Easter Article 2010 by Capt Tan Guat Hai

Captain Tan Guat Hai, Penang Corps

Yes, all for me-the cross, the grave,
A risen Lord with power to save!
My joyful heart is filled with praise
As sings of happiness I raise.

A preacher was preaching one Sunday about how good God is. From among the congregation, there was a lady who stood up and questioned the preacher: “How would I know that God is good?” At that, the preacher had her come on stage, gave her an orange, and asked her to peel the orange. Then the preacher instructed her to place the orange slice by slice into his mouth, and after finishing the orange, the preacher asked her, what do you think, is the orange sweet or sour? The lady answered, “Are you crazy? You are the one who tasted the orange and how would I know what it tastes like?” The preacher replied: “Precisely, you never tasted it, how would you know? So, unless you experience what I have experienced, you will never know what this song verse means to me.”

Every religion talks about sin and the way out, but Christianity tells us that sins separate man from God, and because our Holy God dislikes man’s unrighteous, disrespectful, untruthful and other unholy ways, God Himself came into the world that He had created, to show man the way to heaven and how they should live holy lives. Yet many still want to go on with their own sinful ways.

Unless we confess that we have sinned, that we have lived a life unpleasing to God, we will never know how much Jesus did for us, by dying on the cross. Though people may think that Jesus was crucified on the cross as a result of unrighteous judgment, God used this crucifixion as His rescue plan, to let Jesus suffer and die as a substitute in our place, for the punishment of our sins. Imagine, if we had to pay for our own sins in this manner, how much suffering and shame would we have to bear? But Jesus was willing to suffer and die on our behalf.

This is not the end, for our saviour not only saved us from our sins, but was also resurrected, to prove that those who believed in Him would be like Him, to die one day, only to rise again on another. There is a saying: “All religious founders have died and lie in tombs, but only the Christian faith has an empty tomb and a risen saviour.”

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, then all living Christians today and all the early Christians before them have been foolish. Jesus’ disciples and the early Church testified that what they had seen and heard was true, and for that, they were willing to lay down their lives to testify to it (Acts 4:20).

A song from Salvation Army song book 334 goes:
I serve a risen Saviour
He’s in the world today
I know that he is living
Whatever men many say
I see His hand of mercy
I hear His voice of cheer
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near
Chorus:
He lives, He lives,
Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life’s narrow ways.
He lives, He lives,
Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart!

I know the end of my life; I will see my saviour there! (Job 19:25) “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” Was it for me? Yes, it was for me, the saviour, the grave, and the resurrection.