Birth to Resurrection

Typically we talk about salvation around Good Friday and easter. We are saved by his death and his return to life. And there is certainly something to be said for that. But this constant focus on the sacrifice of Jesus being largely in his death sometimes obscures other meanings that the Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have for us. I’ve recently seen some folks argue that the death wasn’t a sacrifice, because he came back to life, while Christians responded, “But it was a sacrifice! It was! It was!”

But the sacrifice of Jesus was not solely in his death. It was in his birth, his life, his death, and finally in his resurrection. In my book, Not Ashamed of the Gospel before the chapter titled “I Am Not Ashamed” (p. 17), I include this quote, in my own translation:

Though he was in the divine form,
He did cling to his equality with God,
But he emptied himself,
Taking the form of a slave,
Becoming human in form,
And being found in human pattern,
He became obedient to death,
Even death on a cross,
So God has exalted him,
And given him a name above all names,
So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
Heavenly, earthly and beneath the earth,
And every tongue should confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord
To the glory of the Father