Salvation history is not haphazard or random. Everything that occurred for our deliverance from sin, death, and the power of the devil did so only because of God’s meticulous planning. Not only did He speak through His prophets to declare how He would bring deliverance, but He gave examples of salvation in His actions throughout the Old Testament. Therefore, when Jesus came, He died and rose again in accordance with the Scriptures, following the pattern set and established long ago. Easter is all about patterns.
“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” The pattern Adam set was one of death. In him all humanity sinned, and all humanity therefore bears the penalty of that sin. All born in Adam are doomed to die. Our birth of flesh has only one end, death. The answer could only be a new Adam, who would become the source of life as Adam was the source of death. Adam was overcome by a tree; Christ overcame by the tree of the cross. Adam brought death; Christ brings life; all born of Christ are made alive. He was obedient where Adam was disobedient; He reversed the curse that Adam introduced. Adam set the pattern of death; Christ has come to establish the pattern of life: “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.” Christ has reversed the pattern of Adam, setting forth His own. That is the pattern that we now follow. Easter is all about patterns; Christ rises first, and then when He returns in glory, all those who belong to Him will rise just as He did. Easter is the picture of your future, it is the guarantee that the grave will not be your end. As the grave could not hold Christ, so it will not hold you and me. Through Adam came the pattern of death, through Christ comes the pattern of eternal life.
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