April 15, 2022
As you prepare to focus your hearts this Sunday upon Jesus' resurrection, let me encourage you to reflect upon both the fact that He rose from the dead, and the meaning of His resurrection for our lives. Both are vital. If He didn't actually come back to life after being dead for parts of three consecutive days, then there can be no significance to our belief, no point in believing at all (as Paul says in I Corinthians 15:14 and 15:17, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is is vain... your faith is futile"). But if all you think about is the fact of His resurrection, and never apply it to your daily life, then what's the point of the fact? The Bible is clear that what happened in space and time some two millennia ago has bearing for believers today and every day of our lives.
Since Christ rose from the dead, we are no longer in our sins. Paul completes I Corinthians 15:17 with these words, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." But Jesus was raised from the dead "for our justification" (Romans 4:25). The resurrection is proof that the Father has accepted the Son's sacrifice on our behalf - He has vindicated His Son as the sinless and spotless Lamb of God (I Timothy 3:16), and in His righteousness we are declared no longer guilty, but righteous.
Since Christ rose from the dead, we can walk in newness of life. We've been seeing this truth so clearly in Romans 6 - in union with our risen Savior by faith, we have been freed from sin's power as well as its penalty, and we are alive to God in Christ, so that we might walk in the new life of those who are no longer dead in sin but are dead to sin. We have been made alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5) so that we might walk in all the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in. We know the power of His resurrection in our daily lives as we are enabled to put sin to death and walk in holiness (Ephesians 1:19-20; Philippians 3:10).
Since Christ rose from the dead, we have a living hope beyond this life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and thus we know that even if we die, we shall yet live (John 11:25). Jesus is "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (I Corinthians 15:20), and all who are in Him through faith will be made alive, given a new body that will never die again. "Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself" (Philippians 3:20-21). The dead in Christ will rise to eternal, physical life with Jesus on the day He comes again (I Thessalonians 4:16). God has made us to be embodied spirits, and eternity will be an embodied existence on a new earth, in bodies that can never suffer or wear out or sin ever again.
The Bible has much more to say about how the resurrection of Jesus impacts us as believers, but hopefully these will stimulate your meditation. Of course, our gratitude for the bodily resurrection of our Savior and our resting in the grace of His endless life are not meant to be a once-a-year occasion. We remember Jesus' resurrection from the dead each and every Lord's day (it's why the Sabbath changed from the seventh day to the first day of the week) and every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper (we commune with our risen Savior by faith). So let our celebration this particular Lord's Day be a springboard for your weekly celebration of the new life and new hope that is yours in Him!