At Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. All around the world, Christians gather to remember, record, and recount the story of Jesus’ death, the empty tomb, and his coming back to life again.
It is a glorious story with a more than relevant message to us all. What is that message? Here are seven ways the resurrection can change your life!
The culture watchers among us will have noticed that there is a growing appreciation for the importance and power of Christian morality, even from those who used to sneer at the Christians. Tom Holland’s book Dominion traces his journey of realization that it is the cross that is the bedrock of the values that our society holds so dear.
But the resurrection is not only a moral virtue it is a historical fact. One of the best reasons to see this is to ask yourself what else could have explained the sudden emergence of Christianity other than the resurrection of Jesus.
If Jesus did not rise again from the dead, then we would need to invent another similarly cataclysmic event to explain the impact of Christianity — indeed, another resurrection! The simplest explanation is the best: Jesus really did rise again from the dead.
It may seem to equate a miracle—the Miracle of Miracles—with science, but so it is. Far from being anti-science, the resurrection of the dead is the foundation of all modern science.
Science, as we know it, came about through a convergence of ideas in medieval and reformation European society, a confluence of ideas that had at its heart the worship of the Risen Jesus as Son of God.
No resurrection, no science, no Newton, no Pascal. Christians do not believe that the world lacks scientific order because they believe in the resurrection.
They believe that the world is an expression of the divine composer’s breathed-out word, and in his wisdom, he designed a special event that redeemed and rescued us from the dead.
We live in a time when people feel hopeless. Never has there been a greater mental health crisis, at least within living memory. Why is this? Many answers could be given, but at least one of them is that when people feel hopeless, they are being logical based on what they believe.
If you believe that death is all there is at the end, then it is logical to think that life is nothing more than the passing on of your genes and that your life is basically without meaning.
But the Resurrection gives meaning! Now, for those who believe, there is life abundant and eternal! Now what we do matters and matters forever!
The same power—amazing thought—that was at work in Jesus to raise him from the dead is at work in us who believe. Granted, we all also wrestle with the world, the flesh, and the devil.
We have our human nature, our sinful nature, that drags us down and against, which we fight daily. But we also have the power of God’s Spirit within us. And while the fight is long, and the foe is strong, because of Jesus’ victory, we shall win!
Sometimes it feels as if Christians are not sure what to say these days. Do you ever feel that? I know I do! The world has become so complicated, the problems so intractable, the options so many, that sometimes-prayerful silence is the better part of wisdom—certainly than vain pontificating in areas that we have little understanding or direct insight.
But while it is foolish to attempt to be an expert in every area, Christians do have a message for all seasons and for all circumstances. The Resurrection of Jesus changes everything.
It changes funerals. It changes suffering. It changes wars. It changes arguments—and trust gives us a new, greater perspective around which we might find commonality and peace with God.
Paul tells us that because of the resurrection, our labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). Whereas even the wisest parts of the Old Testament lived with a degree of uncertainty about the future, and whereas that unusual Book Ecclesiastes declared frequently that “under the sun” (that is with a this-world-only view of life) life is meaningless or in vain, Paul can now say our labor is not in vain.
For those of us who live on this side of the resurrection, and who have put our trust in Jesus, we know that our work for Jesus is not pointless. We now have something to work for!
Because of the Resurrection of Jesus, we who put our trust in him will one day, too, be raised. “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). “We shall not all sleep, but shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” What a glorious hope!
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Romolo Tavani