By Pastor Samuel Namatiiti
The greatest enemy to humanity is eternal death and the grave where everything diminishes and is extinct. Every religious worldview must give an able solution to humanity’s greatest enemy. As for us Christians, we present to you Jesus Christ as the ultimate solution since only He alone died and resurrected, and His Tomb is Empty. Here are the historical records about this position.
Arrest
It is now well over two thousand years since Our Lord Jesus Christ came to the world. His main purpose for coming into the world was mainly to redeem mankind, whom you and I sincerely are. He had spent almost thirty-three years, on this planet earth, teaching, casting out demons from the possessed ones and healing all kinds of sicknesses. He also spent lots of time teaching about the Kingdom of God, the resurrection, and the imminent end of this earth.
He, in His teachings also spoke of His forthcoming return to take the redeemed ones to where He is, and they also are there too. He said: “let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3). While He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane praying with His remaining eleven disciples, Jesus Christ was invaded and arrested.
Hatred driven conviction
He was taken from court to court but was found with no genuine crime that required Him to be put to death. The Bible indicates that false witnesses were employed to witness against Him, yet their witnessing was conflicting to each other. In all courts, where Jesus was taken, He was just confirming questions about His Sonship to God the Father and His Kingdom. However, regarding all other questions He just kept quiet. Finally, He was falsely convicted to die, by being hanged on the Cross.
All in all, His death was foreordained by God, for you and I to be saved, if we believe in and deliberately choose to give our lives to Him.
In his initial message, immediately after the Holy Spirit had fallen on those waiting in the upper room, apostle Peter declared that Jesus Christ was killed, but by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge. Peter declared: “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the Cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because death could not keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:22-24).
Whose Cross?
When Jesus Christ was falsely condemned to die, they had Him carry the Cross. In fact, with all He had gone through, since His capture in the garden, He was very well able to carry the Cross all way to the very place where He was to be crucified. However, on the way, He gave way to mankind to take on the responsibility of caring for the Cross. It was so because, that very Cross was not His but man’s; of whom you and I are. In Matthew 16:24, it says: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow me.” The Cross was man’s and for sure God’s way, through the Bible, is to have the one responsible for crime participate in the process: the Godhead does the impossible while humanity to be saved does the possible ones.
Only Jesus could stand all that transpired from the Garden of Gethsemane to the time of being judged to die. The man (humanity) could not carry the Cross although it was man’s in the first place. Only Jesus qualified for dying on the Cross, carrying all the sins of mankind; to be able to satisfy God’s wrath for the sins of mankind. That is why the scriptures say: As the soldiers led Him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the Cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus (Luke 23:26). Simon of Cyrene represented all mankind carrying our Cross and following Jesus from behind. Glory to God.
Crucifixion
He was crucified and died on the Cross, with a crown of thorns forced on His head. The thorns pierced and penetrated deep into His head, as a symbol revealing and purifying human’s corrupt thoughts. He was pierced with a spear into His sides and there came blood and water separated, signifying total death. Jesus died and His body was laid in the grave, proposing to have it to remain and decaying in there. Even the grave itself was just borrowed because He had no intention of remaining in the grave.
Whose grave?
The grave, in which the body of our Lord was laid to remain and decay, was previously made for human beings, of which you and I are. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ was taken there for our sake. Because He had carried our sins there with Him. He, who knew no sin, took on our sins and nailed them on the Cross. Then He buried and left the same in the grave. Glory to Him in the highest. Therefore, on the third day, which was the first day of the week, He rose from the grave. He was in the grave until Sabbath day had expired, for Him to initiate and claim the first day of the week as His. Formerly, the first day of the week had been dedicated to God ‘the sun’ and That is why it was named ‘Sun-day’.
So, being that Jesus is the Lord and Creator of all things, He decided to set His first step into the sun’s day; destroying all the enemy’s glorifications and powers. That is why, to us believers, refer to Sunday as the Lord’s Day. For all the four Gospels testify to this truth as referenced in these verses (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1-3; John 20:1-4). And every first day of the week, is when we go to church to mainly worship and celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ. We also gather ourselves together to hear the Word of God, through God’s servants -Pastors.
Empty tomb
Christianity is not a religion but a movement after Jesus Christ. Hence it is ‘Christ-ianity’ (people who follow the Christ). We are the people of the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6-7). Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was God incarnate (John 1:1-3, 14) is the founder of this movement known as Christianity.
There are many religions in the world, and all have their founders here are the categories:
Founders of major world religions
- Gautama Buddha (Buddhism): Died around 483 BCE.
- Mahavira (Jainism): Died in 527 BCE.
- Prophet Muhammad (Islam): Died in 632 CE.
Founders of philosophical or religious movements
- Confucius (Confucianism): Died in 479 BCE.
- Zoroaster (Zoroastrianism): Estimated to have died around 1000 BCE.
- Mani (Manichaeism): Executed in 274 CE.
- Martin Luther (Lutheranism/Protestantism): Died in 1546.
Founders of denominations or sects
- John Calvin (Calvinism): Died in 1564.
- Guru Nanak (Sikhism): Died in 1539.
- George Fox (Quakers): Died in 1691.
- Ann Lee (Shakers): Died in 1784.
Lesser-known religious founders who died
- Joseph Smith (Mormonism/Latter-Day Saint Movement): Died in 1844.
- Baháʼu’lláh (Baháʼí Faith): Died in 1892.
- Ellen G. White (Seventh-day Adventist Church): Died in 1915.
- Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science): Died in 1910.
- L Ron Hubbard (Scientology): Died in 1986.
- Victor Paul Wierwille (The Way International): Died in 1985.
- Sun Myung Moon (Unification Church): Died in 2012.
What distinguishes Christianity from all other religions is the Empty Tomb. Ladies and gentlemen as we celebrate this Easter let us review our religious positions and rethink what the empty tomb means. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Happy Easter!
