Daily Devotional

April 19th 2025

SATURDAY

Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time—this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved. … The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that He was buried; that He was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says;—I Corinthians 15:1-4 (MSG)

There are three elements of the Gospel.

“Christ died for our sins, just as scripture said He would.” Paul passes over all the marvelous aspects of Jesus’ life—the drama of His birth, all the journeying up and down on the hillsides of Judea and Galilee, all His teaching and miracles, and comes immediately to His death. That is the Gospel!

As we anticipate the resurrection, we must be convinced that Jesus died in our place. The good news of it is that God takes us seriously. God treats us in an entirely different way than we deserve to be treated—on the basis of Jesus dying for our sin. Without this truth, life is hopeless.

“He was buried.” When Jesus’ disciples came and took His body down from the cross, it marked their acceptance of the fact of His death. Joseph of Arimathea came forward and offered a tomb, and with loving hands they took his body down from the tree. They wrapped it in grave clothes, bound it tightly, took His head and wrapped it with a separate cloth. They embalmed Him with spices, and then they placed Him in a tomb. There is no question that the disciples believed that He was dead. It is this second element that heightens the significance of the third.

“He was raised on the third day.” Jesus was not merely resuscitated; He was resurrected. Jesus came back to a life He had never lived before—a real life, a glorified life, a different life. In the amazing reality of the resurrection, the same Jesus with the wounds in His body that they could touch and feel and see for themselves, secures the eternal salvation of all who believe.

That is the Gospel! That is what tomorrow is all about!

PRAYER: Lord, on this day between tragedy and vindication, we thank You for the Gospel—that Jesus died in our place, was buried to the signify the end of His mortal existence, but He was raised to a new, better, more complete life. As we go today, we anxiously await the celebration of His resurrection and the new life that Jesus’ Gospel provides. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN!

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