Resurrection and Ultimate Questions of Life (radio)

In this part of the sermon: The broadcast introduces Pastor Martin, who will discuss the relationship between Jesus' resurrection and life's ultimate questions, such as Job's query about life after death…

Martin uses Job's question, 'If a man dies, shall he live again?' as a prime example of an ultimate question that transcends daily concerns and probes deeper existential realities.

No, as important as those types of questions are in their place, an ultimate question is one such as Job, the ancient patriarch, asked when he exclaimed, if a man dies, shall he live again? These are the questions that creep into our minds when we withdraw, when we withdraw from our frantic day-to-day pace and begin to listen to the quiet rumblings of conscience. And standing outside of the empty tomb, we find ourselves in a school of wisdom where we can learn God's answers to all of our ultimate questions. The rest of those ultimate questions is this. Can my sins be justly pardoned and can I ...

1:31 - 2:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If he is just and the wages of sin is death, if he is just and he will by no means clear the guilty, then we are caught in the jaws of his justice and his holiness and there is no escape.

Martin uses the metaphor of being 'caught in the jaws of his justice and his holiness' to vividly describe the inescapable predicament of a sinner facing God's righteous judgment.

Humanly speaking, if God could somehow neuter the demands of his holiness in justice, there might be room for pardon. But if he is to remain holy and just, how can he pardon? Guilty sinners. If he is just and the wages of sin is death, if he is just and he will by no means clear the guilty, then we are caught in the jaws of his justice and his holiness and there is no escape.

4:26 - 5:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Come back to the open tomb and take hold of the truth that Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, especially when conscious of sin and wondering if mercy is still reserved.

Martin quotes Hendrickson's commentary to clarify that Christ's being delivered up for trespasses looks backward to the necessity of His death, while His being raised for justification looks forward to assuring believers of their sinless standing before God.

Hendrickson very helpfully comments, he was delivered for or on account of our trespasses. This looks backwards and means that our trespasses made it necessary for him to be delivered up while he was raised or on account of our trespasses. The account of our justification looks forward and indicates he was raised in order to assure us that in the sight of God we are indeed without sin. In other words, Christ's resurrection has as its purpose to bring to light the fact that all those who acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior have entered into us as sinners, state of righteousness in the ey...

9:57 - 11:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Come back to the open tomb and take hold of the truth that Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, especially when conscious of sin and wondering if mercy is still reserved.

Martin describes the open tomb as God's 'thunderous Amen!' to Christ's cry 'It is finished,' illustrating God's divine validation and acceptance of Christ's atoning sacrifice.

It is not even to be turned inward to see what the measure of our love to Christ is. It is to be turned outward and over to an empty tomb in Palestine and to stand on this unshakable ground. He who was delivered up for our trespasses. Was raised for our justification. He cried from his cross, it is finished. And God was silent. But three days later the open tomb was God's thunderous. Amen! He is raised for the justification of all of his people. Some of you will never come to any stability in

11:27 - 12:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in union with Christ Jesus, allowing righteousness and holiness to become the new universe of reference for your life.

Martin uses the analogy of physical death severing a person from their earthly context (sun, trees, human interaction) to explain how spiritual death to sin severs a believer from the realm of sin's dominion.

When a man dies, he is radically severed from that context in which he carried out his life. He no longer sees the sun and feels the warmth of its rays. He no longer sees the rustling trees and he no longer interacts with his fellow human beings. Death severs him from the realm in which he lived.

18:46 - 19:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I am no longer its rightful slave. I am no longer its lackey and its serf. I am no longer under obligation to obey its dictates.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'forging chains that have so cut themselves, as it were, into the very stuff of your soul' to describe the deep-seated and seemingly unbreakable power of habitual sin in a person's life.

In union with Christ, I've been liberated. From all of its demands, by dying with Christ, to its demands, and now rising with Christ in newness of life. Am I talking to someone who sits here tonight, who has known what it is to forge chains that have so cut themselves, as it were, into the very stuff of your soul, that you despair that they can ever be broken? Amen.

24:23 - 24:57 Read in full sermon