The Witness of Easter

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:  1 Corinthians 15:3,4

The story of Jesus is a “simple” one in the sense of being a matter of fact, straight forward statement of God’s action in the world. Here in First Corinthians Paul tells it in two verses, just 41 words, 94 characters, less than one half the characters of a full-blown tweet of 280.

Paul tells the story as he received it from God. He is telling what he got from the Lord. What he understood God to reveal was that Christ (Jesus) when he died was dying for our sins (The human race’s. This, of course, was so we, each one of us, could be forgiven for our sins.), and Christ’s dying had been foretold by God in the scriptures of the Old Testament. This is such a great and wonderful thing, perhaps beyond our understanding.

But that was not the end of the story of Jesus. Paul goes on in the final 105 characters of this Bible tweet (we might call it a proof text) to proclaim that after he died Christ was buried, that’s what the human race does with the dead, but Christ Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the dead! On the third day he rose from the dead. That's right, He rose from the dead! And, this too, Paul says, had been foretold by the scriptures.

This is the message of the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came, took the punishment for (died) for our sins, and rose again to show we who trust in him are saved, and if you believe in him you will be saved too. That’s it plain and simple, nothing new “The old time religion,” the stunning, amazing, yet “simple” good news of God for the world. The witness of Easter.