Easter Countdown: 6) Then Came The Morning (Bill & Gloria Gaither, Chris Christian)

At number 6, another Gaither classic and a stunning performance by an amazing Christian performer, Guy Penrod. I love Guy's voice and the passion and integrity that he puts into every performance. He clearly believes every word he sings and so helps us to believe and understand the wonderful message of hope in this song.

I explained yesterday, when writing about Living Hope, how crucial the Resurrection morning is for us. We rightly speak about the wonderful love of Jesus in dying for us on the cross, but it took His resurrection from among the dead to bring us into that living hope.

The disciples and Mary, the mother of the Lord, would have walked away from the cross filled with grief and completely dejected. As the pair on the road to Emmaus said, they "had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21) but instead they had watched Him be arrested, unfairly tried, beaten, tortured and crucified on a cruel, wooden cross. But yet, some of their number had witnessed an empty tomb and been told that the Lord had risen. Could it be true?

Jesus Himself had predicted His own death three times in Luke's gospel and on the third occasion He also spoke of His resurrection - "On the third day He will rise again" (Luke 18:33). But still they didn't, or couldn't, believe it.

Mary, the mother of the Lord, had been promised by the angel that the kingdom of Jesus "will never end" (Luke 1:33) and she had witnessed many remarkable things though the Lord's childhood and public ministry. So how could it be that her son had just suffered and died - how did that fit in with God's promise? We're not told in Scripture that she knew Jesus would rise again, but she must have known that the cross was not the end of the story because He was not just her son but "the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32).

So 'then came the morning!' In the resurrection, Jesus could appear to his friends as a glorious, living man, the other side of death. Death had lost. Life had won. So the cross was not the end of the story. For us it is the beginning of our new life and walk with Jesus. Just as He walked with his disciples on the road to Emmaus, encouraging and instructing them, He walks with us now.

Be encouraged: Jesus died for our sins and He is alive again. We live through Him, the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) Just as death had no claim against Jesus, it now has no claim against those He has redeemed by His blood. Our eternal salvation is secured when we trust in Him.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16)

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They all walked away, nothing to say,

They'd just lost their dearest friend.

All that He said, now He was dead,

So this was the way it would end.

The dreams they had dreamed were not what they'd seemed

Now that He was dead and gone.

The garden, the jail, the hammer, the nail -

How could a night be so long?

Then came the morning,

Night turned into day,

The stone was rolled away,

Hope rose with the dawn.

Then came the morning,

Shadows vanished before the sun,

Death had lost and life had won

For morning had come!

The angel, the star, the kings from afar,

The wedding, the water, the wine -

Now it was done, they'd taken her Son

Wasted before His time.

She knew it was true, she'd watched Him die too,

She'd heard them call Him just a man

But deep in her heart she knew from the start

Somehow her Son would live again!

Then came the morning,

Night turned into day,

The stone was rolled away,

Hope rose with the dawn.

Then came the morning,

Shadows vanished before the sun,

Death had lost and life had won

For morning had come!

Then came the morning,

Shadows vanished before the sun,

Death had lost and life had won

For morning had come!

Morning had come!