Today is Easter Sunday, probably the most important day of the whole year, the day when we celebrate the victory that Jesus Christ won for us through His death and resurrection. All of God’s plan for the salvation of the world is bound up in this truth, for as Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 15: ‘if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.’ (1 Cor 15:14) The resurrection of Jesus means that we know His sacrificial death on the cross was acceptable to God. It was enough. The price for sin has been paid. We are now reconciled to God.
The resurrection of Jesus means we know that death doesn’t have the last word; towards the end of this chapter, Paul says, ‘“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”’ (1 Cor 15:54-55) The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope, even in hopeless situations, because it demonstrates to us how totally and utterly our God has the power to transform situations. If God could turn the defeat and humiliation of crucifixion into something beautiful and victorious, then nothing we face in this life has the power to keep us down. Resurrection is at the heart of our Christian faith and needs to be at the heart of our daily lives too. In this chapter, Paul talks a lot about different aspects of resurrection, and we need to absorb these truths so that we can become a people living in the power of Christ’s resurrection every day of the year, not just on Easter Sunday.
We see in this chapter that resurreciton is impossible from a human perspective, but entirely possible when we take God’s power into account. We see also that it is necessary to break the hold sin has over us and to bring us back into a relationship with God. Finally, resurrection enables us to live with hope, not only for now, but also for eternity.
Easter Sunday is our day of victory because it was Jesus’s day of victory. It’s the day when we celebrate Jesus’s victory over sin, death and hell. It’s the day when we dance because our God does impossible things. It’s the day when we dance because we’re set free from the power and mastery of sin and are now free to live for God and serve Him with gladness and sincerity. It’s the day when we hold high our banner of hope and say that nothing can separate us from the love of God. This is our day of victory. Let’s believe that. Let’s proclaim that. Let’s live in victory.
