Pastor David Rawley, Otterbein United Brethren in Christ Church

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However, this does not lessen the crime of those who rejected and crucified Jesus.  Acts 2:23 refers to those who crucified him as “wicked men.”  So God incorporated the actions of those who opposed him into his own plan and purpose.  He used their evil as he made a way for evil to be overcome.  A resurrection presupposes death.  Jesus could have died in a different way, perhaps an accident or sickness.  But it was not the residual effects of the “fall” (accident, entropy, disease) that Jesus died for.  It was mankind.  So he allowed the hatred of mankind to sign his death sentence.  The reverse of the curse will happen someday, at the future resurrection.  But the forgiveness of sin happened at Calvary and was announced back there at the first resurrection.

I was asked to cut out a wooden moose as a wall decoration.  However, the board made available to me (pine) had a flaw.  A knot.  I was frustrated and almost refused the project.  Than… an idea!  Since I could not hide or ignore the knot, I would use it to my benefit.  I sketched the head around it and that knot became the eye.  Wow!  That stupid knot became the centerpiece and looked very realistic.  I told the moose, “Quit staring at me!”   Somehow, I had incorporated the flaw into the finished product, and it looked great!  That very blemish had become my blessing.

And this is what the Lord did as he turned the hostility and wretchedness of mankind into the greatest blessing and hope ever offered to mankind.  He offers this, also, to each of our individual lives.  Our flaws… forgiven and transformed… covered and converted by his death and resurrection.

The resurrection of Christ is history, but it is still making history… in our lives!