Post-Resurrection Realities

We have recently relived our Lord’s sufferings and sorrow as He walked the dark side of Calvary. We were sustained because we knew “Sunday is coming!” Leaving the shadows of Calvary behind, Resurrection Sunday brought the light of the risen Son of God, and we profoundly rejoiced because “He is risen, indeed!”

Our Lord’s death on the Cross of Calvary and burial in the borrowed tomb are the means of our forgiveness and justification in God’s sight. However, it was His resurrection from the dead that proves Father God accepted these holy, vicarious acts as sufficient for our complete redemption! Jesus was “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)!

A New Reality

The New Testament book of Hebrews explains that the animal sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year did not make the Old Testament worshipers perfect and complete before Father God (Heb. 10:1). Rather, these sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Vv. 2-4).

“Born-again” believers are no longer guilty sinners in God’s sight. Instead, we have received a new reality and are forgiven sinners because of our faith in Christ’s finished work on the Cross. We are now hidden with Christ in God, and we should set our minds on heavenly things, not on earthly things. Furthermore, when Christ, our source of life and reality, appears at His Second Coming, we will also appear with Him. 

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (Colossians 3:1-4; NLT)

Holy Living

Paul explained to the Corinthians that born-again believers are not the same anymore. A new life in Christ has begun (2 Cor. 5:17). The old life, with its sinful, natural cravings, must be put off in exchange for the spiritual desires of our new life and nature.

Paul gave the Galatian believers a relatively comprehensive list of the disgusting results our earthly nature produces:

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21; NLT).

He went on to identify the kind of holy living maturing disciples of Christ will live as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to control our lives more and more. Nailing our passions and desires to Christ’s cross and crucifying them there, we will experience our new nature and increasingly evidence the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-24).

A Living Sacrifice

Paul made his appeal for holy living extremely practical to Roman believers when he simply said in Romans 12, give your bodies to God. He continued: Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?

He further directed them: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is (Romans 12:1-2; NLT).

This kind of sacrificial living will mold us into strong, bold overcomers who patiently endure persecution in the end times, firmly obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus Christ our Savior, Lord, and Coming King (Revelation 14:12)!

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