The Power of Resurrection

"Come to a sober and right mind, and sin no more; for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame".  (1 Corinthians 15:34).   Lets face it, we live as if the mighty works of Jesus Christ never happened.  Like the church in Corinth, we go on behaving and treating one another as if the resurrection were just make believe.  Bickering, name calling, finger pointing.  Guilty?  People love to argue about whether or not there is proof of a physical resurrection, as if believing that there was or wasn't is a scientific issue.  It isn't.  It's an issue of a much deeper reality.  The people to whom Paul was talking were people who claimed the Christian faith, argued about the physical resurrection and yet lived just as they did before they knew Jesus.  The bottom line is this, if you are still treating your God, friends, family, strangers, and enemies like you did before knowing Jesus, or if you treat them the same way people who don't know Jesus do, you aren't living out the power of the resurrection.  The fact that Jesus rose from the grave means that I no longer have to live as a slave to sin. It means that I have access to a new personhood and essence through Jesus Christ.  Believing in the resurrection means tapping into the reason why the resurrection happened, not believing in some historical occurrence.   The resurrection happened to give life to that which had died.  We die to sin, we live in Christ.  We die to self with Christ on the cross, we live in Him through the resurrection.  This is not a dogmatic issue.  Its a practical one.  Am I living my life in this very moment by the power of the Risen Christ or by some other power?  If I am not dying by the power of the cross in this very moment and living by the power of the resurrection in this very moment than my faith is in vain (15:1-2, 10, 17).  When we sin as Christians it is evidence of a lack of living faith out.  We are indeed forgiven when we ask and given new life once again and again, but our goal is always to accept the fullness of grace that is offered to us.

"Lord, forgive me for so often living out my faith in vain.  I profess you with my lips but I deny you with my life.  I turn to you and admit once again that I have no power to live the Christian life apart from your Risen Son.  Bind me to Him again I pray, as the vine and the branches are bound together.  That I might know the resurrection and be Christ himself in the world around me.  This I pray because this is the reason which you died and rose again.  That I might have life.  In Jesus name, Amen".