Romans 8:11 "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
We have previously taken a look at the cross, both in terms of the historical event and of its continual work in the believer's life as we walk with Christ. Now we will take a look at the resurrection of Christ, for without the resurrection, the cross would have been incomplete- and God never does anything in an incomplete manner. We must always remember that the cross and the resurrection go together. Both were necessary to secure our salvation. God sent His Beloved Son to a cross to take away all of our sins, and three days later raised Him up from the dead, guaranteeing our own resurrection from death's ugly, but now temporary grip. Because of this, praise God, we now have eternal life.
In the garden of Eden, man died- remember? Genesis 2:17- "In the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely DIE." So the DEATH of Christ took away our sins, and the RESURRECTION of our Savior gave us back what man had lost way back in Genesis- LIFE. Give God praise for His unfathomable love! Catch a glimpse of that love and you will never be the same...
Just as the cross has both historical and constant, practical meaning in the life of the Christian, so also does the resurrection. God uses the cross in our lives to break us of our self-will, ordering our circumstances to bring us to a place of total surrender. He will not let up until we relent, so great is His love for us.
The resurrection experience, on the other hand, is what God gives us to overcome and be victorious in our circumstances. You will find yourself reacting, not out of your flesh, but with the power of God, and then wonder how you did that. That is the resurrection of Christ working in your life. Slowly but surely, you will find yourself looking THROUGH the painful experiences on to the complete victory, because you will tend to (more and more) see the whole picture, rather than just the momentary suffering. 2 Corinthians 4:17 & 18 - "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
The apostle Paul went through incredible and protracted suffering, yet he sees the hand of God in it so clearly that he refers to all of it as 'light affliction'! Can anyone say RESURRECTION POWER? I am humbled when I see the degree of the workings of both the cross and resurrection in Paul's life....Let us thank God now- for the historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and for its daily, moment by moment practical power in our own lives!
En Agape,
Pastor Jim Ewing
We have previously taken a look at the cross, both in terms of the historical event and of its continual work in the believer's life as we walk with Christ. Now we will take a look at the resurrection of Christ, for without the resurrection, the cross would have been incomplete- and God never does anything in an incomplete manner. We must always remember that the cross and the resurrection go together. Both were necessary to secure our salvation. God sent His Beloved Son to a cross to take away all of our sins, and three days later raised Him up from the dead, guaranteeing our own resurrection from death's ugly, but now temporary grip. Because of this, praise God, we now have eternal life.
In the garden of Eden, man died- remember? Genesis 2:17- "In the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely DIE." So the DEATH of Christ took away our sins, and the RESURRECTION of our Savior gave us back what man had lost way back in Genesis- LIFE. Give God praise for His unfathomable love! Catch a glimpse of that love and you will never be the same...
Just as the cross has both historical and constant, practical meaning in the life of the Christian, so also does the resurrection. God uses the cross in our lives to break us of our self-will, ordering our circumstances to bring us to a place of total surrender. He will not let up until we relent, so great is His love for us.
The resurrection experience, on the other hand, is what God gives us to overcome and be victorious in our circumstances. You will find yourself reacting, not out of your flesh, but with the power of God, and then wonder how you did that. That is the resurrection of Christ working in your life. Slowly but surely, you will find yourself looking THROUGH the painful experiences on to the complete victory, because you will tend to (more and more) see the whole picture, rather than just the momentary suffering. 2 Corinthians 4:17 & 18 - "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
The apostle Paul went through incredible and protracted suffering, yet he sees the hand of God in it so clearly that he refers to all of it as 'light affliction'! Can anyone say RESURRECTION POWER? I am humbled when I see the degree of the workings of both the cross and resurrection in Paul's life....Let us thank God now- for the historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and for its daily, moment by moment practical power in our own lives!
En Agape,
Pastor Jim Ewing
