The Good
News of Easter is that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we may not only
live the abundant life in the here and now but to move on to an eternal life
when we die. We are spiritually dead when we live our lives only in the
dimension of the space and time of our earthly lives. We live in fear of death
when we have not come to terms with the reality of evil and God’s judgment against
sin and evil. We live in denial of old age, pain and suffering when we put our
hope in modern medicine and worship the idols of wealth, health and longevity.
The Greeks
worshipped an “unknown God” as they sought to find the true meaning of life and
death. Philosophy was seen as a way of training for dying to reduce their fear
of death. St Paul reminded them that God has set a day for judging the world
with justice by Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. (Acts 17:31)
We need to understand,
appreciate and gratefully respond to God’s amazing gift of grace through Jesus
Christ so that we can be delivered from the deadly existence of a worldly life
to the deathless existence of a life in and with Christ. To do so, we need to
face the reality of God’s judgment against sin and evil. It is strange that
human beings demand justice for crimes committed against them but are unable to
accept God’s judgment against the evil powers and principalities of the
spiritual realm. But when we are able to do so we have the blessed assurance
that God will be our hiding place at such a time:
“For You are
my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of
victory.” (Psalm 32:7)
The writer
of an Upper Room devotional on 14th April 2013 made the very
important observation that “the resurrection is not another ancient story with
a good moral to be remembered on Easter Sunday. The resurrection is the reality
that sustains our faith and anchors our reasoning.”
Faith is not
just believing in God for even demons believe and tremble with fear (James
2:19). Faith is the commitment to live our lives centered on God with Jesus
Christ as Lord of our lives. This is not something that we do with our human
effort but a gift of grace that we receive from God when we empty our hearts of
all that is not of God.
We will
always be tempted to use God’s blessings for our personal gain. There is
nothing wrong with enjoying what God has given us – the problem is when these
blessings become idols in our hearts and draw us away from what God wants to do
in our lives. We need to practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer to wait
on God and biblical meditation for God’s revelation of His love and grace in
Jesus Christ.
To be in the
world but not to be of the world does not mean that we will not have problems
and tribulations. When our focus is on Christ and on Christ alone, even when
things seem so wrong, we can be sure that God is in control and that He will
lead us to be in the right place and to do the right thing at the right time. We
will not see our problems as God’s punishment but as God’s training and
equipping us for the tasks He has planned for us. The bible is full of stories
of extraordinary things happening to extraordinary people with extraordinary
destinies.
When we are
tempted to worry, or to doubt or to fear, we can turn to the cross and remember
that God holds all our tomorrows. When we are sick, in pain or suffering, we
can call upon the name of our Lord and remember that by His stripes we are healed.
When we have been hurt by others, we can remember that Jesus has borne our
hurts on the cross so that we can forgive in the power of His grace and remembering that God alone has the right to take revenge (Romans 12:19)
Let us
encourage one another to live lives of victories by sharing the Presence of the
Living Christ through the problems we face in our lives. This is the gospel of
God's amazing grace that should move us to sing songs of victory such as:
We
acclaim Your life, O Jesus,
Now
we sing Your victory;
Sin
or hell may seek to seize us
But
Your conquest keeps us free.
Stand
in triumph, stand in triumph,
Worship
Christ, the Risen King!
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