I have died over and over. I have died to my dreams, my own will, and my expectations. Circumstances highlight my own brokenness and all the ways I need to change and grow. So once again I get to acknowledge that it isn’t about me. But at some point I ask myself, when do I get to live?
If you have said yes to Jesus, you know that the transformative life He offers is so contrary to the experience we have of ourselves. We discover that despite ourselves, God still loves us and offers us hope. But in the journey of following Jesus, we also become very aware of the need of what Paul wrote:
Put away the old person you used to be. Have nothing to do with your old sinful life. It was sinful because of being fooled into following bad desires. Let your minds and hearts be made new. You must become a new person and be God-like. Then you will be made right with God and have a true holy life. – Ephesians 4:22-24
Wow that seems so much easier said than done! We become aware that sometimes we are our worst enemies. The task seems so much like an uphill climb that is seemingly impossible given our circumstances. But the promise isn’t just to die to our old ways but to live in a new life:
I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20
The promise is for life, not for death. Death is the means to which we open ourselves to His life in and through us. We can focus so much on change, growth, becoming a better person, and denial of ourselves that we miss the real point. If we miss the point of resurrection life, dying doesn’t make much sense. We have been given power not to overcome the old self, but the power to live in the freedom of the new.
By now, some of my readers are rejoicing while others are perplexed. This life feels much more like dying than living in all of the promises of God. Just like my professor in seminary said, “We come to a point where we begin to ask ourselves, where are these streams of living water that Jesus talked about?” The experience of following Jesus at times can feel like a false hope of resurrection life.
It much easier to work on what we can control than to give up control. However, dying without the promise of life is merely asceticism. The problem is that life is not something we can produce. We must walk in trust and faith that life is our inheritance.
It is easier for us to embrace the death of Jesus on our behalf on Good Friday while acknowledging the resurrection on Sunday as an afterthought. Sure, Jesus rose again. But we often see that as the confirmation of Jesus’ accomplishment for us on Friday instead of what is promised for Monday. Simply, the crucifixion without the resurrection is just another death penalty by the Romans.
If the statement of sacrifice which occurred on Good Friday really is the determining word over our lives, then we have been invited to let go of the life that defined us prior to Friday in order to now embrace Sunday as our starting point. This also means that the path to resurrection life is through the necessary death of Friday.
This week offers us the opportunity not just to reflect on the death of Jesus for us, but His continual invitation for us to step into the new life that is our inheritance. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” – Jesus.
How do we embrace this life that is offered to us? Through death we come to relationally know the God of life. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. – John 17:3. It is in this truth that we find that we are not alone and we find the life giving power that has conquered death itself.
The resurrection life means we are walking embodiments of this life. The life I now live I get to walk in the life that resurrects death in my life. So I return to my perception that I have to die over and over, and I am reminded that I get to embrace life over and over.
This is what the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday means.