Week Thirteen - Loosed

Beside the Well

            Do you still follow along in your Bible when the preacher is preaching?  I think it’s a skill that is being lost because so many are relying on the projection of the Scripture instead of looking at it in print.  Well, I’m sorta partial to seeing the text for myself and I have a habit of reading some of the verses around the text the preacher is using as well. 

            On Sunday, Pastor Gritts was preaching about the triumphal entry and had some fantastic analogies built around the loosing of the colt in Luke 19:30, 31.  We, too, are tied by sin. We need someone to bring us to Jesus—to loose us.

             Then, he referenced Acts 2:22,23 and that’s when my habit kicked in.  I didn’t stop at verse 23, I read the next verse and my heart began to dance.  Acts 2:24 reads, “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” 

            The wording of King James is so cool – “he should be holden of it.”  Christ could not be bound by death—it could not hold Him!  No stone, no soldiers, no effort of Satan could keep Him in the grave or restrain the God-life power resident in our Saviour.  The pains of death had to be loosed!

            I could imagine Christ coming back to life in that dark tomb—but wait!  It probably wasn’t dark because the Light of the World was inside!  He stood up, shook off those grave clothes and tossed aside the stone because God "will not suffer the Holy One to see corruption." (verse 27).  He arose!

            Easter is the affirmation of resurrection power; the same power resident in believers.  We, too, were tied by sin, but we were brought to Jesus and he loosed us.  Nothing will be able to restrain us in the resurrection.  We will not be holden of death!  Praise the Lord!  Jesus’ resurrection is confirmation of our resurrection.

            “Oh death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).