Treated and Released

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness.

It is with the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead in view that your Creator spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying that He creates Jerusalem for rejoicing. Without this resurrection there is no joy or gladness. With it there is joy and gladness that lasts forever, for in Christ Jesus your sin has been treated to its just deserts, you have been released from bondage to it, and your body is no longer subject to permanent decay.

The effect of sin and death, were it not for the saving work of God in Christ Jesus for you, would have consequences of permanent sorrow and banishment from the Garden of Paradise. With this resurrection, however, the Garden of Paradise is wide open, because Christ Jesus made substitute for your flesh of death, was crucified to make payment for it, and is now risen to intercede for you and bring you into this new creation through His living flesh and blood.

It is true enough that in this Jerusalem there remains a remnant of sorrow. You still experience pangs that, at times, cause you to wonder whether this could possibly be true. The cross is like that. There are matters attendant to your own sinful flesh that still need discipline and refinement. But even in these matters, because you are joined to Christ Jesus by faith, by His Word in Holy Baptism and Holy Supper, He is always at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

This Jerusalem, the Church of rejoicing, is His creation, not yours. Because it is His creation it is true and everlasting. As He teaches you in love, the reality of this new creation is what causes you to rejoice greatly, precisely because you know for certain that what you see and experience of the sinful flesh is only that which is being cast off and put away, drowned as it were, so that the new creation may spring forth.

The proof of this new creation is the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, which has been testified to in word and deed from the time the first man, Adam, fell into sin, to this very day. It has been witnessed and testified to directly by those who saw with their own eyeballs that Christ Jesus did not remain sealed in a tomb. It was also witness directly and abundantly that He shed real blood, and at the end said, “It is finished.”

“He is not here. He is risen.” Because of this you may walk even through the valley of the shadow of death and rejoice, because He goes before you, and with you, into this new creation made for your rejoicing.
+ + +