For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures - 1 Cor 15:3-4
And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable…And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also (let us also) bear the image of the Heavenly Man. - I Cor.15:14, 19, 49
The Resurrection is truly the crux of our faith. By Christ's death and resurrection our sins are forgiven, and our lives transformed from mere earthly beings destined for the grave to spiritually alive citizens of heaven. We must first believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and then personally trust in this redemptive act to be "born again" as the Scriptures say. Then, by the infilling of the Holy Ghost, we become fully alive, as we have never known life to be before. Christ fooled death, and removed the strength and stain of sin. He did this not just in principle for mankind, but purposefully for "me."
However, we must continue to live every day in the strength of that reality – a full, vivid, gripping experience that Jesus is alive. I in Him and He in Me! Without this conviction passionately alive in us, our preaching and faith will be empty. We will be merely words with no power. Christ's resurrection broke through the natural realm to open heaven's doors with miracles, signs, and wonders. As we step out in faith of His resurrection power, the works of the enemy are continually displaced and destroyed by works of God… through me! Our hope in Christ is not confined to the here and now of physical laws or earthly expectations. Paul said that would be pitiful - let us bear His heavenly image.
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - I Cor. 15:54-57
Christ through His resurrection brought victory over sin, the law, and death – the three most immovable, imprisoning elements of this life. Yet, the more we abide with Him in prayer, worship, Word, gathering with His body, etc., we assimilate that victory into our lives, thus are less and less constrained by those natural inhibitors. It happens quite unexpectedly - the Lord's graceful, inevitable, and marvelous doing! Once again, the adventure begins when we believe and partake in the power of His resurrection and then choose to live and breathe that belief.
Believers will remark that eternal life doesn't start when we go to heaven, but when we are born again – when our corruption has put on His incorruption. So, if we live in eternal life now, shouldn't we also strive according to His resurrection working in us for the benefits and release of that heavenly life… as we conform to the Heavenly Man?
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. - I Cor. 15:58
- Elese
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