The Resurrection Is For You

Imagine if I told you, "You should go on vacation to Fiji! The beaches are the best in the world! Oh, and the food! It's SO GOOD. You will looooooooove Fiji!"

Then you ask me, "Wow, sounds amazing! When was your last trip to Fiji?"

And I say, "Oh, I've never been, much too expensive, I have no plans to go."

Wouldn't it be a bit strange to hear me rave about the Mamanuca Islands if I won't go see them?

This is the conundrum our friends might have when we tell them about the resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps they're wondering, "If Jesus rose from the dead, why is your life so ordinary?"

We need to soberly evaluate our lives. To meet the living God is to be transformed by the Spirit of God.

Take some time to savor 1 Peter 1:3-9. What do you see as the benefits of the resurrection?

Here's what I see. The Apostle Peter teaches it is through the resurrection of Jesus that: - We experience the benefits of God's great mercy - We are born again - We possess a living hope - We gain a perfect inheritance - We are guarded by God's power - We endure trials that refine our character - We love Jesus with great joy - We bless and honor God's name

Consider: none of this would be possible if Jesus is dead! If Jesus is dead, we can psych ourselves out, but that's it. If Jesus is dead, there's no one who hears our prayers, who works in our hearts, or who will be with us when we die.

Peter is honest about the sufferings of this life - and the suffering we experience as Christians. It grieves us. He is realistic, empathetic, and honoring of their painful difficulties. Yet Christ suffered too, even to the point of death, and he is now risen. Do you see the logic? Because of the resurrection, we can be certain that though we are suffering, one day God will vindicate us too! We have an unquenchable hope for a glorious future!

For Christians, our hope is not "pie in the sky when I die." Because we've experienced salvation, grace, hope, redemption - the living Jesus - we are wholeheartedly committed to holiness. We no longer want an ignorant, empty way of life, but the fulfilling joy of living for God and his purposes. This is not a transformation we do on our own, but as the Spirit works in our spirits. As we look to the future, we see an eternal future with a holy and loving God, so we change our habits in the present.

As a side note, this is how early Christians did apologetics. The scholar Alan Kreider observes:

"Contemporary apologetics is an intellectual discipline involving rational combat, and intellectual jujitsu. The early Christian apologists, in contrast, talked about habitus as well as ideas; their discourse had to do with how people live as well as what they think. In their writings, the apologists bore testimony to the changes that Christian conversion had brought about in their lives."

**Does your life 'cry out' the real fact of the resurrection?**