John chapter 19 gives eyewitness testimony of the gruesome death of Jesus on the cross. The spear thrust up into His side was the Roman government’s certification that Jesus was dead. The coagulated blood and water that poured forth from the gaping wound in His side was evidence that He had died sometime prior to the soldier’s spear. This means Jesus didn’t die from the spear, He died from His wounds on the cross and a heart broken by the weight of the sin of the world.

Upon His death two of Jesus’s secret followers from the Jewish ruling class stepped up to make sure He would have a proper burial providing an unused tomb and a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about 100 pounds. Losing their race with time those taking care of His lifeless body had to race home before the Sabbath started. Early on Sunday morning two women named Mary anxiously approached the tomb to finish the job finding the stone rolled away. Shortly after that John and Peter arrived, finding the tomb empty except for burial clothes. Interestingly the napkin that would cover His face was folded and set aside.

The folded napkin was not a sign left by a grave robber but by the Savior Who had indeed risen from the grave. Only God could think of planting such a seed of hope in the hearts of those filled with despair and brokenness. Reading further in the gospels, we find that Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead, and he appeared to the disciples. He made a special provision for doubting Thomas, letting him put his finger in His wounds. Afterwards Jesus told the humbled Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing,” and “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:28)

Believing that Jesus rose from the dead is the foundation of Christianity. It’s not a fairy tale. First Corinthians 15 tells us He was seen by over 500 people at once. The historian Josephus affirms it. So, we can be assured that Jesus, death burial, and resurrection is a historical fact and happened for a reason.

Hebrews 2:9 tells us Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death “…that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” Colossians 2:14-15 tells us “…having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

What this means is Satan’s dominion over mankind has ended. Jesus hurled back the host of hell and crushed their death dealing ability. Jesus stripped Satan of his authority and left him paralyzed and broken. Then He arose from the dead, triumphant over death. Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us (those who believe) from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” Hebrews 9:24 says Christ entered “…into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Do you believe? Jesus tells us, “…most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” (John 6:47)

Amazingly, Biblical salvation is dependent on believing in what Jesus did through His resurrection, not on what we do. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”