Resurrection Life
This coming weekend we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and while you celebrate, I want to encourage you to also live the resurrection life He came to give us. Jesus came to give us an abundant life (John 10:10). He didn’t come to make us religious. He is the living God, and because He lives, He wants to walk with us, talk with us, and live in us. To bring us into a relationship with Himself, He died and rose again in our place. He took our sin and shame, everything that would ever try to come on us, and He paid our debt in full. “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). We don’t have to walk in guilt and condemnation. We are free to go and live the resurrection life.
So how do we live the resurrection life? We have to have a resurrection mentality like the apostle Paul had. He says, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). He wanted to not just know about what Jesus had done, but he wanted to experience all of it. Paul knew that he had battles to fight and that he had the resurrection power to win. Keep in mind that before he came to know the Lord, Paul persecuted the church severely, sending believers to prison and contributing to their deaths. Can you imagine the guilt and the shame that tried to come on him as he was preaching this good news? Have you ever thought, “I can’t tell the good news because of what I’ve done in the past”? That’s what Paul was talking about. He was saying, “You have to press on and take hold of all that Jesus Christ has done for you through His death and resurrection.”
Press into God’s grace and mercy. Press on and take hold. Jesus never said it was going to be easy. It wasn’t easy for Him. It cost Him His life on the cross. But on the third day when He came out of that grave alive again, He turned that bad situation around and brought it out for our good. He wants to take the situations in your life and turn them around for your good. His plan is still working. It worked the day He was raised from the grave, and it is still working for us today. But we have to take hold of all the good things that Christ has done for us.
So how do we live the resurrection life? We have to have a resurrection mentality like the apostle Paul had. He says, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). He wanted to not just know about what Jesus had done, but he wanted to experience all of it. Paul knew that he had battles to fight and that he had the resurrection power to win. Keep in mind that before he came to know the Lord, Paul persecuted the church severely, sending believers to prison and contributing to their deaths. Can you imagine the guilt and the shame that tried to come on him as he was preaching this good news? Have you ever thought, “I can’t tell the good news because of what I’ve done in the past”? That’s what Paul was talking about. He was saying, “You have to press on and take hold of all that Jesus Christ has done for you through His death and resurrection.”
Press into God’s grace and mercy. Press on and take hold. Jesus never said it was going to be easy. It wasn’t easy for Him. It cost Him His life on the cross. But on the third day when He came out of that grave alive again, He turned that bad situation around and brought it out for our good. He wants to take the situations in your life and turn them around for your good. His plan is still working. It worked the day He was raised from the grave, and it is still working for us today. But we have to take hold of all the good things that Christ has done for us.