Living the Resurrection Life: Why Every Day is Easter to the Believer. The majority of Christians observe Easter every year.

Living the Resurrection Life: Why Every Day is Easter to the Believer.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

The majority of Christians observe Easter every year.

They appear at a crowded service in the church, sing the joyful hymns, listen to the old words - he is risen - and get the very real uplifting of one of the great events of the Christian year. And then Monday comes.

What would happen in case the resurrection of Jesus is not a historical moment, something to remember once a year, but the key note of every day of the life of a believer? Suppose Easter is not something on a Sunday in spring. But the constant state of every one who is a member of the in risen Christ? 

It is not a creative reframing. The actual claim of the New Testament. In the Bible, we see that the believers did not meet once a year for Easter celebration, however they gathered every Sunday because they believed that every Sunday is Easter. They met once a week, every Sunday, since every Sunday was resurrection day. They were living as individuals who death had been crushed, not as something they looked forward to in the future but as something that was present and functional and transformed everything about how they perceived themselves, the manner in which they treated others, the manner in which they coped with pain, and what they were ultimately not afraid of.

It is an article about reclaiming that vision, not merely believing that the resurrection has occurred, but learning to live as though it continues, as though it is now, in your everyday and irreplaceable life.

What Did the Resurrection of Jesus Actually Change?

Why the Resurrection Is the Basic Foundation for every Christian’s faith?

Before diving into want the Resurrection actually means it is better to understand what the resurrection really is and why it matters.

The resurrection of Jesus cannot be a the base of spiritual renewal. This is not a poetic manner of saying that his memory still lives or that his teachings still have an effect on people. It is a claim that is specific, physical and historical; that the same Jesus who was crucified on a Friday and buried in an sealed tomb, walked out of that tomb on a Sunday morning in a new but truly physical body. Was seen by hundreds of people, ate, had conversations with them, and ascended in the presence of his disciples.

Paul realized the consequences of such an assertion perfectly well. In 1 Corinthians 15 he is very direct: and without Christ being raised up, your faith is in vain and ye are still in your sins. Resurrection is not a comforting belief among others that he is offering. By this, he means that unless the resurrection occurred, then Christianity is not merely incomplete it is a lie and all who have believed in it have been misled.

However, afterward he flips the coin. Due to the fact that Christ has been raised - and Paul writes as a witness who personally witnessed the resurrected Christ at the Damascus road - everything changes. Death is gulp-downed in victory. The force that had all human beings as its prisoners is destroyed. The future that was inevitable has been rewritten. And the life that streams out of the risen Christ is not only in eternity but in the present tense it is available to all who are belonging to him.

That is the basis. Not a belief about the past only. An operative of power, in the present. It is at that difference that the resurrection life starts.

What Does it Mean to be a Resurrection People?

How the Early Church Knew and Lived the Risen Life.

The earliest Christians perceived themselves in a manner which is really hard to regain among modern believers in fullness of meaning, since the culture of Christendom has made Christianity so commonplace that its radical claims have lost much of their original sting.

The first believers were not people who had adopted a new religion. They were individuals who had experienced the risen Jesus either directly or indirectly, through the witness of those who had, and whose whole sense of reality had been restructured around that experience. They were not commemorating a dead teacher. they had a current, living, reigning Lord to whom they were in relationship, and who had vowed never to abandon them until the end of this age.

The result of that belief was a community that was completely puzzling to the world around it. They shared possessions with each other. They were hospitable to strangers and nurturing of the poor. They were persecuted and executed without the terror, which death ordinarily creates, simply because they were truly convinced that death had been defeated.

They celebrated on Sunday, the day that the resurrection took place. It was not a random weekly event. It was a weekly statement. Every Sunday was a celebration. Every gathering of believers was a testimony that the tomb is empty, that Jesus is alive, and that the life he had offered was still available to anyone who came to him.

It was the weekly rhythm of the early church doing what is being described in this article of returning all Christians to the place of living as resurrection people not just on one great Sunday in the spring, but on all the days of the week.

How Does Resurrection Life Work?

The Implication of Reality of the Risen Christ on the Daily Life.

This is where the theology must come down in something real. Since a resurrection faith that leaves Monday morning the same is not a resurrection faith. It is merely a belief system that is meaningful on Sundays.

It alters your attitude towards fear. In the whole Bible, the one most repeated command is the one that has a variant of do not be afraid. This command is in itself absurd unless there is something to fear besides positive thinking or favourable conditions. That reason is the resurrection. It has met and conquered the worst thing that can befall a human being death. That does not make difficulty disappear. It does imply that the final result is safe and that safety is the basis of a boldness that is independent of the situations being amenable.

It transforms your approach to failure and shame. The resurrection is the final statement that failure does not have the final word. Those who were scattered on the night of the arrest in fear, those who denied and deserted Jesus at the time of need, were the very men and women to whom the risen Jesus had turned, and restored and despatched into the world. Three times Peter, who denied Jesus, was questioned by the risen Christ: do you love me? Eternal life did not only turn back death but also shame. Such a turning around can be given to all believers who bear the burden of their own failures.

It changes the grieving stage. Paul does not instruct the us not to mourn. He says do not mourn like we are hopeless. Grief is real. Loss is real. The resurrection never downplay either of those things- Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus even knowing what he was about to do. But the hope of resurrection moulds sorrow otherwise. It is a matter of loss and confidence that is unique and truly unlike the way the world around handles death.

It transforms your treatment of your body and time. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is of the opinion that the body is important since it will be raised. God does not regard the physical as insignificant. He created it, he had it in the incarnation and he will redeem it in the ultimate resurrection. It refers to the way you treat your body, the way you spend your time, the way you interact with the surrounding material world all of it is invested with something truly meaningful. The faith of resurrection is no escapism. It is very this-world involvement since the very world that God created is the same world he is saving.

What Does It Mean to Live the Resurrection Life Every Day?

Practicable Studies that make the Reality of the Risen Christ Lively in Everyday Life.

It is one thing to know the theology of resurrection. Living it is another. Such disciplines are practical ones that fill that gap.

Begin every morning with a resurrection declaration. Prior to the to-do list, prior to the phone, prior to the news - spend sixty seconds admitting that you are starting this day a person who belongs to the risen Jesus. This does not need to be elaborate. It can be as easy as uttering the words: Jesus is alive. Death is conquered. I am one of those that overcame the grave. This is my day. That deliberate disposition in the beginning of the day is no magic. It is the habit of introducing your theology to conscious touch with your everyday experience. In addition, it alters the feel of the day that follows.

Practice resurrection-shaped forgiveness. The ability to forgive without looking back to the past is one of the manifestations of resurrection life in our spiritual life. The resurrected Jesus did not meet his disciples and point out their mistakes. He received them in peace. To live the resurrection life is to make that same disposition to the people who have failed you not because they merit it, but because you have been forgiven through the same grace you are being called upon to offer.

Let Sunday mean something again. Restoring to the early church the meaning of the Sunday worship as a weekly celebration of resurrection and not a compulsion of religious practice is a different thing altogether. The attendance church on Sunday is not duty maintenance. It is gathering with a group of resurrection people, testifying week after week, that the tomb is empty and the Lord is still alive. Giving that awareness to Sunday worship changes the way it is given and received.

Read resurrection passages regularly and deliberately. John 20 and 21. Luke 24. Matthew 28. Acts 2. Romans 6. Corinthians. Revelation 1. These are books that reading slowly and prayerfully, and with regularity, do something to the one who reads them. They re-tune the imagination. They remind the believer of what really is the case in his or her situation, not what happens to seem true at this or that moment, but what is truly and irrevocably true in the light of what occurred on that first Easter Sunday.

What Does Resurrection Hope Do to Your Approach to Suffering?

What the Risen Christ Has to Say to the Part of your life That Still Feels Like Death.

This could be the greatest question of the whole article -since the resurrection, life is not a guarantee that all will be well. The New Testament is very frank about that. In the Bible, Paul tells the believers clearly: beatings, jails, hunger, peril, weariness. He is not writing at a pleasant distance about suffering. He is writing from inside it.

And yet he speaks of his condition as short and sweet afflictions that in us attain an everlasting glory, which, in comparison with them, are nothing. The extraordinary reframing is not refutation. It is not the positivity culture in theological terms. It is a man who truly believes the ratio has been altered by the resurrection, that which is temporary and painful, though real and though heavy, is being over-compensated by that which the resurrection has made certain and permanent.

That is not a view that comes naturally. It is developed, - by the prayer, by the Scripture, by community, by the ordinary, conscious exercise of introducing the truth of resurrection into contact with the present suffering. Every believer still has portions that they consider Good Friday in their lives. Dark seasons. Unresolved grief. Persistent struggle. Unanswered prayer. Situations that are yet to be resolved into anything that resembles Easter morning.

Resurrection faith does not claim that such seasons do not exist. It keeps them captured within a bigger narrative, a narrative where the final book has already been penned, where the one who died has now lived forever, and whereby every Friday however black it might be is now always succeeded by a Sunday.

FAQs

Q: Does the resurrection life require you to live a happy and positive life always? No. The New Testament is replete with wailing, sorrow, sincere effort and uncivilized prayer. Hope of resurrection and true suffering go hand in hand all through Scripture. It does not mean that there is no pain but that there is a hope after pain.

Q: What makes the resurrection a daily reality and not just a random historical fact? The above practices of morning orientation, Scripture engagement, prayer, worship, and forgiveness are regular and intentional, thus, the practices outlined above provide a channel through which the Holy Spirit and people connect. Life after death is an art rather than an emotion. The emotion is more of an outcome of the practice as opposed to the vice versa.

Q: What is resurrection life when I am experiencing true grief or loss? It appears to be honest grief and real hope produces something strong. Faith in resurrection does not pass over grief. It follows it to what grief can never attain.

Q: Is the resurrection something I should talk about with non-Christians? Nay, and with true assurance. The greatest and most attested assertion in the center of the Christian belief is the resurrection. It is good to know well enough to talk winsomely and frankly to anyone who inquires what hope you bear.

Q: What is the impact of the resurrection life on how I perceive my work and day-to-day duties? It commits to them a spirit of seriousness. Since the body and the material world will be redeemed and not disposed of, the labor you put in and on the world counts. Nothing is devoted in vain to the Lord and the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, that he places immediately after his great resurrection chapter, are not accidental.

Summary: The Tomb Is Still Empty — Live Like It.

Easter happened. That is not in question for the Christian. The tomb is empty. The ascended Jesus is alive. Death has been conquered and its authority over all people who belong to Christ has been broken conclusively.

However, Easter is not merely something that has taken place. It is a fact that still remains present, here, today, in your real life with all its mundane demands and unsettled conflicts and day-to-day choices that seem a long way off and far away, something as dramatic as an empty tomb.

The beckoning of the resurrection life is not to feel dramatically different each morning. It is to make each morning circle about that which is forever and irrevocably true, that the one to whom you are joined came out of a grave, that his life is presently yours in the present tense, and that the force which did that is the same force which is acting in you at this moment.

You do not need to wait until Easter Sunday to live like a resurrection person.

It was also on a Monday when the tomb was empty.

 

                                                                        Written by Heritier Cyuzuzo

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