“Lord Jesus, though we have taken You to the cross and killed You, out of our evil heart, yet You loved us. Even our wicked action was turned around for our own salvation. Thank You. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 3:14-16 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, (15) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. (16) And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Let us consider some more of Jesus being the Prince of life.
I John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (12) He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
There is nowhere else where we can have life, except in Jesus. It is by placing our trust in Jesus that we have life. John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. (26) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
There is the need for resurrection to happen in us, for us to experience the life of Jesus. We were dead and we needed to be raised to life.
When we identify with His death, His burial and with His resurrection, we are raised to life. This life that we have in Jesus is eternal life.
We will all die, physically, but we do not fear death anymore, for we are alive for eternity in Jesus. Therefore, as we live in this world, we live out eternal life, though our earthly body is perishing.
Knowing Jesus is eternal life. John 17:2-3 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. (3) And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
It was the Prince of life, who was put to death on the cross by man. Through His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus has given us the Shalom life or eternal life.
John 10:28-30 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (29) My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. (30) I and My Father are one.”
Having come to Jesus, we are assured that the devil has no hold on us anymore. We are set free from his clutches. This is an important victory that the church must embrace. The devil will come around and will try to cheat us from experiencing this deliverance that we have in Jesus. We must call his bluff and live on the basis of the truth of being set free from his grip, by faith in Jesus. When we resist the devil, he will flee.
Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The condemnation that was on us, because of our sin, has been removed by the sacrificial and substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for us. Nevertheless, for the redemption of Christ to come into effect in us, we must live out His life, in His Spirit and no more according to the flesh or the Adamic nature.
Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. (28) Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. (29) Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? (30) For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” (31) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The law of sin and death was holding us but when we come to Jesus, in total surrender, we are filled with His Holy Spirit. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death.
When man killed the Prince of life, God set in place, His plan to redeem man.