women “entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus” (Lu 24:3). Peter who “ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves” (Lu 24:12). God took great pains through manifold witnesses to make it very clear to us even as we celebrate Easter thousands of years later, that Christ’s physical body indeed did rise again. God sent His angels to remind the women with a gentle rebuke, “He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee” (Lu 24:6). Christ is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Ro 1:4). That Christ rose “from the dead” shows that the curse of sin has been defeated in this victorious work accomplished for us. Though a glorified body, Christ resurrected from the same body He was crucified on, as Thomas was chided, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side” (Joh 20:27).  

God’s intent for our physical bodies. We worship a Sovereign God Whose wisdom can never be thwarted. When man was created, “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Ge 2:7). As God beheld His creation, it was “very good” (Ge 1:31). God’s creatures were to give Him “glory and honour and power”, because He “hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Re 4:11). When we receive our glorified bodies, God fully restores and brings to fruition His original intent and plan for His creation. These bodies that God has given to us “shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1Co 15:52). “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1Co 15:42-44). He will transform our bodies at the rapture to fulfill His purposes forever one day.

Praise God that today we worship a Risen, Victorious Saviour! It is a glorious hope for each of His children, a hope that is not just for today, but for all eternity. This must change our perspective of what we do with our lives while we still abide in “our earthly house of this tabernacle” (2Co 5:1). Let us remember that God has made this body in which we walk and move for Himself. May we, on the day Christ calls us to give an account of how we have used it, be judged by Him to have used this body for His good pleasure.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2Co 5:10)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor