21 April 2014 - new life

 21 April 2014 - new life

What is the basic truth of Christianity?  It is the resurrection!

This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.

Something broken in us makes this death necessary.  It is our sinful hearts which kill Jesus, using lawless men to crucify him (so that we may keep a safe distance from such horrors).  Everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23).  And sin is, implicitly or explicitly, rebellion against the King.  We act toward him as any enemy.  We act as the prodigal son, taking his inheritance, implicitly wishing his father dead.  But while we are yet sinners Christ dies for us (cf. Rom. 5:8).  It seems like our brokenness leads to tragedy, but this has been part of his set plan and foreknowledge from the beginning.  He is the "lamb slain since the foundation of the world" (cf. Rev. 13:8) because he is not content to leave his sheep straying and lost:

And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him (cf. Col. 1:21-22.).

Maybe we need one more reminder of how bad things are without the resurrection of Christ:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another (cf. Tit. 3:3).

Do we know that or do we sugarcoat it?  But now his resurrection power is available to us.  It is the solution to the sin problem and ultimately to the death problem.  His death unlocks the blessings of the Holy Spirit in which we can now partake.

God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.”

This Spirit makes all the difference.  We can now live lives of holiness which are pleasing to God.

For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit (cf. Rom. 8:3-4).

Now our hearts can be glad and our souls can rejoice because this life we live is no longer futile.  It is no longer just running down the clock.  The resurrection empowers us now morally and spiritually in a way proves us that we are God's children, in a way that makes us cry, 'Abba, Father!'  This power in us is the hope of our resurrection on the last day.

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.

So even if we are fearful like Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary let us also be overjoyed and run from the tomb to announce this to the world.  Let us hear Jesus quell our fears as he says, "Do not be afraid."  Galilee lies ahead.  Our risen LORD is there.  Let us go to meet him!