New Life that Starts Today
“What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.”
1 Peter 1:3-5, The Message
What have you woken up thinking about today? What’s on your to-do list? What habit do you wish you could finally break? Which relationship do you most want to change? What challenge are you facing at work that seems insurmountable? Which situation in your life do you wish you could fix with a wand and an 'abracadabra?'
Two-thousand years ago, some women headed to embalm the body of their beloved rabbi, teacher and lord. When they arrived, they found an empty tomb. Soon they discovered what we take for granted in our worship: Jesus was no longer dead. He was not resuscitated. He did not receive divine CPR. He succumbed to the fullness of death and yet, by the glorious power of God, death could not hold Him and He was resurrected to a new body–a glimpse of the world yet to come, a defeat of all that opposes God, the means by which all new life occurs.
What happened 2,000 years ago has direct relevance to your life today.
It would be unbelievable that something so old has such relevance if it weren’t a world-altering event that has changed the very way in which we approach the throne of God. (i.e. We can now approach the throne and we can do so with confidence!) Jesus was raised from the dead. Evil did not win. Death did not win. Hell couldn’t hold Him. The Devil got outplayed.
Jesus is risen. He is not in a tomb. The end of the story is not despair. The end of the story is the beginning of ours: new life. Life born through the acceptance that so much is scary, sinful and irretrievably broken, and yet also born through believing that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection the power of evil is overcome. A new creation is coming; the kingdom is on its way. And it begins today.
How would your day today look different if the reality of the resurrection of Jesus was written into your DNA? If you knew through and through that there is nothing in this world that can have power over us? What could you finally leave behind? Where would you step out in faith to do something differently and new and holy? Take that risk of faith today. Invite Him in. “Come, Lord.” (1 Cor 16:22) Listen to the Spirit. Step out. Believe. He is risen.
