Resurrection Sunday

Resurrection Sunday, Easter, marks the turning point in human history.  That point is also the bedrock event of the Christian faith, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17)  There is no event of the ancient world better attested than the resurrection of Christ.

Christ’s resurrection shows Him as the Righteous One by whom God will judge the world. (Acts 17:31)  Therefore His resurrection has ultimate consequences for mankind.  The good news we Christians celebrate is that His sacrifice on the cross satisfied God’s justified condemnation and wrath against us for our sin. 

We celebrate as a convicted criminal condemned to death but ransomed by another, Jesus, who volunteered and was executed in our place.  We celebrate His promise to acknowledge us before the Father and the angels in the future final judgment because we acknowledge Him with our born-again lifestyle.

The resurrection of Jesus guarantees our fabulous future in this life and the one to come.  The resurrection opened the door to a personal relationship with our Creator for which we were designed, and a life growing into the fullness of His Image, the image of Christ.

We have the opportunity to be a credit to God’s Kingdom as we serve His creation, as vessels of mercy through whom Christ wills to open the eyes and give real life to this self-centered, self-destructive culture.  We have the opportunity to challenge the prevailing major values of physical peace and fiscal prosperity.

The resurrection we celebrate is the supernatural event that flies in the face of our secular myth that the natural material world is all it takes to produce beauty, meaning and love.

Bruce Davis   2006

Excerpted from an article in ‘Praxis’, a prison publication.