Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 01:01-04, NKJV).
The strangest thing about Jesus is that He is both fully human and fully God. He is, and was, and will forever be, God - with no beginning or end, the Great I AM, all-powerful, all-knowing, in perfect and eternal loving relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He exists because He exists, and everything we know and think of exists because of Him.
But the unexpected thing about Him, the surprise of all surprises, was that this Second Person of the Holy Trinity did something just for us that was more remarkable than we can really wrap our tiny brains around: He took on an additional nature - a human nature - and became a Man.
And from that momentous point in time onward, He is forever the God-Man.
Right now, there is a Man - our King - on the Throne of Heaven awaiting the Father's command to return to earth and first judge, and then set up His Kingdom from the ancient city, Jerusalem.
The Bible tells us this is true and what will happen, and most of the world knows something huge and important is coming but they don't really want to believe it because they don't know who Jesus is, and they want to rule themselves. They don't want to have to answer to God, or have Him in authority over them, and underneath all the other ugly, horrible things about sin, that is the root cause of it.
It doesn't matter though, because Christ, the Son of David and the Son of God, is returning regardless of how the world thinks or feels about it.
He has waited this long because when He was born as a human, and grew up to be an adult 2000 years ago, He did something even more amazing and wonderful than becoming a human - He died on the Cross in our place.
He took the punishment of sin on Himself so that we would be spared, and that is what saved us because His sinless death paid the devastating and eternal penalty for our sin. And He is waiting for all those who will believe to be born and come to faith. Then He is coming back.
Without the Crucifixion, the rest of humanity before and after His death, could never escape punishment. And because God planned before even time began that this would be how we are saved, everyone who died before and after Jesus believing in God's promise of a Savior, is declared innocent and can enter Heaven because of the Cross.
Jesus proved all this to be true by not only being born and dying, but by His resurrection from the dead.
You see, death came into the world through Adam's rebellion in the Garden of Eden. And from that moment on, all of Adam's descendant's (everyone alive since then - except Jesus) were born in sin, and instead of living forever as God intended, they were doomed to die after their puny and troublesome life on this earth was done.
Not only that, but everything else bad that happens in life - pain, sorrow, aging - can be laid at Adam's feet because Adam, by sinning, decided that he, rather than God, was in charge. Adam could not save himself. Or us.
And as in Adam, all men must die and suffer in Hell, so in Christ, all who believe must live in Heaven with God and each other. For now though, until Christ returns, our bodies die, but our souls escape Hell and go to be with Jesus. If we believe in Him.
In some ways, it seems almost too simple to be true, but that's only because we don't really understand how horrible sin is, and how miraculous and loving Christ is. But one thing is certain - if we were not all in Adam when He sinned, we could not all be in Christ when He paid for our sin. We would have to pay the penalty ourselves, and because He was without sin, death could not keep Him.
It would keep us though, forever, just as it will keep all those who breathe their last in unbelief.
That's why Paul writes what He does, reminding us thick-headed humans that without faith in the God-Man, there is no hope. It would be much better never to have been born at all.
But because of Him, by faith in Him, this Son of David and Son of God, becomes our Lord and our Savior.
And He proved it by what He said and did, and most of all by that Empty Tomb.
