Are You Living Like You've Already Been Made New?
Easter is a day of celebration and joy, but it is made more meaningful and can be transformational when we remember that Easter is about new life because of the death of Christ on our behalf.
This time of year, if you have social media, it is likely full of pictures in a pastel palette of families smiling outside of a church. Often, it is a photo opportunity surrounded by balloons and a giant block-letter formation spelling out E-A-S-T-E-R, and in at least one instance I know of in my town, a Jesus impersonator with whom you can take a picture.
I find myself struggling with some of this. I’m not saying it should look dark and foreboding, and maybe it’s just me, but I had a harder time this year focusing on what it is all about.
The Redemption of Easter
Easter is about resurrection because of death. A picture of redemption that stretches right through the Biblical story and culminates in Christ. As soon as sin entered the equation, so did death, and a response was needed. As Romans 5:12 says: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”
This means we could never experience the joy and peace, the pastel colors as it were, of Easter without the death of Christ on the cross. Similarly, we cannot personally experience the fullness of Christ and what He offers if we don’t join with Him in His death and resurrection.
From Spiritual Death to Life
Growing up, I heard a phrase used a lot, and perhaps it began to lose its edge through repetition, but it was spot on. We have to die. We have to experience a death to our sinful self and be resurrected in Christ’s life through His power and death on the cross.
So, in light of that, are you, or am I, living as if we have been made new? Are we living as though we have the fullness of Christ? Colossians 3:1-4 says that:
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
In my favorite book of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace Scrubb, through his own greed, selfishness, and awfulness, gets turned into a dragon. He has to see his own filth and unloveliness to change; he has to be made alive or aware of his condition. Once he is aware of it and repents, in a beautiful picture of redemption, Aslan helps him shed his scales and all his terribleness and take on new clothes.
C.S. Lewis gave us such a beautiful picture of what Christ did for us on the cross. Through His work, we are made aware of our hopeless, dead condition, and through His death, we are made alive. We get to put on His righteousness before God.
To Think On:
If you have made that step, if God has made you aware of your “dragon-ness” and you have accepted Christ’s perfect gift of salvation, examine your life to see if there are ways you can better live like Christ. Ask Him to help you live in His fullness today and see how it changes your day and how all those daily changes alter the course of your life.
