Easter, resurrection Sunday is quickly coming.  It has been roughly 2000 years since our Creator condescended, and deigned to don human flesh, and be born of a virgin.  Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten and not made; of the very same nature of the Father, by Whom all things came into being, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,”(Nicene Creed) fully God, and fully man, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.  He suffered the abuse of mankind, and the just wrath of God against us, while on the cross, on our behalf, for His glory.  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE “—(Gal 3:13)

Isaiah 53 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

 Isaiah 53
The Suffering Servant
​¹ Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
² For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should desire Him.
³ He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
⁴ Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our peace fell upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living,
That for the transgression of my people, striking was due to Him?
⁹ So His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
¹⁰ But Yahweh was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If You would place His soul as a guilt offering,
He will see His seed,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand.
¹¹ As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore, I will divide for Him a portion with the many,
And He will divide the spoil with the strong;
Because He poured out His soul to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

 Psalm 22 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

Why Have You Forsaken Me?

For the choir director. According to Aijeleth Hashshahar. A Psalm of David.

Psalms 22
​¹ My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my salvation are the words of my groaning.
² O my God, I call by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
³ Yet You are holy,
Enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
⁴ In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You rescued them.
⁵ To You they cried out and were granted escape;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
They smack their lip, they wag their head, saying,
⁸ “Commit yourself to Yahweh; let Him rescue him;
Let Him deliver him, because He delights in him.”
⁹ Yet You are He who brought me out of the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ Upon You I was cast from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.
¹¹ Be not far from me, for distress is near;
For there is none to help.
¹² Many bulls have surrounded me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
¹³ They open wide their mouth at me,
As a lion that tears and roars.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
And You lay me in the dust of death.
¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ I count all my bones.
They look, they stare at me;
¹⁸ They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.
¹⁹ But You, O Yahweh, be not far off;
O my Strength, hasten to my help.
²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword,
My only life from the power of the dog.
²¹ Save me from the mouth of the lion;
From the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me.
²² I will surely recount Your name to my brothers;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
²³ You who fear Yahweh, praise Him;
All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him,
And stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel.
²⁴ For He has not despised and He has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
And He has not hidden His face from him;
But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.
²⁵ Of You is my praise in the great assembly;
I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.
²⁶ The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise Yahweh.
May your heart live forever!
²⁷ All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
²⁸ For the kingdom is Yahweh’s
And He rules over the nations.
²⁹ All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
³⁰ Their seed will serve Him;
It will be recounted about the Lord to the coming generation.
³¹ They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has done it.

 1 Corinthians 15 Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

 The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection

 1 Corinthians 15:1-19
​¹ Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, ² by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing.
³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷ After that, He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The Resurrection of the Dead
¹² Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. ¹⁵ Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

The Order of Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:20-49
²⁰ But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ For He must reign UNTIL HE HAS PUT ALL HIS ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET. ²⁶ The last enemy to be abolished is death. ²⁷ For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. ²⁸ And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
²⁹ Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? ³⁰ Why are we also in danger every hour? ³¹ I affirm, brothers, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. ³² If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE. ³³ Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” ³⁴ Become righteously sober-minded, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
The Resurrection Body
³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶ You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; ³⁷ and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a corruptible body, it is raised an incorruptible body; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

 The Mystery of Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:50-58
⁵⁰ Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit the incorruptible. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. ⁵⁵ O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” ⁵⁶ Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

updated 04/07/2023