Today Christians all over the world are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For many of us the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus is not just an annual service of remembrance as good as that is but a daily celebration of living every day in the power of the resurrection in our lives.
You see the resurrection doesn’t just give me hope for the future it gives me power for the present. The Apostle Paul, in probably my favourite Bible verse, captures the truth that Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in me and empowers me to live physically in this world from my spirit and Holy Spirit who lives in me:
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11 NIV)
Paul builds on this point in Ephesians where he prays that we would know not only the hope but also the power of the resurrection.
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, (Ephesians 1:15-20 NIV)
In essence the resurrection means that if we have to wait then we don’t just get to wait patiently we get to hope powerfully.
But not only is the resurrection a matter of power it is a matter of position.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV)
Here Paul is making it clear that when Jesus was resurrected so were we, meaning resurrection isn’t just something we get to look forward to when we die, but we get to live now positionally as those who have been raised and seated with Christ in heavenly places. The reality is then that when I talk, as I have done in previous posts, about sitting in the dust and dark of the valley I am actually at the same time seated alongside Jesus in heavenly places. In many ways then the journey I talk about is characterised by learning to learning to live from heaven towards earth, from the throne to the valley. In a sense to live in the power of Easter Sunday on Holy Saturday. If the resurrection teaches me anything it is to trust the process!
I’ll finish with a quote from my favourite Greek Orthodox bishop:
Because Christ our God is true man, he died a full and genuine human death upon the cross. But because he is not only true man but true God, because he is life itself and the source of life, this death was not and could not be the final conclusion. The crucifixion is itself a victory; but on Great Friday the victory is hidden, whereas on Easter morning it is made manifest. Christ rises from the dead, and by his rising he delivers us from anxiety and terror; the victory of the cross is confirmed, love is openly shown to be stronger than hatred, and love to be stronger than death. God himself has died and risen from the dead, and so there is no more death: even death is filled with God. Because Christ is risen, we need no longer be afraid of any dark of evil force in the universe. Bishop Kallistos Ware
Today I am celebrating He is risen, I am risen!
