Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. – Matthew 28:18
Just days before, Jesus had been taken and crucified. The disciples had run away and gone into hiding. Everything was lost, or so it seemed.
How resurrection shifts things around! The power of sin and death was destroyed. Guilt and shame and fear lost their ability to hold us. Evil and it’s temptations were no longer in charge. The world was reclaimed to God’s love. In that moment when Jesus cried out “it is finished” as He released His spirit, everything changed.
We can’t fully understand the mystery surrounding what happened, any more than we can fully grasp the wonder and majesty of who God is. But we do know that Jesus saved us. At that moment our sins were forgiven and forever taken away. Everyone and everything in the universe is now under the authority of Jesus. Sin and death continue to lurk, guilt and shame and fear still creep about, evil and temptation sneak around. But they have all been overcome, and although they remain in bits and pieces they are defeated before the victorious presence of Jesus. They no longer have any real power. Jesus is in charge!
