He is Risen

At the cross God seems hidden and Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Surely, the onlookers must have thought that God had abandoned Jesus. Yet, at that moment when God seemed most absent he was more present than ever before. In the suffering of His anointed One He was powerfully working out our salvation. And so we are confronted with the utter unreliability of experience, of our feelings, as an indicator of God’s presence. How is that we know God at the cross was more present than ever before even in his apparent hiddenness? Supremely, by the resurrection; that great work of God in which more than
any other the life of the glorious age to come breaks into this present age. And how is it we know God is present in our trials and suffering? Supremely because the risen Christ is our “living hope” (1 Pet 1:3), and God’s resurrection power toward us (Eph 1:19f) is a power he delights to reveal in our weakness (2 Cor. 4:7; 12:9). The resurrection is absolutely indispensable to our faith!