ARISE!!!

" The New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe.  He is the 'firstfruits', 'the pioneer of life'.
He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man.  He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death.  Everything is different because He has done so."
                                                                                                                                 C.S. Lewis


     Each one of us has a lens through which we view the world.  Similar to the anatomic lens of the eye, our lens helps us to refract light and determine the focal point of what we see.  This is why two people can witness the exact same event and yet have vastly different variations of the narrative.  Our lens will affect every aspect of our lives, including its efficacy and power.

     Having a Biblical lens forms the foundation of our walk with Christ.  However, there are still extreme variants amongst people who have the Biblical lens in common. These variants occur whenever we deflect truths or allow ourselves to become distracted by ineffective matters that detract from the resurrection power Christ has provided for us all.

     During this Resurrection season, God has been stirring a passion within my heart that the Body of Christ would become the glorious, radiant, Church of splendor that He has created us to be ( Ephesians 5:27).  This work starts within each one of us, individually.  As the embers inside of us become a flame, then that will spread out into our families, churches, communities, and beyond. This is the time for us to "Arise, shine, for [our] light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon [us]."  ( Isaiah 60:1).

     When Jesus died and was resurrected, everything in this world changed.  As He offered Himself in totality for the Church, He displayed His love to us in a tangible and lavish way.  His deity was proven and He emerged with the Father's ultimate seal of approval. His finished work lacked nothing as He led the triumphant processional to the future resurrection of all believers.

     His resurrection was preceded by suffering and death, just as it was prophesied to be.  It occurred on the first day of the week and it was heralded by angelic hosts.  Despite such evidence, the disciples were still innitially reluctant to believe.  Ultimately, they were convinced as they began to assimilate the irrefutable proof.

     Jesus appeared to many after He was resurrected, which was, once again, foretold.  Some of the appearances came to: Mary Magdalene, the women at the tomb, Peter, Paul, James, the disciples in the Upper room, 500 believers, the two men on the road to Emmaeus, and more.  Again and again, He appeared in the same way, and yet, the responses to these appearances were vastly different.

     There were four major responses to the Resurrected Christ:  fear and alarm, doubt and disbelief,
joy and belief, and understanding and worship.  I would submit that the followers of Christ today are no different than these first century Christians.  These responses form a continuum of variants within our lens and our maturity in Christ, specifically in regards to the resurrection power of Christ.

     While grief and sorrow may have affected the disciples' response, so did their understanding and level of faith.  John Piper describes the totality of Christ's finished work as follows: " The Bible says
He was raised not just after the blood-shedding, but by it.  This means that what the death of Christ
accomplished was so full and so perfect that the resurrection was the reward and the vindication of Christ's achievement in death."

     Today, the Church is  the visible manifestation of Christ's accomplishment.  Those who are sanctified on earth will be glorified later.  Isaiah tells us, "You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God." ( Isaiah 62:3).

     We walk in the unity and love of our Savior after He has produced a work of humility and reformation within us.  He removes the hindrances from our way of salvation and chisels the path before us to holiness.  This shapes the lens by which we see and becomes more real to us than even our physical surroundings.

     C.S. Lewis describes his experience with this phenomena: " I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

     When we focus on the power of Jesus' resurrection and understand that that same resurrection power is available to us, everything in our life changes.  As believers, the path behind us is strewn with the litter of the deliverance of guilt, pollution, and the dominion of sin.  The path we presently journey shapes our character and nature to the conformity of Christ, with full maturation in Christ as our goal. The path before us is illuminated by our resurrection and glorification.

     Holiness is the key, and God is the only one who works that in us as we cooperate with His Holy Spirit.  The apostle, Paul, prays for us, " May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." ( 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

     The parable of the leaven illustrates how this pervasive power works in us.  In a conducive environment, it only takes a small amount of leaven to effect much change.  Jesus explains,
" The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all the way through the dough." ( Matthew 13:33).

     In our hearts, this leaven works supernaturally by faith.  Silent and persistent transformation wields power and productivity.  The power of God's kingdom comes from the King plus the least among us, when the Holy Spirit is not grieved by sin in our lives.  As God leavens ( transforms) us,
we will leaven society.

     Our greatest joy then becomes seeing God's leaven produced in the lives of others.  No one can take away the power of good leaven.  God wants us to walk in this power; it is His extravagant gift to us.  The power with God and the power of God is the greatest power we could ever have. It is unlike the mirage or illusion of wordly power in that it will never dissipate. This is the power that changes the world!

     Right now, we are called to focus. Our understanding of Christianity must include the knowledge that the Resurrection power of Christ is exerted in our hearts. We must see the radiance and brilliance of our Risen King to succeed in what He's called us to do.  God calls to us and says, " Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with Me." ( Song of Solomon 2:13).  The prevailing question is, " Will your response to the Resurrected King be joyful and faith-filled and cause you to 'Arise'"?


" If God dwells in the heart, and be vitally united to it, He will show that He is God by the efficacy of His operation.  Christ is not in the heart of a saint as in a sepulchre, as a dead savior that does nothing; but as in his temple, one that is alive from the dead.  For in the heart where Christ savingly is, there He lives, and exerts Himself after the power of that endless life, that He received at His resurrection.  Thus every saint who is the subject of the benefit of Christ's sufferings, it is made to know and experience the power, of His resurrection."
                                                                                                                             Jonathan Edwards