The message of the resurrection

God showed His love for mankind in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Bible declares: "God is love" (1 John 4:16). Apostle John also wrote: "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (The Gospel According to John 3:16).
God manifested His unfolding and outreaching love to Mankind, who fell short of His standard because of sin in His Son, Jesus Christ, who, in his grace gave up his sinless life as the ransom-price. He sacrificed his righteous and sinless life on the Cross; that was how he fulfilled the demand of God on the issue of sin.
Christ paid the price for our salvation from the bondage of sin so that we may be closer to God and other people. Evangelist John challenged followers of Christ: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16).
Christ died the death of great ignominy, pain and humiliation. "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed …" These are eloquent words from God's wordsmith Isaiah, prophesying about the kind of death Jesus as God's Righteous Servant would endure in the fullness of time.
The Mosaic Law for Levitical sacrifice in the Old Testament had it that animals had to be without any blemish in order to be sacrificed. Jesus, being born of the Virgin Mary and the sinless Son of God, fulfilled that condition and as such he bore the punishment that was due for man.
As we meditate upon the Cross of Calvary on Good Friday we need to understand the spiritual implication of Christ's suffering and death for us in our day-to-day lives. We are to believe in Christ and follow his footsteps and serve others in love.
Christ is a supreme example and the greatest teacher for this. We cannot avoid our responsibilities to other people. The very fact of Christ's incarnation and unjust sufferings for our salvation points us to a spirituality that is deeply related to our real life issues, a holistic spirituality touching every aspect of our lives.
In him, the eternal divine Word became flesh and dwelt among us and gave a new and dignifying meaning of human life as created in the likeness of God. We are challenged to bear our own crosses, which we do for serving others in humility and self-less love and compassion.
We live in a world full of people giving lip-service to religious instructions and of commercialisation and political use of religions that render people into forces of hatred and jealousy. We have many religious faiths and traditions, but not enough love; many preachers of doctrines but no practitioners of the teachings.
This was the situation when Jesus lived. All that he said and did disturbed the status quo and the selfish peace of the people who ruled, led, taught and exploited others.
Almighty God raised his Son from the dead. This was to vindicate him, who was innocent yet killed by unrighteous men, and to show that he was God's Son. The apostle Paul said: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Christ paid the penalty for human sin and man was acquitted. This new life is to be lived in faith and trust in his transforming power and spirit. Without the belief in Christ's resurrection there is no Christianity.
The incarnation of Jesus had in view both his cross and the resurrection. Without bearing the cross he could not have the glory of the resurrection. We, as his followers, also need to bear our own crosses so that we may enjoy a glorious life. In resurrection, Christ has destroyed the power of sin and death.
The more we can internalise the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ the more we can become true to ourselves as God's supreme creation.

Reverend Martin Adhikary is a Christian theology teacher.