The Reality of His Sacrifice

““For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV)

This material Paul passed on “as of first importance” is certainly one of the oldest, most original Christian affirmations of faith. Previous posts have looked at how “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Let’’s turn now to the next phrase, “that “he was buried.””

There is a moment in every funeral when the reality hits. Sometimes it happens at the grave side service. Often these days it’s when the casket is finally closed. Something happens to confront people with the reality of the death.

The reality that Jesus died was hard for the early church. The disciples didn’’t want to hear about it when Jesus told them it was coming. Some of the earliest heresies in church history centred on ways of denying the reality of Jesus’’s death on the cross.

Was it the shame of the means of his death:— crucified like the most despised criminals? Or just the difficulty of accepting the idea that the Son of God could die like a mortal? The early heresies blunted the reality of what Jesus suffered by finding spiritual or metaphorical understandings for his sacrifice on the cross.

But that death was real. And the followers and friends of Jesus had to face it at the burial. Denial had to end with the thud when they ““rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.”” Matthew 27:60 (NIV)

It was not an illusion. It was not a dream, It was not something from their imagination. It was not a metaphor for a deep spiritual reality. It was not an abstract philosophical construct. It was real. And it is a fact at once wonderful and terrible.

As the Hymn goes, "’“’Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. Who can explore His strange design?"” Truly a fact beyond knowing, a certainty beyond comprehending.