Living in Light of the Resurrection

Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Living in Light of the Resurrection

Introduction: Every Christian would readily admit their belief in the resurrection of Jesus. And most Christians recognize that if Jesus did not raise, our faith is useless, our eternity is without hope, and God has utterly failed us. Most, if not all Christians, understand the importance of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

However, on the other side of the coin, most Christians have not carefully considered how the resurrection should affect our present living. Therefore, in this lesson we will discuss the practical affect of the resurrection of Jesus.

1. The Impact of Death and Resurrection
   1. Every adult human suffers two deaths. Death involves separation; it is either a separation from God spiritually, thus spiritual death (Romans 5:12), or it is a separation of body and spirit, resulting in physical death (James 2:26). God warned Adam and Eve that in the day they ate of the tree, they would die. Though they did not immediately die physically, they did immediately die spiritually – they were separated from the Garden, and thus from God.
   2. Therefore since there are two deaths, salvation ultimately entails two resurrections. Our first concern is the need to be resurrected spiritually:
      1. Ephesians 2:1, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…” Most people do not think much about it, but the moment we are old enough to commit “adult sins,” we died – Romans 7:9, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” Again, in 1 Tim. 5:6, “she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.”
      2. It is important that we consider this carefully. You and I were separated from God the moment we first sinned. Most people simply do not recognize the seriousness of that moment. Just consider what it was like for Adam and Eve. They sinned one time! With that one sin, God removed them from the Garden and his presence. You may think you are a good person, but even if you have only sinned one time, you are separated from God and without hope in eternity. After all, if salvation comes by basically being a good person, Jesus did not need to die.
      3. Do you think Adam and Eve felt the difference between being with God and being without God? Absolutely! We may not think much about it because we were born into a fallen world. Thus, Paul explained their condition and our condition when he said, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And again, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
      4. Ephesians 2:4-6 continues, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – for by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Therefore, only in Jesus can we be made alive spiritually after being dead in sin. Notice the words, “raised us up with him” implies our resurrection spiritually is connected to his resurrection physically.
   3. Second, we need to be resurrected physically because unless Jesus returns while we are still alive, we will all die. 1 Corinthians 15:21-23, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For a in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” When Adam and Eve were separated from the tree of life, we were all separated. And when we also sinned, we all deserved physical death.
   4. Therefore, what made it possible for us to escape not only spiritual death but physical death? It was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
   5. Let’s further explore spiritual death. Do we look in the mirror and see spiritual death? Do we take our pulse to determine if we are spiritually dead? Spiritual death cannot be visibly seen nor detected by some exterior means. It only becomes evident when we read the scriptures and are made aware of our condition after violating God’s laws. God tried to help Israel see their actual spiritual condition without him in Isaiah 1:5-6: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds.”
   6. Can you imagine being given “spiritual glasses,” through which when you looked at a person you could actually see their real condition? You walk up to a person who is full of boils, sores, and wounds from his head to his feet, and you say, “How ya doin’ today?” And his reply is, “I’m doing great! Couldn’t be better! How are you?”
   7. Did you watch your father or mother, grandparents or great-grandparents get old and die? It isn’t pretty. Death and dying is ugly. Why don’t we embalm our loved ones and keep them in our living room? Disgusting. We want to put them out of our sight and only have remembrances of them when they were alive. Death is ugly, terminal, final. But that ugliness is only a visible picture of something far more ugly; the sickness and death of the spirit, the true you and true me forever separated from God and any semblance of life.
   8. Zechariah 3:1-4 gives us a picture of what we look like standing before God in our sins. Joshua, the high priest as a representative of Israel, is standing before God in filthy garments, and Satan as a prosecutor standing next to him ready to make his case against him. Later in verse 8, there is the prophecy of the coming of Jesus, the Branch, by which God can justify removing the filthy garments clothing us in holiness.
   9. Why we need to feel the ugliness and despair of spiritual death. First, it is because it is invisible to us and so easy to push out of our minds. Second, if we don’t see and feel the eternal spiritual death that we are dying, we will never appreciate what Jesus did and how we owe him our lives. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). If that is not how you feel, you have not yet looked deeply into your spiritual mirror to see your real condition.
   10. What must impress us is that when we recognize our condition in both spiritual death and physical death, it is impossible to think that we can fix either condition. We cannot raise ourselves from the dead! We cannot raise ourselves from being dead spiritually nor can we raise ourselves from being dead physically. We are not a little bit dead, we are not mostly dead, we are dead! And we cannot give ourselves life.
2. How Does God Raise Us from Spiritual Death?
   1. The reversal of spiritual death to spiritual life is open to everyone, but it is only accomplished by God in God’s way. It is a matter of trust, just like when Abraham was told to offer his son or Naaman told to dip in Jordan 7 times to be cleansed of leprosy.
   2. In this regard, it is interesting that the religious world tends to talk a lot about being born again, which is a direct reference to be resurrected from spiritual death, and yet rarely connects rebirth to baptism. To the contrary, Paul and Peter both speak of the resurrection of Jesus to being the power that is present in baptism to raise us up to a new life.
      1. “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 ESV)
      2. “…when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:20–21 NRSV)
      3. “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:11–12 ESV)
   3. [These passages show that there is definitely a connection between baptism, spiritual life, and the resurrection of Christ. However, the scriptures make it quite clear that while baptism is the beginning of conversion to Christ, it is not the sum total of “born again” or “regeneration.”]
   4. Consider Colossians 3:1-4. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
      Being raised with Christ implies far more than transitioning from being separated from Christ to being joined with Christ. Now we “seek the things that are above,” we “set our minds on the things that are above,” and “Christ is your life.” And look at the last part of verse 4, only “then you also will appear with him in glory.”
   5. Titus 3:4-6 “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior”
      Notice that Paul’s description of “born again” is described by both baptism (“washing of regeneration”) and “renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly…” Jesus reminded Nicodemus of the same thing when he said, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit…The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8). Jesus’ point is, you cannot see the wind, but you do see the affects of it. So we cannot see the inner transformation of a spiritual resurrection, but we certainly should see affects of a truly transformed life.
3. How Do We Know if We Have Been Born Again?
   (Thaxter Dickey listed 6 affects of a spiritual resurrection)
   1. Pain: Romans 8:22-23 “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Are you in the “pains of childbirth” eagerly waiting for the “redemption of your body?” This pain is evidence of your frustration in the weaknesses of this life and long to be released from “the bondage of corruption.”
   2. The Word: Peter said, “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). The word of God is an imperishable seed that is to grow within you creating a changed life. It is the key to how the Spirit works within you. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.”
   3. A Different Principle of Life: Colossians 3:2-3 Your life is “hidden with Christ in God…when Christ, who is your life appears…” If we are truly born from above it is evident by our life being completely absorbed in serving Christ. Our flesh battles for independence from God, but when we are born again to a living hope, Christ is our life.
   4. Love: In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul said that a Christian could give his body to be burned, but to no avail if he does not have love. John said, “Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). It is simple: the one born of God loves. As a preacher friend of mine would put it, if you get your knickers in a knot every time you felt someone slighted you or you weren’t coddled or someone didn’t speak to you just perfectly, that is not evidence of born of God. No amount of “service” to God can demonstrate the new birth without love.
   5. Growth: Born again is evidenced by growing and not remaining a child. It is evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and not by the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). Peter said, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Pet. 1:8-9).
   6. Obedience: God said in Ezekiel 36:26-27, “and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” No one can claim to have been born of the Spirit who is not dedicated to obeying God. And not obedience by “checking the boxes,” but carefully obeying out of a new heart.

Conclusion: Has the power of the resurrection of Jesus truly affected your life?

Berry Kercheville

The post Living in Light of the Resurrection appeared first on Woodland Hills Church of Christ.