If Jesus did not raise from the dead then we have no power to transform our lives. We are likely familiar with Romans 7, verses 15-20 that say,
I do not understand my own actions. For I
do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . . I have the desire
to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Too often we
talk as though that is the normal Christian life. We want to do the right thing,
but we just can’t. But that’s not the normal Christian life. That is the
experience of the individual who is trying to gain God’s favor in the flesh.
But the Christian, the believer in Jesus Christ is no longer in the flesh, but
in the Spirit. Galatians 2:20 says that we were crucified with Christ. Romans 6:3-4
says that those who have been baptized into Christ were buried with him. Not
only was he crucified for us, but we were crucified with him. We were buried
with him, and Romans 6:4 goes on to say that we were raised with him to new
life. Verse 8 says that, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him, and verse 11 says that we “also must consider [ourselves]
to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
As believers in Jesus Christ, the resurrection assures us not
only a place in Heaven, but eternal life right now. It assures us of the power
and ability to live a life that pleases God. Philippians 2:13 says that “it is
God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” By the
Spirit, we are equipped and empowered to live in holiness. We have to stop
thinking of ourselves only as forgiven sinners. As believers in Jesus Christ, we
are saints, holy ones. We have been gifted not only with the desire to do what
is right, but the power to do what is right. We need to believe it.
My first car was a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle. I used to drive it
like a four-wheel-drive. In the Spring we would go looking for the muddiest
roads we could find. If we got stuck, we all got out and lifted it out of the
mud. But one day we got on a road that was being rebuilt. It was all mud, deep
mud. The farther we went the slower we went, and I had no idea how far the road
went. There was no place to get off the road, no turn-a-round. And there was no
picking it up and moving it to a dry spot. It was all mud. The farther we went
the slower we got, and it was at the point where I thought that we weren’t
going to make it any farther. It was about to stall. I was ready to give up,
and then we would be really stuck. But as I reached for the clutch, I realized
that I had one more gear. I was in second, and thought I was in first. I
dropped it into first gear and we just kept going until we found another road.
I would have stopped and been stuck if I hadn’t realized that I had more power.
The same is true for us as believers. How often have we given
into sin because we didn’t think we could help ourselves? How often have we
failed to live in holiness because it was just too hard, or because we’re just
sinners after all? But that is the lie. The resurrection is not only true, it
not only assures us of life after this life, but it is the power of God in our
lives. It is the thing that empowers us. It is in the resurrection that we have
life here and now to live in holiness and purity. At the cross all of our brokenness
was taken. In the resurrection we are made new creations in Christ. The
frustration and failure of Romans 7, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil
I do not want is what I keep on doing,” that failure is replaced by the victory
of Philippians 2:13, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for
his good pleasure.” The problem is that we don’t believe it. Like my old
Beetle, we think we have to give in to the mud, when in reality there is power
that we have never even accessed. All we need to do is believe it.
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