Tag Archives: Resurrection

Embrace Life

I am not a God of the dead but of the living. Stop looking in the past and look ahead to what lies before you. I am not in the tomb. I am the resurrection and the life. An abundant life is available to all who believe. No longer hold on to fear and unbelief. Step out in faith. Embrace the life I freely give. Rest assured that I have conquered death and it no longer has power. Take up your shield of faith, wield the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Be strong in the power of My strength. I am with you and I am for you. 

No Separation from God

Jesus took the punishment for our sin upon Himself, as a result freeing us from its inevitable consequence—separation from God. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Redeemer, a secure union is established with God. And since we have now been joined to Him by means of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we share in all the benefits that Jesus Himself experienced in His resurrection.(Romans 6:5)

The death and resurrection of Christ as it relates to our own death and life in Him is a constantly recurring theme throughout these chapters of Romans. Time and again he brings this issue to the forefront, because Paul knows that understanding this principle is absolutely vital to our spiritual progress.

At the very heart of this truth is the fact that freedom from the power of sin—our death to sin—is guaranteed by our death to law through Christ’s bodily death and resurrection.(Romans 6:14)

Thinking back to Paul’s example in the first few verses of Romans 7 of a married woman, one might say that Jesus was both the old husband (coming in the form of
sinful flesh, dying for sin to free from law), and the new husband (resurrected
to life in God, never to die again). Freedom is now the absolute reality of our
life in Christ because we are no longer bound by what Paul calls, “the law of sin and death.”(Romans 8:2)

 

Glorified Bodies

Here’s what Paul tells us about the destiny for the physical body for those who are in Christ: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”(1 Corinthians 15:42-44)

Thus the destiny of our threefold being is to be transformed into some sort of spiritual being—don’t ask me just what, but no doubt something much like Jesus became upon His resurrection.(1 John 3:2) My point is this: our ultimate destiny is not simply to throw off the baggage of our physical body when going to be with the Lord, but a melding of the elements of our nature into a glorified being who retains the original stamp of humanity.

Our body is to be transformed into that which is capable of enjoying a full and eternal union with our Creator.(Philippians 3:21) Our spirit is the starting place of that union here and now.(Revelation 3:20: “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with Me”.)