By Valentine Davidar.
The Gospel consists of three parts, death, burial, and resurrection. This is the non-negotiable core of the Gospel.
We limit the Gospel only to the work of Jesus on the cross. He has taken our sins on Himself. We thank Him for giving His life for our sins. We are forgiven and we are restored in our relationship with God. But this is just one part of the Gospel.
In coming to the cross, we are crucified with Christ. If the self is not crucified with Christ, we do not know the Gospel. In many of us, the self in us has not been crucified with Christ.
This is the first part of the Gospel. The second is burial. Death, burial and resurrection are what the meaning of baptism is. (Rom 6:1-6)
Burial is where all that we have as our old life must be buried. We represent a system and a culture. All that represents the past life, that is of the world, must be buried.
For several Christians, this burial has not taken place. One example that is typical in South India is the caste system. Several believing Christians are still very much steeped in the caste system. Burial has not taken place.
Burial is followed by the resurrection. This is the new life in Christ.
Resurrection has great meaning because we are steeped in death. God commanded the man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day he would eat of it, he would surely die. Gen 2:17.
Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Did they die? The serpent had told the woman that they would not surely die. This is frightening because what the serpent told the woman is what seems to have happened and not God’s word.
The problem is that we do not understand death. Physical death is only one part of death. Death is multi-dimensional. God is the source of life. (Job 33:4). When we sinned, we were alienated from God. (Eph 4:18) This is our big death.
Secondly, we died because the law of sin and death settled into our flesh. (Rom 7:23-24)
The third death is that we died in our relationships with one another. (Eph 2:14-18)
The fourth death that has come on us is that we are now dead to creation, nature or the environment. Creation today is in agony because man is not caring for creation but exploiting creation for his greed. (Rom 8:19-22)
The fifth death is the death that the devil has inflicted on us. He has now kept us in his prison of death. (Heb 2:14-15).
The sixth death is called the second death, which is eternal destruction in the flames of hell. (Rev 20:14-15). These six deaths have come on us besides the natural physical death.
This is the message of the Gospel that those who were dead have now been made alive because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. As we share the Gospel with others, we are bringing people from death to life. John 5:24
By His resurrection, Jesus brings us to the Fullness of life (4 dimensional) which we had in the beginning. Wholesome relationship with God, Wholesome relationship within ourselves, Wholesome relationship with one another and Wholesome relationship with creation. I John 4:9 / I Cor 8:6 / Act 17:28
One of the deaths that came on us is the law of sin and death that came into our flesh.
Rom 7:23-24 It is the resurrection of Jesus that sets us free from this law.
The Law of Moses is good but this law did not enable us to live the life of righteousness before God. The Law of Moses was weakened because of the law of sin and death in our flesh. Jesus rose again and in doing so he destroyed the law of sin and death in His flesh.
He also set in place a new law called the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This higher law overcomes the lower law of the law of sin and death in our flesh. We can now operate in the higher law of the Spirit of the resurrected Christ.
Rom 8: This law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus enables us to meet the righteous requirement of God in our flesh. Rom 8:10-11
We must walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. This life here on earth is preparation time for the life which is eternal. Resurrection is the assurance that life is eternal.
I Cor 15:50. We are being prepared for the eternal kingdom. Resurrection gives us hope for eternity. I Cor 15:19-20
We as His church are witnesses of this resurrection.