Living in the Reality of a Resurrected Life
Good morning and welcome to the Spirit of Stress newsletter! It’s a pleasure to be with you in spirit this morning. I hope you have your Bible, your coffee, tea, or favorite drink. I trust the Lord has carried you and sustained you this past week. If you’re new here, welcome and thank you for joining us. I pray this newsletter is a means by which you can grow in your faith. I pray you’re not troubled in your body or spirit this morning, but if you are, take heart, the Lord will work it for your good.
As a kid I believed that bad things were for grown ups. Things like cursing, drinking alcohol, and having sex. That’s a worldly view though. If you think about it, as Christians, why would we become less pure with age? If that’s what we’re doing, then we’re moving in the wrong direction. Sanctification is a process that purifies us more and more as time goes on. This worldly view led me into all kinds of sin throughout my teenage years and well into my twenties. For some reason though, I felt like I should be a man by the age of thirty. Meaning, I should be done with foolish living. There was this deli close to my high school that a lot of people would hangout at after school. I’ll never forget seeing guys in their twenties who had graduated years ago, still hangingout at the deli trying to pick up high school girls. And I just thought, that won’t be me. God had given me foresight and a desire to grow, mature, and progress. Fast forward almost a decade, I wasn’t hanging out at the same deli trying to flirt with high school girls, but there wasn’t much growth. I was still living a very sinful life. I called myself a Christian, prayed sometimes, and kept a Bible on my night table, but I didn’t read it. Maybe you can relate in some way. Maybe the life you’re living doesn’t feel victorious. Today, I’m going to talk about how the life we now live, if we’ve been redeemed, is a resurrected life here and now. Although, the resurrection of our body takes place at a later time, the resurrection of our spirit has already happened. But first, let’s pray.
Opening Prayer
Holy Spirit, help us to pray today. Lift us up above the cares and worries of this world, and set us in the presence of our God and Father… God we exalt you. You alone are good. You alone are worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. We come to give thanks. We come to praise you for your grace, omnipotence and providence over our lives, for making all things work to our good, and for being our rock. We come to ask for wisdom and revelation to know you better. May your word come to us with power and deep conviction. Without you, we would be spiritually dead. Without you, there is no resurrection, no victory, and no life. Come, Lord. For your namesake, let it be done. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
Testimony
January 2010, I was living with an ex-girlfriend, and her and I were in a heated debate on the topic of forgiveness, and I pointed to the Bible and said, what do you think the Bible says about forgiveness? She responded with, Vin, do you really believe everything in the Bible? To which I responded, I live and would die for every word in that book. And immediately God convicted me. I might have died for every word in the Bible, but I certainly wasn’t living for every word in it. What followed was completely and utterly, unmerited amazing grace. I, having done nothing to deserve his grace, was changed radically. Convicted by the life I was living, I broke it off with my ex just before my twenty fifth birthday. When I woke up on my birthday, something hit me — I was so far from the man I wanted to be at thirty. And what I realized was, I wasn’t going to just wake up on my thirtieth birthday and be the man I wanted to be; it wasn’t going to happen on accident. So, on my twenty fifth birthday, I was compelled to do something unusual. I took out a notebook and made a list of all the things I didn’t like about myself— all the things I would be ashamed of if I had a son or daughter watching me, (it was not a short list). I started praying and reading my Bible every chance I had. I stopped what was easy to stop, prayed for strength to stop what was difficult to stop, and prayed for wisdom and revelation to be made aware of the sins I was ignorant of. Six months later I met my wife at church and started courting her in October of 2010. October of 2011, (four months before my twenty seventh birthday), I married my wife, and the rest is history. I would later come to backslide horrifically, only for God to prove himself to be faithful and almighty again, sanctifying me a new, which brought about a love for God I didn’t have before. But that’s a story for another time.
The resurrected life in the spirit is not something we have to wait for. Now, I’m not talking about the resurrected body, new earth, and new heaven, where there is no sin or sorrow. Those we have to wait for. But if we have been redeemed, then we have been made spiritually alive. My question for you is, are you living in the reality of your resurrected life?
Crucified with Christ
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…” Galatians 2:20
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him…” Romans 6:5
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11
To live in the reality of our resurrected life, we have to be certain that we have died. Without the certainty of the death of the old creature, it is impossible for us to live in the reality of the resurrection of the new creature. Do you have evidence of dying? Have the desires of your flesh been mortified? Have you been taken captive by God? Is it hard for you to kick against the goads? Does sin pierce your conscience? If so, then you have evidence of the old creature being crucified with Christ. Have your affections shifted from self and temporal things, to God and eternal things? Then you’ve died, yet you’re living. You are dead to sin, but alive unto God.
It’s not uncommon to forget that we’ve died. Our busy lives often move us away from the reality that we’ve been crucified with Christ. Prosperous times cause us to forget this reality as well. Charles Spurgeon once said, “there’s nothing that has benefited the Church of Christ more than it’s persecution, and nothing that has hindered it more than it’s prosperity.” How easy is it for us to forget God when times are good?
Are you living and walking in the motives and ambitions of the old, dead self? Or are you living and walking in the reality of your resurrected life?
Often, when a person says they gave their life to the Lord, they haven’t. They’ve merely entrusted that the Lord would make all of their carnal hopes and dreams a reality. Let us be clear on what it means to be redeemed; it means we’ve died, and to live is Christ. Let us not only mortify the deeds of our flesh, including selfish-ambition, vain conceit, coveting, and the like. Let us set our affections on things above, a celestial city, and an eternal, uninhibited fellowship with the Lord.
When redeemed, the new spiritual creature, comes with new spiritual affections, motives, and purpose.
Resurrected with Christ Now
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…” Ephesians 2:5
The children of God are not a people who only want to be excused from the punishment of sin later. Rather, they are a people who want to be freed from the bondage of sin now. This is why Paul, after his conversion, cried out, “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death,” (Rom. 7:24)? He also said, “who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn,” (2 Cor. 11:29)? The children of God are a people who are at war with sin continually until this body of death returns to dust. Notice next, the tense of the scriptures above. They are past tense. We have been raised with Christ… Paul is trying to get the people of God to live in the reality of their resurrected life. With the new, spiritual creature, comes new, spiritual senses. And like all babies, when we are born into the spirit, we don’t have good use of those senses. Paul, in his epistles, is drawing attention to the spiritual mind, eyes, ears, heart, mouth, hands, and feet.
As I type these words, there’s the classic scene of a parent holding their baby and pointing to the different parts of their face saying, nose, eyes, ears, mouth, coming to mind.
What does living in the reality of our resurrected life look like?
It looks like holiness, peace, joy, and hope.
It looks like a continual state of repentance as God, in all his wisdom, reveals to us the next thing he wants to remove from us, as he works to conform us to the image of Jesus.
It looks like not worrying like the world does.
It looks like waiting with eager expectation for the return of our Lord and Savior.
Resurrection of Our Bodies Later
“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:4
“For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” 1 Thessalonians 4:14
“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:40
The patriarchs, prophets, and early church were commended for their faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. That faith was tied to one hope.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”
Hebrews 11:1
The key to living in the reality of the resurrected life now is being confident of our salvation and resurrection later. It’s imperative that our faith is rooted in this hope. The men and women spoken of here did not live easy lives. They endured great hardship and died horrible deaths. But, they were kept by the power of God. Their affections were on things above. The Bible says, “all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth,” (Heb. 11:13).
What you hope in you move in.
Worldly hopes bring about worldy living, thoughts, words, and actions. We live by sight, and bear the fruit of the flesh.
Heavenly hopes bring about spiritual living, thoughts, words, and actions. We live by faith, and bear the fruit of the spirit.
Do you feel like a foreigner and stranger on earth? Is there evidence that your affections are set on things to come? Is it obvious that your hope is in heaven? If so, then this is an identifying mark that you’ve been redeemed. We’ve now identified a few marks of a believer: suffering, resillience, and, now, a heavenly hope. (See archives on suffering and resilience here).
Resurrection Identifies the Redeemed
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:24
“For all you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 3:27
“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’” Galatians 3:11
Living in the reality of our resurrected life now is evidence that we’ve been redeemed. The power of God is revealed in us when it’s obvious that we are different from the world. Our passions and desires are different. What we rely on is different. We don’t love what the world loves. We don’t live how the world lives. It becomes clear that we must not belong to the world; we must belong to Christ. Our faith is put on display by showing confidence in what we hope in. And although we only see and welcome it from a distance, we have full assurance that it will come to fruition. Let’s pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for us. Lord, thank you for going to the cross, for interceding for us, and for sending us the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, thank you for convicting us, comforting us, and guiding us. Father, thank you for adopting us, claiming us, and freeing us from the bondage of our enemy. Thank you for making us spiritually alive. Help us to grow in our spiritual senses. Help us to set our affections on what is to come. Lord, you know the challenges of this body of death we exist in, and we boast only in our weakness. We need you. Come and rest on us, that we may live in the reality of our resurrected lives here and now. Be for us, strength and wisdom; be for us, peace and joy, and let us bear in our bodies the mark of heavenly hope. For your namesake, let it be done. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
Until next time, God willing, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
Spiritual Tip
“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
- Charles Spurgeon
If our life is hidden in Christ Jesus, and Christ Jesus is the living word, let us then live in his word. It is there we will discover how to live in the reality of our resurrected life.
Exercise Tip of the Week (ETOW)
Deadlift Tutorial:
Book Recommendation: The Mortification of Sin, by John Owen
Excerpt:
Sin, he told me, is a blind, anti-God, egocentric energy in the fallen human spiritual system, ever fomenting self-centered and self-deceiving desires, ambitions, purposes, plans, attitudes, and behaviours. Now that I was a regenerate believer, born again, a new creation in Christ, sin that formerly dominated me had been de-throned but was not yet destroyed. It was marauding within me all the time, bringing back sinful desires that I hoped I had seen the last of, and twisting my new desires for God and godliness out of shape so that they became pride-perverted too. Lifelong conflict with the besetting sins that besetting sin generates was what I must expect.
