“Why do you look for
the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:5-6
If Christ has not
been raised, your faith is futile... 1 Corinthians 15:17
Since then you have
been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above... Colossians
3:1
The essence of the Christian
message is wonderfully simple; it is well summed up in the famous verse: “God
so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life (John 3:16). Grasp that, and you really know all you need to know.
But once you get in deeper
and start reflecting on all that follows, you soon discover that lots of
questions, puzzles and mysteries arise. There is plenty of scope for
disagreement with your fellow-Christians!
A few examples...
How should we understand
Genesis1-3 and the “six days” of creation?
Jumping to the other end of
time, how should we understand Christ’s return in glory, and ideas like the
“rapture” and the “millennium”? How literally should we take hell?
And the Holy Spirit. What exactly
is the “baptism” of the Spirit? Are the gifts of the Spirit, especially
“speaking in tongues”, for all Christians?
Or baptism in water. Should
babies be baptised, or only those who believe on their own account?
And war. Some Christians
believe pacifism is the only option, while others say that there may be times
when war, sadly, is necessary.
I could go on... the little
matter of predestination and free will... the right form of church
government...
I know fine Christian people
who disagree strongly on some of these topics with other equally fine
Christians. The vital thing is not to fall out with one another, but to listen
and to treat one another with respect. As long as we agree on the essentials,
that’s what matters.
Ah, but what are the
essentials?
Well, that’s a debate in itself, but what I’m leading up to is one essential
that is absolutely fundamental and completely non-negotiable: on the
first Easter Day Jesus Christ rose bodily from the tomb.
There are those who say that
the resurrection of Jesus was a “spiritual” rather than a literal event.
They might argue, for
example, that his disciples were so overwhelmed by the impact he made on them
that they simply couldn’t believe he was dead and gone. So they created the resurrection
stories as a way of telling the world that this extraordinary person was still
“alive” through his undying influence.
But teaching of this kind is
hopelessly sub-Christian. It tears the heart out of the authentic Christian
message. The bodily resurrection of Jesus is the event that brought the church
into being. Without it, there is no Christianity. This is the point of Paul’s
words I have quoted from 1 Corinthians 15.
The first followers of Jesus
were convinced that the tomb was empty on that glorious Easter morning, even though
the Romans had taken steps to prevent any suggestion of the body being taken
away.
And they were convinced also
that they had met him - not as some ghost or spook, not a vision or apparition,
but as a solid person with a real body, albeit one transformed by the power of
God. He was the same - yet different.
Or, if you like, he was different - yet the same. He had a new kind of body for a whole new dimension of existence. (And
so will we!)
Not, of course, that anyone
can prove the truth of these claims. It is a matter of faith. But that faith is
based on good evidence, evidence which can easily be found in many books, both
scholarly and popular, which anyone interested can look at.
But what really strikes me today
is that statement of Paul from the third quote.
He says to his friends in the
church of Colosse: “Since then you have been raised with Christ...”
Now, that needs a bit of
digesting! Paul is saying that believers in Jesus have actually
participated in Christ’s resurrection: they
“have been” (note, not “will be”!) “raised with him”.
The point is this: if Jesus
had simply risen from the dead, that would indeed be a truly wonderful and amazing
thing. But we might then be tempted to say, “Well, great for him!” - just as we
are always glad for people to whom something good happens, like landing a plum
job, or having a baby, or passing an important exam: “Great! I’m really pleased
for them!”
But Paul wants us to know
that through faith in Jesus his resurrection is also ours; yes, we enter into resurrection life right here and
now. All right, we have to wait a bit
yet for that resurrection life to be fully enjoyed; but, make no mistake, it is
ours, this very day.
Can you say, like the
Christians of Colosse, “Yes, I have been raised with Christ!”? I very much hope
so. This, and this alone, is true Christian faith.
Lord God, thank you
for including me in the resurrection of Jesus. Help me, by your grace, to live
worthily of this wonderful status. Amen.
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