You have probably read those words in John 19:30 (NIV), “It is finished,” a bunch of times, just as I have. We hear it, especially during the Easter season, but only recently were my eyes truly opened to the incredible significance of those three words. “It is finished” were not merely Jesus’ final words but a literal battle cry of victory. Even Psalm 22:31 (NIV) references to this statement, saying, “He has done it!” The King of kings, who is fully man and fully God, definitely could have saved Himself from such torture, but He didn’t. Why? Because He knew the complete and total victory He was accomplishing through His death—the undeniable defeat of all darkness. He had a “joy set before Him,” as we read in Hebrews 12:2 (NIV), and that joy of the everlasting victory the Kingdom of God would gain helped Him to endure the excruciating pain of the cross. No one took Jesus’ life; He willingly chose to humble Himself and lay His life down so that His creation, the ones He first loved even before they loved Him, could have a chance to be adopted as His sons and daughters. The victory gained at the cross is crucial to understanding our identity in Christ, and how we should live our everyday lives.
It is the death of Jesus that enables us to confidently say, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55, NIV). Romans 6:9 confirms this with “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.” It is solely because Jesus laid down His life that we have victory through Him. For us, there would be no hope of heaven, no authority through Christ, no salvation from sin, no redemption from our flesh, and even no Christianity if Jesus was not crucified, buried, and resurrected. The very core and foundation of our lives revolve around this mind-blowing truth of what Christ did for us because He loves us. This is why Philippians 3:10 (NIV) says, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection.” The entire reason we are more than conquerors, as Romans 8:37 says, is “through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].”
How do we actually know Jesus rose from the grave and is alive today? First and foremost, we must revere the Lord and believe His Word is completely flawless and God-breathed, for in it are answers to our deepest questions. When doubt springs up, we must always return to His Word because it is the basis for our beliefs. Many verses offer proof of Jesus being alive. Jesus Himself verified His resurrection in Revelation 1:18 (NIV), “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” And in Matthew 28:18 (NIV), Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Luke 24:5-6 (Amplified version) further proves His resurrection when the angels at the empty tomb say to the weeping women, “‘Why are you looking for the living One among the dead? He is not here, but has risen…” Before they even formally announce, “He is not here, but has risen,” the angels specifically say the sentence before it, which implies that there was no need for the women to look for Jesus in a place where dead people lay because He is not there anymore. Further, 1 Corinthians 15:5-6 (NLT) tells us, “He [Jesus] was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time.” These verses point to the fact that Jesus had many witnesses to His living body that defeated the grave. At the time that passage was written, many of the eyewitnesses were still living—as the ending of verse 6 states—so this is not just a story Paul, the writer of Corinthians, includes, but an actual event in which he had access to first-hand testimonies.
Today, we see daily miracles that give further evidence to Jesus’ resurrection. Even the Holy Spirit living in us is testimony to Jesus being alive—because the only way to receive the Holy Spirit is to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, we can be confident as Acts 2:24 (Amplified Bible) says, “But God raised Him up, releasing Him and bringing an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in death’s power.” Even death could not keep a grip on Jesus, and now that He has conquered death and the devil, He is alive, seated at the right hand of God, and working through believers in the Holy Spirit. This right here is our reason for hope, the reason we live, and the assurance we have—Jesus is alive now and evermore!
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