What Resurrection Means To Me

"But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." (1 Corinthians 15:13, 14)

The resurrection of the dead is a fundamental truth of the Christian faith. Upon this one truth lies the hope of every man and woman who names the name of Christ. Jesus' entire life and ministry was driven toward this one outcome: that He would give His life freely as an offering for our sin, and that God would raise Him from the dead to gain the ultimate victory over death, sin, and the devil.

The mystery of eternal life begins in Genesis, in the very beginning when God created man and woman. He planted a garden in Eden, and in it He placed two trees. The one tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The other tree was the Tree of Life. God told Adam and Eve that they could freely eat of any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This included the Tree of Life. As long as they were allowed to eat of the Tree of Life, they would live forever; but, when they ate from the forbidden tree, access to the Tree of Life was denied them from that time on. Man was given the choice of life and death, and he chose death. God had plainly warned them, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." It was always God's intention to give man the gift of eternal life, but he chose death.

That which mankind lost through Adam, only another man could regain. Therefore, Jesus became a man so that He, through the grace of God, could taste death for every man and overcome it. What the first Adam lost, the second "Adam," Jesus, won back. What mankind lost as a result of Adam's disobedience, the race of man can now reclaim through Jesus' obedience. By faith, we place ourselves vicariously in Christ and become partakers of His death and also of His resurrection.

What this really means to me, however, is that I can experience new life here and now. This resurrection power is something that we can tap into before our physical bodies die. It is the promise of receiving the very life of Christ as I die to myself and deny myself the things which God warns me are harmful to my spiritual well being. Adam and Eve could receive life every time they denied the temptation to eat of the forbidden fruit, and ate instead of the Tree of Life. We receive life as we partake of Christ, our Tree of Life, and walk in obedience to God. We can be sure that the wages of sin is always death, though. When we choose disobedience and sin, the result is always spiritual death. We may still attend church and go through our other Christian rituals, but something is rotting inside of our spirit. Only a heart-wrenching repentance and an acknowledging of our disobedience to God can set us free once again. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20)

Paul said, "I die daily." This is a concept with which we must be very familiar if we are to be successful as servants of God. I love to garden, and I have learned some very deep spiritual truths by scratching around in the dirt. When a seed is buried in the ground, the outer shell rots and dies. The inner life that was held captive within the seed as long as it was out of the ground is then free to emerge. The death allows for the new life, and without the death, there can never be the new life. Likewise, as long as we cherish and nurture this outer shell of flesh and seek only to pamper its lusts and desires, then the spiritual germ of life that is within each of us can never sprout and grow. Jesus Christ is that Life. He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." John said of Him, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

So, what does the resurrection mean to me? It means that if I can overcome death through the faith of Jesus Christ, how much more can I overcome sin in my life and rise above the spiritual death that would seek to envelop my soul? It means that I can be more than a conqueror through Him Who loves me. It means that I can know my Lord and Savior as the Resurrection and the Life. It means that I can walk with my God and freely eat of the Tree of Life. Won't you join at the table?

"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live". (Romans 8:10-13)

"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (1 Corinthians 4:10, 11)