What is the Worth of the Resurrection?
What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ really mean?
If you are a Christian, you know the resurrection is supposed to mean a lot. In fact, it's Christianity's bottom line, the foundation of faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Gospel, the Good News that lets every believer in Christ know that he or she is free forever from the curse of sin and death, has the power today and every day to live victoriously in Christ, and has an eternal future with Jesus that nothing and no one, including satan, can kill, steal or destroy.
Knowing that the resurrection is important is the reason why many of us go to church on Easter. It motivates us to put on our sharpest outfits, come out and say thanks to God as we clap and shout, sing and dance, quietly meditate and otherwise offer Him worship and praise. But though we may attend church and talk about how great God is, it's important to ask ourselves some questions.
Are our actions propelled by passion for Christ or by prevailing routine? Are we celebrating Christ because we truly love Him and are grateful for what He's done for us, or are we just going through the motions? Are we seeking to live in His abundance, enjoying and passing on the blessings of His grace or have we decided, out of innocent ignorance or outright defiance, to be simply satisfied with religion?
Jesus is not looking for robotic responses from His people. He's not looking for prayer that is done to impress others, which is what many of the religious leaders of His day loved to do (Matthew 6:5-8). Jesus is not impressed when we are more committed to our traditions than we are to Him -- even when we consider those traditions holy. And He isn't moved at all when we do something "godly" and expect Him to be grateful for it!
Yet at the same time, Jesus doesn't want us to feel guilty about these things. He loves us dearly, even when we make mistakes. He understands and really appreciates when we're trying to do the right thing and please Him, for when our motives are true they bring us into closer relationship with Him. After all, the resurrection is about redemption and restoration -- bringing people back into right relationship with God the Father through Jesus' victory on the cross.
But the Lord does want us to worship Him without falseness. As Jesus says in John 4:23-24,
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Even if we don't know what to say or don't quite get it in our gut what the "big deal" about the resurrection is, Jesus is more than happy to help us learn if we are sincere. As our Master Teacher, He helps us figure it out so that we don't just understand the facts, but we internalize the meaning in our hearts.
Developing a passion for God about His most passionate act -- giving up His life for us so that we can live with Him forever -- is a great place to get the love started. As we learn to love Him, God also teaches us how to love one another. With His help, the ongoing demonstrations of love that He cultivates in us for each other will be the very thing Jesus uses to show others that we are His (John 13:34-35).
When "The Way" -- the early name for Christianity -- got started, believers didn't have much stuff. No big buildings in which to worship. Next to no funds. No social status -- they were outcasts, scapegoats, despised ones who were horribly persecuted and driven underground. But there was a passion for Jesus Christ, a deep love for others an an indestructible faith in Christ and His Word that paved the way for powerful manifestations of God's power -- a force that proved unstoppable.
Christianity did not spread from Jerusalem throughout the world by people who honored God with their lips but without their hearts, whose worship of Him was made up only of rules taught by men (Isaiah 29:13). Worship, praise and prayer were not tiresome obligations for the early church -- they were vital expressions of love, honor and thanksgiving that emerged from the living reality of Jesus Christ in their lives.
As we seek to be true worshipers of Jesus, He has a way of wooing our hearts. Falling in love with Jesus allows us to really grasp what the resurrection provides to everyone who recognizes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Some of the wonderful gifts the resurrection offers include:
- Relationship -- The resurrection opens the one Door that provides us with eternal access and intimate relationship with Father God.
- Release -- The resurrection sets believers in Christ forever free from the curse of sin and death, into which every human being is born. It also allows believers to bind and overcome in the name of Jesus every thing that bogs us down as we stand in the power and authority that He has given us in Him.
- Rejuvenation -- We get new life, new motivation and new energy as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who comforts us, inspires us, guides us and sustains us in all that we do and experience, as we choose to yield ourselves to Him and to the will of the Father.
- Right Thinking -- As the Apostle Paul tells us, we have the ability to "be transformed by the renewing of our mind" (Romans 12:2), which allows us to "test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect will." Getting God's mindset also enables us to rise above the madness we encounter as we live life, and equips us to think, feel and act as the conquerors Jesus has made us in Him (Romans 8:37).
- Reason to Live -- Regardless of circumstances, we have reason to live each day because we have a never-ending, one-on-one future with the One True God whose love for us has no equal! Praise be to God! And it's a love God requires us to give to others. As the Apostle John says:
"This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:9-12)
If we need reason to get enthused about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, let's start with His love and sacrifice for us and His constant presence, through the Holy Spirit, in the lives of those who know and love Him. Let His love for us inspire us to love Him, seek Him, praise Him, thank Him and serve Him with gusto!
"Praise the Lord.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
His praise in the assembly of the saints,
Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
Let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
Let them praise His name with dancing
And make music to Him with tambourine and harp.
For the Lord takes delight in His people;
He crowns the humble with salvation." (Psalm 149:1-4)
by Ann Pinkney
