Practice Resurrection

The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.

Bishop N.T. Wright

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

We rejoice this Easter as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead because by his resurrection Christ has changed our present and future forever.

The Resurrection Changes Everything

As a result of his resurrection we have the guarantee of forgiveness of sin and justification as well as the gracious gift of his risen life that transforms us into his likeness and empowers us to live for him and like him. We have been raised with him through faith. We now have resurrection life and resurrection power in us to guide and enable godly behavior in us. As Eugene Peterson has written:

Christ’s friends were utterly transformed by his resurrection. Their friendship, their work, and even their meals together took on a new meaning and purpose. The same can happen to us today. When the Resurrection becomes the core reality of our spiritual formation, our dimmed eyes and dull souls are lifted to a place of continual renewal.

We should now live responsibly with confidence in the world because Christ is risen and reigns as king over the universe.

This is why Eugene Peterson insists that Christianity is substantially a “practice of resurrection.” Practicing the resurrection means living our lives in the light and joy of Christ’s resurrection: knowing, loving, and honoring the living Christ and rejoicing that we are known by the living Christ who empowers us to live the risen life now in anticipation of our own bodily resurrection in the new Heaven and new Earth. Let your life, ambition, and hopes be driven by the reality and power of Christ’s resurrection.