ENJOY THE RESURRECTION LIFE
OF THE RISEN CHRIST NOW
Enjoy the Resurrection Life of Jesus Today and Forever
The historical event of the resurrection in our lives is decisive. The transformative effect of this event is not at all limited to those who lived in that distant past. Jesus has opened up to the whole of humanity his own resurrection life. It is extended to all those who choose to welcome him, establish a relationship with him and follow him. He is alive today to sustain, encourage and empower each one of his followers, gathered together in his Church. Because Jesus is not a corpse on a cross but very much alive and with the Father, he is the way to the Father and it is through him, in the power of his Holy Spirit, that God relates to us as Father. Each one of us, as followers of Jesus Christ, can say with the apostle Paul
If then you have been raised with Christ ... your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1, 3)
Note the use of the past tense “have been raised with Christ” from the time we establish a life-giving relationship with the risen Christ and are baptised our lives are with Christ in God, a saving union that is not interrupted even by death. It is this vital relationship that leads us to our final destiny. Jesus is the way, he does not’t show us the way, he is the way. Only in him do we have access to the Father
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
It is from the moment when we decide to accept and to enter into a relationship with Christ as Saviour and Lord that we “become partakers of the divine nature”, partakers of the life of God (2 Peter 1:4). Nothing can break that union
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)
No one or nothing can break that union, not even death
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38)
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Belief in the resurrection is fundamental and is a condition for salvation
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
‘Jesus is Lord’. It is not sufficient for salvation to believe that Jesus was a great moral teacher, a noble prophet, or someone prepared to die for his beliefs. Jesus is God incarnate, who died, was buried and raised from the dead and has reconciled us to the Father. The Christian believes in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, establishes a relationship with him and follows him towards his final destination.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
We have seen in session 1 that the Christian faith is essentially a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our salvation, he is our life:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)
“I am the resurrection and the life”. Yes, he does give us the free gift of salvation but it is given ‘in’ him, in Christ, in union with the risen Jesus who is the way, truth and the life. We obtain eternal life, salvation, by our union with he who is alive, who is life. Jesus is our salvation. We have the gift of eternal life, salvation, because we are united to he who is eternal and who is life.
It is precisely this union with the risen Christ that transforms us. It is the indwelling risen Christ working with us, in us, and through us. It is a completely new life driven by the power of the risen Lord.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3, 4)
This is salvation in action here and now, not only after death.
Death and Resurrection - the Pattern of Our Christian Life
The death and resurrection of Christ is not only a historical event that took place 2000 years ago, it is also the direction of travel of the Christian on his spiritual journey. This journey starts at baptism and the rite of immersion reflects the death and resurrection of Christ. In baptism by immersion the person is baptised by going down into the water signifying, the death of the old self and emerging from the water into newness of life. The rite of baptism reflects the death and resurrection of Christ.
The whole spiritual journey of the Christian
consists in living out his baptism by dying to the old self and allowing the new life of the risen Christ within to emerge. Christ says
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me". (Mark 8:34)
Jesus addressed these words not only to the small group of disciples who followed him wherever he went but to the whole crowd. Anyone who wishes to follow Christ needs to deny self and take up the cross, literally lay down his life. Anyone who wishes to be a Christian needs to tread the same path as Christ, through the cross to the resurrection.
Today it is highly unlikely that self-denial will lead to laying down our lives for Christ but the principle of self-denial remains and is embedded in the pattern of life of the Christian as expressed in in the rite of baptism.
Self-denial or death to the old self is the way to manifesting the glory of the risen Christ within us. Denial of the old self is the necessary precondition for the new life of the risen Lord to manifest itself in us and through us. In fact the apostle Paul said
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.(Galatians 2:20)
Only to the extent that the old self of the flesh, the natural way of the natural self, the body and psychological makeup, does not obstruct the channel, can the risen Christ live in us and manifest the glory of his resurrection, the new life of the Spirit in and through us.
As we die to self the glory of God is manifest in us and we we go from one degree of glory to another, the glorious life of the risen Christ becomes gradually more visible
we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
That glory is none other than the glory of the risen Lord given to us. Only the risen Christ within can transform us into his own image and likeness.
In the last prayer of Jesus, before his arrest and passion, Jesus said "the glory that you have given me I have given to them" (John 17:22). With the indwelling risen Christ we have the glory of God within. We are called to let that divine glory
shine in and through us.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)
What is it in us that prevents the light and glory of Christ from shining out to others for the glory of the Father? It is none other than self, the old self, hence the need for self-denial in order for the transformative process to take place within us.
"So that they may see your good works". Only God can do the work of God. Jesus explains the driving force behind his words and works: "the Father who dwells in me does his works" (John 14:10). It is the same principle for us. It is the indwelling Christ that does the works of the Father through us, if we allow him. To allow him we need to be in tune with him, listen and discern the guidance of the Holy Spirit, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14). We cannot allow the Christ within to act through us and we cannot discern the will of God and be led by the Holy Spirit if we listen to self, if we cannot detach ourselves from our own will and if we are guided by self. Hence, in the fundamental principles of the Christian life, self-denial is crucial, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross". For many of us our cross is where the the will of God crosses our will and we say "your will be done".
This pattern of death and resurrection is the life of the Christian from baptism to the grave. It reaches its last phase in our literal physical death where our body "is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:44).
It now becomes clear that for the Christian there is no death without life, whereas for the non-believer there is no life without death.
It is not difficult to see how the pattern of death and resurrection is the key both to our Christian faith and to our Christian life.
------------------
Next: The Resurrection of Jesus Part 6, Death, Resurrection and Suffering
Introduction to the Christian Faith - Index
© R W
bsgbiblestudyguide@gmail.com
