On the third day he will rise again.
Luke 18:33
When her flu-like symptoms refused to go away, doctors discovered that Debbie Habermas had stomach cancer. Four months after the diagnosis she died. Her husband Gary, a scholar and Christian apologist, wrote: “During Debbie’s suffering, I took refuge in the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.” The fact that Jesus rose from the dead gave him hope he would see Debbie again.
The hope of the gospel is grounded in the resurrection of Christ. Without the reality of His resurrection, the suffering of Jesus would be meaningless (1 Cor. 15:17). Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily resurrection. Jesus was not only seen by His disciples, they also touched Him (Matt. 28:9). Jesus rose with the same body that was His during His earthly ministry. The Savior’s resurrected body still bore the scars of His suffering (John 20:27). He showed the disciples His hands and feet and ate a piece of broiled fish to prove He was not a ghost (Luke 24:37–42).
These actions prove that the resurrection is essential to our understanding of the nature of Christ. Through the resurrection the Father and the Spirit demonstrated that Jesus of Nazareth was both man and God. Jesus was shown to be the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4).
But the resurrection of Jesus is also essential to the self-understanding of those who are in Christ. If you belong to Christ, you should see yourself as united with Him in both His death and His resurrection. As a result, you should “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). When we see ourselves in the resurrection of Christ, we recognize that we are under new management. We refuse to let sin be the reigning principle in our lives and we place ourselves at the disposal of the One who has brought us from death to life.
Apply the Word
How do you see yourself? Write Romans 6:11–14 on a notecard and tape it to your mirror. Every time you look into the mirror, these verses will remind you to view yourself though the lens of the resurrection of Christ. They will also remind you to offer the parts of our body as instruments of righteousness throughout the day.