Meditations on the Mountain

Almost everyone loves Easter, and why not?  The beautiful season of spring is upon us.  New life is everywhere evident.  Flora and fauna are actively growing and awing us with their beauty.  However, Easter is not just about bunnies and colored eggs.  Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  For three days, the absolutely dead body of Jesus, Lord at birth and death, lay in a cold tomb.  With power and authority Jesus conquered death and rose alive from the grave, securing the reality that humans too can conquer death with the power of God on their side.    The resurrection of Jesus is not a myth nor was it a complicated conspiracy theory perpetrated by the disciples.  To deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is to deny the Bible and God.  Only a fool would deny God (Psalm 14:1 "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God").  The miracle of Jesus resurrection is a cause to worship Him as the Almighty God, but it is also a cause to serve Him as the Worthy Savior.    Colossians 3:1 says, "If ye then [since] be risen with Christ"  The dynamic of this verse is found back in Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ."  To understand the motivation of the resurrection of Christ we must understand that when a person turns from sin and his own way and turns to Christ to accept his free gift of salvation, he (sinful nature) is crucified with Jesus; and he is now dead to that old way of living. This means that he begins a process of growing in Christ.  But that process is not only possible because of the death of Christ corresponding to the death of our old sinful self, but the resurrection of Christ that corresponds to a "resurrected" life in him.  He kills the old nature on the cross and raises us to live a new life in him.  He gives us a fresh start just like the beauty of springtime.  Galatians 2:20 says that he is crucified (dead) with Christ, but just as Christ rose and is alive "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."  So what now?  Colossians 3:1 says that since we have been raised with Christ (given a new life) to seek those things above (things of God).  We are told then to set our attention and affection on the things of God.  The resurrection means that since Christ conquered sin on the cross and death at the resurrection, he has enabled and empowered his children to seek the things of God.