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 among all the trees planted there, God placed two unique 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, we can now reclaim through Jesus'
obedience. By faith, we place ourselves
in Christ and become partakers of His death and
also of His resurrection (see Romans 5:12-21).
What this
really means to me, however, is that I can experience resurrection 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 learn to die to myself. 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’s direction. The wages of sin is always death. When we choose disobedience and sin, the
result is always spiritual
death. We may still attend church and go
through our other Christian rituals and duties, 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. God told His people Israel, "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 to germinate and grow.
Without the death, there can be no 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 which is Jesus Christ my Lord. Won't you join me at the table? Resurrection must never become something that
we think about only at Easter time. It
is something that we need to experience every day as the Life of Jesus surges
through our mortal flesh! The Apostle
Paul wrote, "…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). Paul summed up the Christian walk very nicely
when he said, “I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved
me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).
If you
haven’t experienced the new birth in Christ, I suggest that you go to God now –
He’s always near no matter where you are – and acknowledge that you have been
living your life without Him and outside His plan for you. Turn away from any known sins in your life and
ask God to wash you clean and renew your spirit. Trust in the gift of eternal life that God
has given you through His Son Jesus Christ, and embrace it with all your
heart. Come to Jesus, the Tree of Life,
and receive the power to become transformed into a child of the Father. Feed from the Holy Word of God and discover
that what God spoke to His people Israel and what He speaks today to all of
mankind are not contradictory – they complement each other. The Old Testament sets the stage for the New,
and the New Testament fulfills the Old.
God’s purpose has never changed.
Christ’s entrance into the world was fortold in great detail by prophets
and holy men of old, and Jesus fulfilled those prophecies in every way. Won’t you trust in Jesus the Savior today?
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