Exciting as the season gets, there is one danger that we must guard against—the danger of being caught up in the routine traditions that often times crowd out the opportunity for us to reflect on the significance of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Note that the life that a believer inherits through faith in Jesus starts out in his spirit-man and continues to work itself out through his soul and body during his lifetime here on earth. This life will finally become fully expressed at the return of Jesus when we are either transfigured or resurrected.
Likewise, unless a man comes to believe on Jesus while on planet earth, the death that he inherited from Adam will remain lodged in his spirit-man and will work its way through his soul and body throughout his life on earth.
This death will continue working its way out until it finally becomes fully expressed through the physical death of his body and subsequently his eternal separation from God. So what most people ordinarily refer to as death is actually the ultimate physical manifestation of the consequence of the sin of the first man Adam. And according to Scripture, physical death is a direct result of spiritual death.
Understanding life and death in the above light is so essential because it causes us to stay off the things that can and will separate us from God and subsequently from life.
First John confirms that to us:
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.The Scripture also says that "...every man who hath this hope (Jesus' return) in him purifies himself, even as he (God) is pure.
(1 John 1:5-7)
So the reason why God has instructed us to be holy is because He knows that sin will separate us from walking in and experiencing the victory associated with the presence and working of His glory.
When you think about the fact that the glory of God was the power that raised Jesus from the dead, it won't take you long to understand the importance of leading a lifestyle that is yielded to the presence and working of the glory of God.
According to Romans 6:4 "...we are buried with him (Christ) by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life". That is, the baptism we undergo following our confession of Christ is a symbolic expression of the reality of our shared spiritual death and resurrection with Jesus.
While our physical bodies are yet to physically die and resurrect at the return of Jesus (if we die before the rapture), our spirit man has already done so and in the eyes of God—who deals with our spirits because He is the Father of spirits—His glory is the power for us to walk in the newness of life talked about in Romans 6:4.
We must however note that God's way for us to keep off and out of sin is not by having us concentrate our efforts and minds on fighting sin. His way is for us to concentrate our efforts and minds on who we have become in Christ—the righteousness of God.
For the glorious power of God that is resident within the spirit-man of every born-again believer to manifest in and through a believer's life, the believer's conscience needs to be preoccupied with his new nature—the righteousness of God.
The purpose of the shed blood of Jesus is to "...purify our conscience from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the [ever] living God" (Hebrews 9:13-14, AMP). Living out the resurrected-life in Jesus has to do with our consciousness of God and His mighty working power in us.
Our responsibility as carriers of God's resurrection-power (God's glory) is not to fight sin but to "Awake to righteousness, and sin not"(1 Corinthians 15:34). To awake to something means to suddenly become fully conscious of it. When you awake from sleep, you get know to know if it is morning or not depending on whether you awake to see light or darkness.
Likewise, when you awake to the knowledge that you are the righteousness of God, your conscience becomes preoccupied with the presence and working of the glory of God in you. And this releases the flow of the power of God in and through your soul and body.
In so doing it dispels and destroys every symptom and trace of death from your soul and body thereby making you whole. Our role therefore, in time of temptation, trial or tribulation is simply to keep our conscience preoccupied with the glorious power of God that is at work in and through us.
There is therefore, more to celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus over the Easter season than just going about routine traditions and religious maneuvers. Celebrating Easter should be more about recognizing and appreciating the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus has opened the way for the glory of God to abide and work in and through our spirit-man, bringing us total wholeness—spirit, soul and body.
Just as the glory of God destroyed the devil and his power of death over the body of Jesus (Hebrews 2:14-15), the presence and working of the glory of God will dispel and destroy every symptom and trace of death in all its different manifestations—fear, sickness, diseases, poverty and so on—from our lives.
If you confess Jesus as Lord, God intends for you to live out your life in Christ based on this understanding. Scripture teaches that He has availed you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation:
[so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places], Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and in the world to come.
(Eph. 1:19-23, Amp.)
This is what living the resurrected-life in Jesus is about and it is this privilege that we should be celebrating and living in during the Easter season and all-year round.
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Joseph Enyimu has been nurturing faith and casting vision in the lives of believers through his teaching and one-to-one discipleship ministry since 1995. His life and ministry is dedicated to imparting knowledge, skills and character for Kingdom-living to believers through teaching, guided experience and modeling respectively.
