Resurrection Life part 1
I'm stuck on this idea of life. So, as my pastor once taught me, I'm just going to preach it until I'm empty on it. In our last Rant series I spent some time trying to look at the difference between life and death. That difference, of course, being love. No love... no life. Know love... know life! So for the next few days I really want to focus on the difference between "life" as we know it and have accepted it... and resurrection life. To me there's a huge difference between simply living and truly being alive. The difference between struggling through the day as we go through the motions and experiencing the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. The life (one more time) of love that is the gift of God! Look at John 11:25, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." This, to me, is a big one. An important one. Notice that Jesus said "I AM the resurrection and the life." That's an "I am" statement, which is incredibly powerful in the Scripture anyway, but it is also in the present tense. He didn't say, "I am going to be the resurrection." He came, in a nutshell, so that we could have life, and have it more abundantly. So that we could experience His life as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. The life that our heavenly Father always wanted for us... is available to us. Jesus gave it to us. He gave His life for us, yes, and there is a lot that could be said there. But for this Rant series I want to focus on the glorious truth that He gave His life TO us. See, a lot of people say, "Jesus died so that you could live." And that's not exactly true. Jesus died... so you could die. Look at Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified wtih Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." See, when Jesus died... we died. That was the second death. The death OF death. And if we're talking about the difference between "life" and Resurrection Life... that's it. From the time Adam ate of the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) we, as a human race, were dead men (and women) walking. We were, like I said, just going through the motions. "Living" but not fully alive. "Life" but not abundant life. And what makes the abundant life abundant? Love, of course. Love is the difference between death and life. Love is not just what Jesus does (and did), love is who Jesus is. When He said He IS the resurrection, He also said He IS the life. If Jesus is love--and He is. God in the flesh, love in a body... God in your flesh, love in your body--and Jesus is life... that means love is life. Life is love. To live is to love and to love is to live. And that's what we have right now, because that's what Jesus gave us. He died so we could die, and He rose from the dead so we could live! So we could experience His life of love right here and right now. The days of heaven on earth. Experiencing everything God has for us. Living life while we're alive. Not wasting our time trying to get to an afterlife, but feeling secure in the truth that absent from the body is present with the Lord. Feeling secure in our heavenly Father's love for us. Let me say this again as clearly as I can: Jesus died so we could die. And then He rose again so we could live. He gave us His life so that we could experience it as He lives His own life (because nobody can live Jesus's life except Jesus) in us, and through us, and as us. We experience His life by being still and knowing that He is God. By letting everything He has and everything He is--that is already inside us--come out of us by knowing and believing that it--He, love--is in there. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with!