A few weeks back, here, I focused on the centrality of Jesus’ resurrection to our faith, even pointing out that the cross without the resurrection would have been a tragedy. It would have been just payment and propitiation for sin. But without conquering the wages (penalty) of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23), the result would have been tragic and the victory of sin in death would have remained. The resurrection turns the cross and its tragedy to triumph.
Again the scriptures making the inextricable link between sin and death and resurrection life clear in Paul’s letter to Corinth:
[1Corinthians 15:13-14, 16-17 NASB95] “13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. … 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
The death….and resurrection…. of Jesus sealed both our forgiveness and gave us the power of resurrection life, that is eternal life.
Jesus told Martha: [John 11:25-26 NASB95] 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.Do you believe this?”
This is the heart of the gospel as the portal to life in Christ Jesus. If we believe in Him, THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, we 1) receive forgiveness of sin, being freed from the power of being a slave to sin and its wages death, and 2) are released into resurrection power for life by the Holy Spirit.
[Romans 6:6-9 NASB95] 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with [Him,] in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
[Romans 8:2 NASB95] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
But lest we simply fall into the trap of thinking we only taste this resurrection power once we lay down this mortal coil/body, let us look a bit harder at Romans 8 (too much to go into in depth here giving consideration to much of the chapter, but do consider couple of verses).
[Romans 8:9-11 NASB20] 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
We are not living in the flesh but in the Spirit, or by the Spirit, Who is now dwelling in us and enabling, giving us the power, of resurrection life. The apostle says that although our body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive and righteous. And, perhaps most importantly, if the Spirit of Him (the Holy Spirit/God) who raised Jesus is dwelling in us, He (God) who raised Jesus will give life to our mortal bodies by His Spirit. This is not pie in the sky after the mortal has been laid 6 feet under or in the cave/crypt. It is the power of resurrection life in Jesus in the now.
To make the point crystal clear in our understanding, the following verses in the scripture make it obvious that we are not to live under the power of the flesh. We do not have to do that, we are not obligated to. For we are no longer, as Jesus said to the Pharisees, “of our father the devil”; We have, after death and resurrection, been adopted as sons and cry “Daddy” to our true “Father”.
[Romans 8:12, 15 NASB20] 12 So then, brothers [and sisters,] we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh– … 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters] by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Now, l admit that I do find myself often frustrated by failings in the flesh and in my propensity to sin. But I also find I am never under condemnation, but rather under the loving and gentle conviction of the Spirit who gives me life. And, who, like Jesus dealing with Peter in John 21, tells me that that although I have failed, He has not given up on me. And, that while my love that may now only be phileo deep, that He is faithfully working in me so I will give the full measure of agape love for Him that requires my laying down my life.
I, and I dare say, most of us in the church, must embrace the truth that our release from sin and death is real and now, not simply future and, that the power of resurrection life is available now to me IN Christ. Life is in the person of Jesus as I abide, dwell, and live in Him, and His Spirit abides, lives, and dwells in me. God has begun a good work in me through faith in Jesus and the power of the resurrection, and He is committed to completing it (Philippians 1:6).
Our victory is in knowing that He is the resurrection AND the life! I think that is why He asked Martha “Do you believe this?” (and then proved it with her brother). She could talk about deep theology with Jesus, about His being the Christ, the Messiah, and about the resurrection on the last day. But, like most of His followers, she was missing that He was the resurrection AND the life…and not just on the last day, but right now, in the moment. Resident/Dwelling within us, and ever with us, is the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus, giving life to our mortal bodies. Do we believe this? Jesus gives life to whom He wishes.
[John 5:17, 21 NASB95] 17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” … 21 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.
As referenced above, in Christ we have been adopted by our true Father and we are children of God. It is our faith, faith which is initiated by God’s His revelation and His word not of ourselves, in Jesus as our life that gives us triumph and victory over sin, death, the flesh in the world.
[1John 5:4-5 NASB95] 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This unwavering trust in, and knowledge of, Jesus as resurrection life gives us a perspective that releases all fear, even of death, and causes us to comprehend that all things (yes, all things) are working for our good in Him – Once again Romans 8:
[Romans 8:28, 35, 37-39 NASB95] 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose. … 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now I would be remiss here if I didn’t mention that resurrection power is also inextricably linked to death. In order for resurrection power to be experienced, there must be a death.
In our case, in Jesus, we will not taste mortal death, but the cross is still a reality for the believer. It was for Him. It is for us. If we are to move into the fullness of the power of resurrection something in us, our propensity to be given to the flesh, must die for the love of Jesus, and for us to live for, and in, Him.
In Luke 14 25-33 Jesus outlines the cost of discipleship saying in three different places in these few verses essentially: unless this/that… you cannot be my disciple. It can really be summed up with this one statement in that passage.
[Luke 14:27 NASB95] 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
The cross is the place where we lay down our flesh, our desires, our desire to rule, our fears, our lust, our sin, our rights, and die to ourselves to live unto Him and under His Lordship. Note in Luke 14:27 picking up your own cross precedes and is simply a part of coming after/following Him.
Paul made it clear to truly know the power of His resurrection we must taste His suffering.
[Philippians 3:8-10 NASB95] 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Let us rejoice and live in the now reality of the power of His resurrection, even if we sometimes, in the now, also face, and must embrace, the fellowship of His suffering. For the truth is the power of sin has no right to us or to make us its slave. Death is vanquished and eternal life is ours. Jesus is our conquering King.
For further consideration:
[Rom 6:3-7, 11-14, 17-18 NASB95] 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with [Him] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [in the likeness] of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with [Him,] in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. …
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin [as] instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ...
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.