MenuWhat’s the Point?
He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. – 2 Corinthians 5:15
What’s the point of being a Christian? For that matter, what’s the point of human life?
We find the answer to both these questions in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. As Christians, we believe, teach and confess that “our salvation and all our happiness rests” on Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.
Our lives are meaningless without some sense of purpose. I invite you to take 5 minutes to read the last 17 verses of the Gospel of Luke and reflect on how the disciples’ seeing their (and our) resurrected Lord changed their lives forever. Well, Jesus’ resurrection gives meaning and purpose to our lives too. Jesus’ resurrection sets us free to live under His care and serve Him and others.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central point in human history. Ever since that awful day of the Fall of mankind in the garden of Eden, which we mark on Ash Wednesday, God promises redemption through the Seed of the woman. The answer to that promise is found in Jesus.
When we confess the second article of the Apostles’ Creed (talking about the Son of God), we’re saying the same thing as the disciples who saw the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord…” Jesus is the Promised One of our Triune God sent to redeem the whole of creation.
And we’re saying something that sounds an awful lot like the season of Lent, culminating with Good Friday: “… who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death…” On the cross of Jesus Christ falls all the sin, death and power of the devil that each and every one of us experiences, and more.
But it doesn’t end there. Easter comes. Jesus the Christ is raised from the dead on the third day! And that makes all the difference in the world. Not only are we freed from sin, death and the power of the devil, but in Jesus’ resurrection we have a purpose and meaning. We have victory!
The victory that we have in Jesus’ resurrection is unlike any experience of victory that we have ever had. In our world, we might win a championship ring at the end of a struggle (that might feel like a Lenten experience), but then that’s it. We enjoy the achievement, the camaraderie with our teammates who endured the struggle with us, and joy of effort rewarded. But the glory is fleeting and fades.
The victory that we have in Jesus’ resurrection is a whole new ballgame. It’s like getting to play a new and perfect game on a perfectly groomed field with perfect weather. It’s a new game where there are no injuries and no fouls. It’s a perfectly clean game with no bad calls, no unsportsmanlike conduct, and even no need of referees because the purity of the game is perfectly respected – not because it is enforced but because it is LIVED and ENJOYED the way the game was designed.
The victory that we have in Jesus’ resurrection is our new life in the new creation. That is an eternal, perfect life with Christ – an abundant life, no, a super-abundant life with God that is precisely the way He designed it. It’s a life where we delight in what He has created and redeemed, and a life in which He delights in us living it that way.
And the victory that we have in Jesus’ resurrection does not only await us upon our resurrection. We get a taste of it here and now, in our confident hope and trust in the promises of Christ. It’s like that split second when your bat touches the baseball… or your fingers release a basketball shot… or your toe touches the ball… and you have that hope and expectation that the ball goes precisely where it’s intended. That ephemeral hope and expectation is the purest part of the game, even if the rest of the game is far from perfect.
As Paul writes to the Philippians (3:12), “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me His own.” In His resurrection, dear believers, Christ has made you His own. He gives you the victory. And that’s a whole new ballgame.
~Pastor Nickel