You Will Rise Again

As a kid growing up in church, I heard the following words repeated over the years, “The finished work of the Cross”. I often wondered what those words meant. I have now come to understand their meaning.

Jesus went as far as possible in His obedience as the Second Adam, even “unto death” on the Cross and then entrusted Himself to the Father who had made a promise to raise Jesus from the dead. Jesus could not do the resurrecting. He was dead.

Like Jesus, none of us are able to self-resurrect. Resurrection is a task left solely in the hands of God. If you feel like you are dying for a God-cause in your life let that death have its way with you. Don’t struggle to survive. Survival is a lesser form of life than a life of resurrection. You are not called to be a survivor in your own strength and let human determination be your badge of achievement. You have been called to be a living advertisement of a resurrected life revealing to the world someone who has been called out from places of death – dead thinking, dead ways of living and death-producing theologies.

There is coming a moment in your future when the things that have held you in a grip of death will hear the command of God’s voice demanding your release. When you come out of this experience you will carry a testimony of resurrection life.  That testimony will give others the hope that a resurrection is possible in their future if they are willing to follow Jesus to their personal Cross.

Death and resurrection is not a one-time event lost in history. The life of Jesus released a chain reaction of death and resurrection experiences for all who would follow Him. Death and resurrection is the process of a life lived in the Spirit. Embrace it and walk in its power and no grave will ever again be seen as a place of fear.