Resurrection is the key to wonderful life. But how does that work in my life?

1. Jesus the source of resurrected power

Jesus said,”I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” John 11:25. This isn’t reserved for our physical death at the end of our life or whenever we die. No. No. It has everything to do with our living right now.

May I ask you a question? How many Christians do you know living a day in and day out victorious life? Why is there such a disparity between what the Bible says and what we experience? Many of us just shrug our shoulders and do our best. We don’t want to quit being a Christian because that leads to hell. So we simply muddle through.

What if I can tell you the key to getting out of our struggles, our muddling, our failures? Let’s look to our savior for our pattern, to learn from Him. Could it be the answer is in His resurrection?

If we want to live a resurrected life we need to follow His footsteps. What did He tell His disciples in Luke 9:23? If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

2. Resurrection follows death

He said we need to follow Him. Where was He going? To the cross.

What did He say in the previous verse? The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

That is the one requirement for a resurrected life. A death must occur. Our death. We have to die? Good news! Paul told us in Romans 6 that it already happened.

3. Resurrected to a new life

Romans 6:3,4,13 Or do you not that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. And do not present your members(arms, legs, etc.) as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

All this is before we die a physical death. This is talking about a new life right now. When Jesus died, we died with Him. It remains for us to know this and then by faith to appropriate it to our lives. By faith we accept it as true and live accordingly. It is His life now living in us making us new.

What happened before the resurrection? Crucifixion. Yes, by proxy, we died in Jesus. He took it all. By faith, we make it true in our lives.

4. Resurrected life becomes ours by faith

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave HImself for me.

Now it is up to us to count it so, to believe it, and to receive it by faith. See ourselves as crucified, dead. When Jesus said to deny yourself, it wasn’t to deny yourself something like ice cream, chocolate, etc. No, it was to deny yourself. Turn from following you, to follow Him. See our former self as powerless, dead to us.

Don’t you feel sometimes like you, your emotions, your desires are leading you around by a leash? Jesus promised us an abundant life. However, that abundant life is only after we obey Him and His directions in denying our self, step out in faith and follow Him.

Remember, resurrection follows death. What a beautiful thing! What a freedom! What an amazing life!

Romans 6 Check out the first fourteen verses for more on this subject.

Colossians 3:1-3   If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

2 Corinthians 5:15, 17 …He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

All references from New King James Version

Father in heaven, You have provided so much for me. Thank You for the gift of salvation paid for by the death of Your son. I now see much more happened on that cross because You included each of us in that death. In my dying with Jesus, being buried with Him, and then being raised to a new life frees me from having to live this Christian life on my abilities. I now know it is no longer I that lives each day, every minute of each day, but Christ lives in me if I will let Him.

For further reading, you might like – Life on the Highest Plane There are 6 parts.