But the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him.”

— Luke 15:22

Are you clothed in the new white robe of righteousness that only Christ can give? That is the gift He came to bring. He came to take away all of our foul smelling sin, to go outside the city wall to the dung heap of Jerusalem and there to lay Himself down on the Cross to die for us. He took away our uncleanness when He rose on that Sabbath morn and He clothes in white righteousness all who will come to Him in faith, acknowledging their uncleanness, acknowledging their sin and unworthiness, and saying, “O Christ, O Divine Redeemer, clothe me in Your white righteousness that I may faultless stand before Your throne, clothed in Your righteousness alone.”

Righteousness comes through faith in Christ—the righteousness which is of God, by faith. God is our righteousness. What is that robe of righteousness made of? It is made from the perfect life of Christ—from His active obedience and His passive obedience—and His passion, when He suffered and agonized and died upon the cross.

Question to ponder:
Does it change your view of sin to think of it as dirt on your white robe of righteousness?

But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

— 1 Corinthians 15:20

My friends, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the evidence for the revelation of God in the Scripture is overwhelming. One of greatest authorities in the history of evidences who ever lived was Dr. Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) of Harvard Law School. He examined the evidence for the Resurrection and demonstrated in his classic book, The Testimony of the Evangelists, that it would hold up in any court of law. Irrational blind faith? Hardly!

On that Sunday morning, unseen by human eyes, there descended the omnipotent and supernatural hand of God, right through that stone, and touched the body of the Beloved Son, and Jesus arose from the dead, quickened by the immeasurable and illimitable power of God Almighty.

This is the greatest fact of history. Jesus changed all history when He came out of that tomb, victorious over the grave. Because He lives, we shall also live.

Question to ponder:
How is the resurrection the bedrock of Christianity?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

— Romans 8:32

The Cross is the source of our blessings. It is that Cross through which all of God’s riches will flow into our lives—pardon, forgiveness, provision, adoption into the family of God, and care for all of our needs. Because of the Cross, one day we will be taken to be with Him in Paradise forever. That means we must let go of all supposed goodness of our own, acknowledge ourselves to be dead in sins, and trust in the divine Son, who came that we might have all things.

Jesus loved us even unto the Cross. He took upon Himself our guilt, our sin, and the punishment that it deserves. He paid the price entirely. He offers us forgiveness by His grace—unmerited and free. He offers us the gift of life abundant and eternal—freely bestowed to those who will place their trust in Him. Those who will cease to trust in any supposed goodness of their own and rest their hopes upon Christ and His atoning work may know now the blessings of His heaven.

It is because of the Cross that we have all the riches of God in this life, and eternal life, which continues in heaven with our Savior. Jesus secured all this for us by His death on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead.

Question to ponder:
What is the greatest blessing of the Cross in your life?

… Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

— Hebrews 12:2

After having been skewered to the cross, lifted up naked before all the world to see, Jesus endured the shame and the horror and the agony and the pain of the worst kind of human suffering. For three interminable hours He hung there, until at last there came high noon.

Then, in the peak of the heat of that day, suddenly the sun’s light failed, and a great darkness descended at noon, and a blackness covered the earth. In that darkness, unseen by mortal eyes, there came a hand down from Heaven and extended before His face that cup containing the sin of the world. It was placed to His lips, and willingly Jesus drank it down to the very dregs, and the Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, became sin for us.

The physical sufferings of Christ were so horrendous that we can hardly contemplate them at all. But it was the spiritual suffering that killed Him. Every sin and sorrow was laid on Him—everything from a harsh word to murder, betrayal, and hatred; He carried it all.

As the hymn puts it, “What Thou my Lord hast suffered was all for sinners gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.”

Question to ponder:
How can we respond to the greatest expression of love in the universe?

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.

— 1 Corinthians 2:7

Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the center of Christianity. The very heart of the mystery of Christian redemption is this: That He who is the spotless, sinless Son of God, become sin for us on the Cross. He who knew no sin became sin. Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree—that is the essence of the Christian mystery.

In His Passion, Jesus suffered not only physically, but spiritually. Now, for the first time in His life, for the first time in history, for the first time in eternity, in some mysterious, inexplicable way, the very tri-unity of God is wrenched apart and Christ is abandoned by His Father. He would cry, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). He is more alone than any person in all the history of the world has ever been—abandoned by God whose pure eyes could not look upon sin, even when that sin is in His beloved Son. For Jesus Christ became on that day, on that Cross, “sin.”

The mystery of the atonement is that the death of the Son of God made it possible for ordinary people to receive forgiveness and to become right with God. We can never understand it. We can only stand in awe of it and with thankful hearts believe it.

Question to ponder:
What does “imputed righteousness” mean?