At this moment, I have multiple receipts in my wallet. My wallet functions as my mobile filing cabinet, holding receipts for everything from pizza to office supplies (I can hear someone already, “There’s an app for that!”). It may not be the most sophisticated system, but it works. Most of the time.
What is the purpose of a receipt, whether it is printed out or comes by email? The purpose of a receipt is to confirm that the proper payment has been received.
At the cross, Jesus paid our debt. Through our sinful rebellion, we had rung up an astronomical debt with God. A debt that we could never repay, no matter how hard we tried.
In the resurrection, God printed out the receipt for our debt. He provided proof that the payment had been paid in full.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. — Romans 1:1-4
Paul begins with the gospel — the good news that God has redeemed people through the sacrifice of Jesus. This gospel was promised in the Old Testament and accomplished through the death of Jesus. But don’t miss this point: it was in the resurrection that Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”
If you have accepted God’s payment for your sins, then the resurrection is your receipt. There’s a better place to keep that than in your wallet.