Today we celebrate the Christian
holiday of Jesus’ resurrection, known in the English speaking world as Easter.
Approximately 1986 years ago, around 32 AD, Jesus, known as the Christ,
physically rose from the Tomb given for His burial by Joseph of Arimathea.
Three days earlier, He had been crucified by the Roman civil authorities, at
the request of Jewish religious leaders in
Jerusalem. According to the Bible, Jesus is the long-awaited, prophesied,
Messiah of Israel, whose redemptive work provides the power of salvation to all
who believe, Jew and Gentile alike. Other Biblical prophecies, not yet
fulfilled, promise His return one day to establish an earthly kingdom, from
which He will rule the present world for 1000 years, and then into eternity in
the new heaven and new earth. His death paid the cost of our sin, and His
resurrection defeated the power of death, providing an inheritance of eternal
life to those adopted into His Father’s, YHWH God’s, family. (2 Timothy 1:10)
This is the reason for the celebration of Easter.
But I wrote this today, not for the purpose of retelling the original Resurrection narrative, but to discuss the resurrection that we can, and must, experience in our own lives. Are you living a resurrection life?
Jesus was resurrected from the grave. How can we experience a similar resurrection without first having died? Oh, but my friends, we have died. We are born dead. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1) We are spiritually dead, and our relationship to our Creator is severed. Physical death is a consequential inevitability. To become alive, we must experience our own resurrection. We must be reborn. (John 3:3)
How can we do this? The answer is simple, yet challenging at the same time. Simple because it requires no work on our part; Jesus has done it all. Challenging because it requires us to surrender the only thing we truly possess: ourselves. Just to be clear, God does not require that we mortally sacrifice our lives as Christ did. We will all die one day, unless Jesus returns first, but we need not physically die in order to gain a resurrection life. What we must surrender, however, is our own will. We must die to ourselves so that the life we live is Christ living in us. (Galatians 2:20)
How do we die to self? First, we must acknowledge our own sinfulness, our own unworthiness, our own failure and inability to redeem ourselves from the depraved state into which we are born through inheritance of sin and in which we abide through our own intentional thoughts, actions, and will.
Second, we must surrender our will, our very essence of being, to our Creator. This is hard for people to do. We must go against the message of the world which tells us to embrace ourselves, and cling to our nature, and live life for ourselves, and by our own strength and force of will. These things are the very things which, in our pre-resurrected state, drive us further from our Creator—who through His own love for us and desire to provide a way of reunion, took upon Himself a mortal body in the person of Jesus, and physically sacrificed His own life for the sins that He didn’t, but we all did and do, commit. (Hebrews 10:10-12) Yes, Jesus is the Son of God. But He is also God the Son. And He was present and active in the creation of the universe. (John 1:1-3)
Third, we must ask for God to save us through the finished work of Christ, not because of our own insufficient merit, not because of our own works, but based solely upon His promise to save us, by His own grace, through our faith in believing Him and His Word. We must not continue to rely on our own abilities. We must not place our faith in ourselves and our own works. This will not only fail, but will end up being the very thing by which we will be condemned—our own nature and our own deeds.
If we die to ourselves, if we give up our old lives, Jesus has promised to spiritually resurrect us, to take up new life within us in this life, and to physically resurrect us into new bodies in the hereafter. (John 1:12, 1 John 1:9)
Grace and peace. And happy Easter!
“but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,”
-2 Timothy 1:10, NKJV
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,”
-Ephesians 2:1, NKJV
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
-John 3:3, NKJV
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
-Galatians 2:20, NKJV
“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,”
-Hebrews 10:10-12, NKJV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
-John 1:1-3, NKJV
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”
-John 1:12, NKJV
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
-1 John 1:9, NKJV
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.’”
-John 11:25, NKJV
“buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,”
-Colossians 2:12-13, NKJV
But I wrote this today, not for the purpose of retelling the original Resurrection narrative, but to discuss the resurrection that we can, and must, experience in our own lives. Are you living a resurrection life?
Jesus was resurrected from the grave. How can we experience a similar resurrection without first having died? Oh, but my friends, we have died. We are born dead. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1) We are spiritually dead, and our relationship to our Creator is severed. Physical death is a consequential inevitability. To become alive, we must experience our own resurrection. We must be reborn. (John 3:3)
How can we do this? The answer is simple, yet challenging at the same time. Simple because it requires no work on our part; Jesus has done it all. Challenging because it requires us to surrender the only thing we truly possess: ourselves. Just to be clear, God does not require that we mortally sacrifice our lives as Christ did. We will all die one day, unless Jesus returns first, but we need not physically die in order to gain a resurrection life. What we must surrender, however, is our own will. We must die to ourselves so that the life we live is Christ living in us. (Galatians 2:20)
How do we die to self? First, we must acknowledge our own sinfulness, our own unworthiness, our own failure and inability to redeem ourselves from the depraved state into which we are born through inheritance of sin and in which we abide through our own intentional thoughts, actions, and will.
Second, we must surrender our will, our very essence of being, to our Creator. This is hard for people to do. We must go against the message of the world which tells us to embrace ourselves, and cling to our nature, and live life for ourselves, and by our own strength and force of will. These things are the very things which, in our pre-resurrected state, drive us further from our Creator—who through His own love for us and desire to provide a way of reunion, took upon Himself a mortal body in the person of Jesus, and physically sacrificed His own life for the sins that He didn’t, but we all did and do, commit. (Hebrews 10:10-12) Yes, Jesus is the Son of God. But He is also God the Son. And He was present and active in the creation of the universe. (John 1:1-3)
Third, we must ask for God to save us through the finished work of Christ, not because of our own insufficient merit, not because of our own works, but based solely upon His promise to save us, by His own grace, through our faith in believing Him and His Word. We must not continue to rely on our own abilities. We must not place our faith in ourselves and our own works. This will not only fail, but will end up being the very thing by which we will be condemned—our own nature and our own deeds.
If we die to ourselves, if we give up our old lives, Jesus has promised to spiritually resurrect us, to take up new life within us in this life, and to physically resurrect us into new bodies in the hereafter. (John 1:12, 1 John 1:9)
Grace and peace. And happy Easter!
“but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,”
-2 Timothy 1:10, NKJV
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,”
-Ephesians 2:1, NKJV
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
-John 3:3, NKJV
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
-Galatians 2:20, NKJV
“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,”
-Hebrews 10:10-12, NKJV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
-John 1:1-3, NKJV
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”
-John 1:12, NKJV
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
-1 John 1:9, NKJV
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.’”
-John 11:25, NKJV
“buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,”
-Colossians 2:12-13, NKJV
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