Excerpts From: The Messenger |
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From Ashes to Glory
The power of the Resurrection
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ' The righteous will live by faith.”
(Romans 1:16-17).
If one would describe the greatest event in Christian history, that event will be the Resurrection of our Lord. The greatest of the miracles is the Resurrection and the greatest of the mysteries also is the Resurrection.
Sometimes I wonder if I am qualified to touch this great divine mystery. A single man who worked the shortest period of three and half years had created the largest sensation in the world. It began as a small community of 12 disciples, it took hardly three centuries to ‘conquer the Roman Empire’ with the message of God’s love. It is interesting that the Roman Emperors were the most terrified by the inception of the new way of life called Christianity.
The Roman Emperors tried for three centuries to uproot Christianity from its’ empire, killing millions of Christians during that span of time, hoping that Christianity can be brought under control. But the people who believed in the way of Christ increased day by day throughout the Roman Empire.
How did a single person conquer the entire Roman world in three centuries? It was simply the power of the Resurrection. The Roman Empire had seen many great emperors who spread the empire to unseen borders and brought fantastic reforms but none of them could win more people than Jesus Himself, in spite of being the target of attack.
The one who was attacked by the emperors conquered the emperors. The Romans conquered their territories by the sword but Jesus conquered them by the power of His love. On the cross, it wasn’t the nails that held him up there, it was His love and redemption for all humanity that held him there on the cross.
As Christians, we shouldn’t forget the first three hundred years of history of the martyr Church. “The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church”. It was all simply because they truly believed in a resurrected Lord. Christians were ready to die because they knew they knew the power of the Resurrection, death was a mere shadow. These Christians were not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: Alleluia He is risen, death couldn’t hold him in the grave.
(to be continued next month).
Be blessed,
You friend and pastor
Web Page prepared by:
Roger Kenner & Jette Blair.
Content-New Topics Last Updated: 2017/05/11
St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church - Montreal