John 20:1-10
[1] … Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. [2] So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” [3] So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. [4] The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; [5] and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. [6] And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, [7] and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. [8] So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. [9] For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. [10] So the disciples went away again to their own homes. …
The stone that was in front of the tomb of Jesus was not rolled away by the angel to let Jesus out, but it was rolled away so that the followers of Jesus could see in. Later in that same chapter in John 20 Jesus walks through the wall in the upper room to show himself to the disciples, so walking through solid matter was not a problem with Jesus, therefore He could have easily just walked through the stone in front of the entrance to the tomb if He wanted to to get out. When we personally have a revelation of the resurrection of Christ it totally changes how we see everything. When John went into the tomb and saw more clearly, up close, the evidence that Jesus was no longer there, he believed. When he came out of that tomb having seen what he saw, can you imagine how he saw everything else. It says in 1 Peter 1:3 that Christians are “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ…” At the Cross the old person we were under sin’s reign was crucified and then buried. I want to emphasize that all this is not something which we have to do. It is some- thing which has already been done by God on our behalf 2000 years ago. But it is something which we have to grasp and believe. In the resurrection a totally New Creation, free from sin’s reign was raised up. Again. I want to emphasize that all this is not something which we have to do. It is some- thing which has already been done by God on our behalf 2000 years ago. But it too, is something which we have to grasp and believe.
Other humans die and are en- tombed to remain there. But we died and were e’n- tombed with Christ-united with Him in His death and burial-in order that when He, as our life, was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too should were raised, in Him, to a totally new quality of life in which sin’s empire was finished. Have you ever wished you were a new you? Well, because the risen Christ is now your life, you are now the best you , that you will ever be; but you have to “see.”
When John “saw” and believed, I think from that moment on, he never saw anything the same again. He never saw himself the same again. He never saw temptation, or situations, or people the same again. As a good Jew, He knew that the messiah was to inaugurate the Kingdom of Heaven, and begin His reign as King of Kings, and in so doing birth a whole new world, and I believe when it says John “saw;” he saw that also. He knew the reign of Satan and sin, and death was over. Everything input lives as Christians should be life governed by the resurrection reality, and resurrection power, and therefore everything in our lives should be seen through the lenses of New Creation.