This is my gospel

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel

2 Timothy 2:8

I have been reflecting in this Easter Week on the central events of our faith; the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course I dwelt on the cross of Jesus. In particular I was considering what we noticed together in Matthew’s gospel that everything was changed from the moment Jesus died. Everything was on the way to finally restoration. Our relationship with God was restored as the temple curtain was torn, the earth was shaken in a violent anticipation of the restoration of creation itself, and the new creation of human beings was heralded by some very peculiar “resurrections.” (See Matthew 27:51-53, and my sermon if you missed it).
Then this morning, as I read my daily portion from McCheyne’s bible reading plan I noticed 2 Timothy 2:8 (See also Romans 1:2-4) and I was reminded of some of the “stuff” either side of the death of Jesus which is also vital to the biblical gospel.

Jesus was “descended from David.” No doubt Paul had vast panoplies of truth in his mind as he reminded Timothy of Jesus’ descent, but it surely included the unwavering faithfulness of God. The whole of history to Jesus is the story of God’s unstoppable faithfulness whose centrepiece is the life of David, and whose great hope is the arrival of “great David’s greater Son”.

And Jesus was “raised from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus is vital in the gospels, and central in the book of Acts, because it vindicates all that has gone before, and anticipates all that will follow. The Christian hope is not centrally about spiritual wholeness, or personal betterment, or even ultimately unimaginable future. It is about the solid, physical, eternal, future renewal of everything that is good about our present existence, and the elimination of everything bad. It is about resurrection.

The faithfulness of God and the breathtakingly wonderful promise of resurrection fit together at Easter to make it the turning point of all of life.

I want to call you to set aside some time to reflect and re-evaluate your life this Easter. Come to the joint Good Friday service at Woodstock Road Baptist Church, 10.30am, or if you are away go to a local one. Bring a friend to our Easter Sunday service at which Dan Steel will be speaking, and Pat Brittenden will also giving us something to consider.

It promises to be a wonderfully sunny Easter this year, but I am praying that we would get a clearer glimpse of the faithfulness of God, and the promise that he secured for us of a life on which there is not sunset.

Peter Comont, 19/04/2011