If the words of the Bible are to be believed to be true, trusted to have the authority they claim, and is to stand as the only rule of faith and practice for the believer, then we must be willing to see and accept that the words Jesus spoke are in keeping with these characteristics. We must read the words and claims spoken of by this man and see him claiming to be God incarnate, the promised Messiah, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecy.
If Jesus is not who he claimed to be in the recorded accounts of his life, if he is not the only Savior of the True Israel of God, if he is not the Good Shepherd, the new and better Adam, then all we do as Christians is in vain, we stand without reason of hope. If we live our life according to a lie, a hoax, a manipulation, then we stand to be mocked, pitied, reviled, and rejected.
But, if Jesus is who he says he is, then Jesus is in fact God.
And if God, then Jehovah; if God, then Lord; if God, then Master. If this man is God, then everything in our world must be seen through the lens of what has been revealed to us by his Word. And in this word, we find a man, a seemingly normal man, making outlandish claims. This man claims to have the authority to forgive sin, he claims to be the Lord of the Sabbath, he claims that no one can come to God unless they go through him. This man claims that he and the Father are one, that he is the eternal bread from Heaven. He even proclaims that he can prove it, that if the authorities of the day will crush him, destroy his flesh, wring out every last drop of his life upon the cross, that he will rebuild it in 3 days. He claims that he has the power over sin and death, and his is the will of the Father. He claims that through this tortuous death, and through his promised resurrection that the True Israel will be saved. He claims that before time, the Father gave him a people for his own, and that all of those whom the Father had given him he would lose none, that he would raise them up with himself on the last day. But that first, he must die, first he must be laid in the grave, first he must defeat sin and death.
And so they killed him, they laid him in the grave, but the story goes on. The empty tomb three days later is the pinnacle, the turning point of the history of humanity. What we believe about what best explains the empty tomb should direct our every step on this side of history.
For the Christian, the empty tomb is there because Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be. The resurrection of Jesus fulfills the promised joy and peace found in the Old Testament prophets to the people of God. For those of us who live on this side of the resurrection, we look back and see the perfect completion of the words of God to Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets. We see confirmation of the promises of Isaiah, we see hope.
From the vantage point of the Resurrection, Scripture stands as truth, the culmination of the Old Testament promises, and the affirmation of New Testament authority. It is only by the resurrection that the words of Scripture are able to breath into the life of its reader anything but despair. There is no hope to be found in the Bible without the reconciliation purchased by Christ. But through the power of the risen King, we see the path of Scripture illuminated, we see the only hope of joy in this life being found as the promised Messiah calls to his sheep. Sheep hear the voice of their shepherd and they come, knowing that protection, care, and love are found in the presence of Him who gives his life to them. For the Christian, the only source of the everlasting joy that is our soul's deepest longing is being in the presence of God. It is only by the light of the glory of God that we can persevere in this life to seek peace and joy. It is our heart's longing desire to seek and find the presence of the Lord, and once tasted of, it becomes our joy to continuously press on into the presence of God that we would find in Him life abundant and pleasures that are but foretastes of the beauty to come.
So, we set before us the counsel of the Lord, trusting that our regenerate heart of flesh was rightly inscribed with the statutes of our loving Shepherd, we trust that the Spirit of God has firmly planted us upon the path of life and truth in this world, called to good works, called to the proclamation of these truths to the nations.
And we walk.
We walk in assurance of the deep knowledge and trust that these things are true. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that these things be true. And we dwell securely in our tattered flesh, knowing that our God has never abandoned nor forsaken his True Israel, that he will not allow his chosen to see eternal corruption. Walking sure that our Savior defeated death and sin, that he cannot fail, so neither then shall we.
We walk, not as toil, but as rest. Rest that our path is the narrow way of life, on this path there is fullness of joy, at the right hand of God, there are pleasures forevermore. We walk in delighted rest. And we call out to others along the way, "come, all you who are weary and heavy laden."
