The Daily Paine

He died that you and I might live.  He was stripped that you and I might be robed.  He accepted thorns that you and I might wear crowns.  He was cast out of the city of David that you and I might enter into the New Jerusalem, the city of God.”
–William Henry Biederwolf

“God is at war with sin in every man, and with every man who is sinning….  Man hates God because God hates man’s sin.”
–G. Campbell Morgan

They were jumping with glee–the schemer and his minions.  Evil has won, darkness has pervaded, and Satan is mightier than the Son.  Despair will now reign over the earth, and perversion will run rampant.  No one will be safe; no one will  have hope.  Hope has vanished in the tomb.
Jesus has died and no one has ever defeated death.  Well, maybe Lazarus, but that is now only temporary and with the death of the Son, Lazarus will soon die again.  But then, as the old preacher shouted, “Sunday’s comin'”  There was something happening, not only on earth, but in the cosmos.  “The stone moved, the Earth shook…” (Donnie Sumner) and hope will begin to blossom.
Evil was rattled, Satan’s plans were thwarted, for now there was One, who was once dead, but now is alive, that broke the chains of death.  Death and the grave could not hold Him for He rose triumphant.  Truly, He could say,
        
          “Death, where is your victory?
           Death, where is your sting?”
               –1 Corinthians 15:55 (HCSB)

Jesus was executed on a cruel cross, but at the time only He realized that the cross was the way to victory.  He would cast off mankind’s sin and rise in glorious victory.  Now we can sing,

          “Mercy was great and grace was free,
           Pardon there was multiplied to me,
           There my burdened soul found liberty,
           At Calvary!”

“For he himself endured a cross and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy he knew would follow his suffering; and is now seated at the right hand of God’s throne.”
–Hebrews 12:2 (Phillips)