Ramsey Creek Baptist Church

Everything hinges on the atoning death of Christ and on His resurrection. But we can’t rightly celebrate the empty tomb without first understanding the cross. When Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22 on the cross, the minds of the Jews listening would have immediately gone back to that psalm. Psalm 22 was coming to life in the death of Jesus. The resurrection celebrates Jesus’ triumph over sin and death, which are both things that He only experienced because of us – for us. If we as individuals, families, or churches focus people’s attention on the commercial aspects of Easter, then we need to stop and think longer and harder on the reality of the crucifixion. Jesus' cry, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" was a cry of identification with mankind’s suffering because of sin, with the deliberate hope of looking through the painful circumstances to the faithfulness of the Father. The cross reveals the consequences of sin, but it screams the love of God. The empty tom