Easter

“I have seen the Lord!”

John 20:18

“The disciples had seen the strong hands of God
twist the crown of thorns into a crown of glory,
and in hands as strong as that they knew themselves safe . . .
They had expected a walkover,
and they beheld a victory; they had
expected an earthly Messiah,
and they beheld the Soul of Eternity.”

Dorothy L. Sayers

In the book, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee said, “Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE.” He continues:

We begin our Christian life by depending not our own doing but upon what Christ has done. Until you realize this, you are no Christian; for to say: “I can do nothing to save myself; but by His grace God has done everything for me in Christ,” is to take the first step of faith.

If I put a dollar bill between the pages of a magazine, and then burn the magazine, where is the dollar bill? It has gone the same way as the magazine – to ashes. Where the one goes the other goes too. Their history has become one. But, just as effectively, God has put us in Christ. What happened to Him happened also to us. All the experiences He met, we too have met in Him.

“Our old man was crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be done away,
that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.”

Romans 6:6

That is not an exhortation to struggle. That is history: our history, written in Christ before we were born. Do you believe this? It is true! Our crucifixion with Christ is a glorious historic fact. Our deliverance from sin is based, not on what we can do, nor even on what God is going to do for us, but on what He has already done in Christ.*

Action: Based on this reflection, give thanks to God for what He has done.

“The crowing evidence that Jesus was alive
was not a vacant grave,
but a spirit-filled fellowship.
Not a rolled-away stone,

but a carried-away church.”*

Clarence Jordan

Join a group of Christ-followers, and together celebrate the risen Christ…

“The death of Jesus is for us nothing
if we have not died with Him;
the resurrection of our Lord is for us nothing
if we have not been
raised with Him.”*

Swiss Theologian, Emil Brunner

*Watchman Nee, Sit Walk Stand, 14, 21.
*Joyce Hollyday, Clarence Jordan: Essential Writings, 140.
*Emil Brunner, I Believe in the Living God, 103.