Dear Friends and Family in the Lord,
This coming Sunday we will be celebrating Easter, known to some as “Resurrection Sunday,” when hearts and minds focus on the One Who the Father raised from the dead and exalted to majesty on high. With much celebration and rejoicing, hearts exalt that “He is Risen.” Yet, the risen Son does not just live in heaven… He lives in His body. How does He live in us, His body? He does it by death and resurrection. His atoning death on the Cross was once and for all, but the life cycle of the Lamb continues, because it is not what He does but who He is. This is the eternal spirit. It is God’s self-giving nature. This nature in the man Jesus is why the Father raised His Son from the dead according to Philippians chapter 2, and God wants this same mind to be in us now, for we are His Body. Filled with His Life together, we will manifest His selfless nature and love to one another, and the world we see the One that the Father raised is alive in us!
There are many beautiful Easter cards that can be sent, but none so beautiful as the Living epistle of Christ’s own Body shining Him forth in spirit and nature. Dear Ones… we are His Body together, and He is our Life. As we come back together after a season of separation and sheltering in place, we rejoice in more than just being able to see one another again. We rejoice in a new season of being able to function together as His Body, and love one another with His love. During our times apart, we ate the Lamb and sought for His increase and our decrease. And now we come together as His with much joy and love.
I have shared this recently, but I desire to share it again from my heart… “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” (I Thessalonians 2:19-20)
Yours in Him,
Randy
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Many think that the cycle of Christian life is one of blessing or cursing. That is the Law (Deuteronomy 28). The cycle of the Christian life is one of death and resurrection. For many, it may seem to be one of sinning (which is getting on the wrong path) to coming back to God (which is getting on the right path). But the Father’s view was “this my son was dead, but now is alive” (Luke 15:24).
Paul recognized this pattern in 2nd Corinthians 1, where his hope for getting out of the bad situation was found in "God who raiseth the dead" (1:9). This was the same for Noah. His hope was not in God reproving everyone and showing that Noah was a righteous man. It was not in blessing his life in this crooked and perverse place. His hope was in a death that took him away (out of that realm) to above.
“Gave Himself through the Eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14)
He does not just live in heaven; He lives in His body. How does He live in us? He does it by death and resurrection. The atoning death was once and for all, but the life cycle of the Lamb continues, because it is not what He does, but who He is. This is the Eternal Spirit. It is a self-giving nature.
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John 12:24 shows that Jesus’ death was not for sin alone; it was a pattern for all those who would be saved by it. See the death, get saved, and then walk in the death for others. A paradox begins to happen. His death was so we might live but then our death to self is so that He might live in us ("not I but Christ" - Galatians 2:20).
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Cycle of Death and Life
A corn of wheat is the key to life and fruitfulness. The corn of wheat wants to break forth with abundance, but it must first discover God’s method of doing so -- it is death to life and fruitfulness. Even if He brings forth fruit (many seeds like itself), each seed must make the discovery of the Cross as God’s chosen method. Many seeds will go on to become part of a glorious loaf that pleases and satisfies the Master at His table, but a few will die alone to produce more after its kind.
Colossians 3:1-4 tells us that we are already dead and risen and that we should take that position as an accomplished fact. We are not required to die. But in the rest of those verses, we are told to mortify (put to death) specific actions and attitudes. If all was accomplished at the Cross and settled then there would be no present application except to believe that all such attitudes were crucified already.
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Cycle of Death and Resurrection
Phillips Translation -- “Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so THAT we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours.”
Here we see that death and resurrection of Christ are not just past events concerning deep truths. It relates to the here and now and how we live our lives. Our daily lives are to be a flow of His death and resurrection. This is also seen in 2nd Corinthains 1, where we had the sentence of death in us, that we trust in God who raises the dead. Dying is related to how we deal with those things – by nature of Christ = resurrection. To Paul, for the character of the Lamb to come through him IS RESURRECTION. Before you experience “the power of HIS resurrection" as life within, you must experience a personal Calvary. Like Paul cried out in Philippians 3:10, may we also cry out to experientially know Him in the power of His resurrection, which includes fellowshipping with Him in His sufferings and being made conformable to His death. Amen.
