His Resurrection, Our Crucifixion 

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I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.

John 11:25

Jesus had no sin of His own. It was not His own penalty that He bore, it was ours. Yours and mine. For those who are joined to Him by faith, His resurrection is the beginning of our wonderful death. We are crucified with Christ, therefore we no longer live. Jesus Christ now lives in us (Galatians 2:20a).

Maybe we’ve heard it over and over again, but the life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal). If we have accepted His sacrifice, then our life no longer belongs to us. We have been bought with a high price. We did not have to earn His love, but we owe everything to it. 

Sometimes we’ve sat in church for so long that these are just words on a page, but Jesus reconciled us to God by absorbing God’s wrath so we wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for our own sin. It was a price too high for us to pay. A goal we could never reach. 

Anyone who has ever felt and carried the weight of their own sin, hating their own actions, desperate for change because of God’s love… and yet, painfully unable to forge a new path for themselves… once they finally see and understand that the Lord, our Savior, has already done all the work on our behalf… once our eyes are finally opened and we see the depths of our own darkness in the light of His work on the Cross… 

Anyone who has ever experienced that will never be the same again. No matter what church they go to, or whose small group they’re in… everything changes when His light comes into the darkness we have understood as our everyday life. 

Many have not understood. 

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

Romans 8:11 NLT

This Resurrection weekend will be a moment filled with beautiful spring dresses, grand Easter hats, deeply prepared Gospel messages, and anointed worship songs. Some will sprinkle in bunnies and baskets and the hunting of colorful Easter eggs, in the traditional way.

But as we enter this holiday weekend, the question ringing loudly in my own heart is, “Have we understood our need for Him?” In this hour of church attendance, have we hung our heads in regret over the sin we just can’t seem to shake out of our lives, or have we not yet come to see it? 

Now, I was unhappy in my younger years, looking for love in all the wrong places. I was a good church girl, so I wasn't out there partying. I’ve never been high or drunk a day in my life. I was never drawn to it as a teenager, and then as an adult, I chose not to partake.

I was never a big “cusser.” I didn’t use it in my everyday life, though some choice words would fly out when anger struck. The Bible says not to use foul language, so I did my best to keep it clean.

I attended church as often as the doors were opened. I went on many mission trips, de-boned turkeys for the homeless on Thanksgiving Day, scraped old paint and taped drywall in more than one small-town parsonage. I did a week of VBS in inner city Memphis, a week of VBS at an orphanage in Baja, Mexico, two weeks of mission work in Seattle, Washington… and five years of ministry in the inner city parts of my hometown. 

I wanted to be godly. I wanted to do the right thing. But after all that, I still wasn't happy on the inside.

More than two decades into my relationship with the Lord, and I was still lacking joy and peace with Him. Still steeped in people-pleasing, jealousy, deep insecurities, overwhelming fear, and controlling behaviors. Still judging and cutting people down in my heart while I hugged them and smiled at them on the outside. Still harsh and mean, sometimes openly, but often more subtly... and I didn't know it.

It may sound harsh looking in from the outside, but I say this toward myself with all gentleness and understanding... I was the clanging cymbal, speaking the Words of God without love. I had not yet received God's love into the hardened center of my heart, and without that, my heart remained a stone... seeing love and acceptance all around me, but never able to take it in. 

I always say I was “living a double life" at that time, and I was, but I wasn’t trying to. I was stuck in my old life of the flesh - even as a believer in Christ - and I didn't know there was any other way to live. How was I to know unless someone told me?

There was a separation between how I lived my daily life and everything I said I believed. I believed sin had no power over me, and yet I had no power to fight it. I believed Jesus died to give me abundant life, and yet I lived in spiritual poverty and mental lack. I believed what the Bible said and thought I was applying it correctly, but I was still all bound up inside.

I wasn’t doing it on purpose, I just couldn’t see my life for what it really was. 

The resurrection of Christ, when I finally accepted it into the center of my life and let go of the rest, was the end of my old life. Long gone are the days of weeping and wailing over old wounds and deep rejections of the past. Depression and panic attacks are a distant memory in the light of this new life.

I was a believer for more than two decades before I finally surrendered and allowed myself to be regenerated. What parts of your life are still bound up and waiting for your own regeneration to begin? 

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His Resurrection, Our Wonderful Death

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11 BSB

The power of His resurrected life means ours can be resurrected, as well. Through Christ, according to Romans 6:11, we are already dead to the power of sin and standing fully alive before God. Because of the Cross, He sees us whole and regenerated, as He created us to be.

The work is done. It is finished.

We are already free… we just have to step into it.

This freedom means the bondage of sin is finally broken, once and for all. It means condemnation, guilt, and shame no longer have the right to speak. It means we can finally forgive and walk free from the past, receiving His deep healing.

The freedom God offers is an invitation to stand firm in His grace and walk in the power of His Spirit instead of living every day in slavery to fear and heavy burdens.

You were not created to carry heavy burdens. He loves you too much for that.

So if we take this struggle before us now and say, “Christ has already made me free,” how will we begin to see things differently? If we look up verses about those challenges and determine in our faith to live by them, how will it change our lives moving forward?

When I fought for my healing, I would often ask my husband, "How would you see this situation? How would you handle this?" At that time, I perceived everything through the lenses of rejection, fear, and self-doubt. It was incredibly helpful to hear his perspective as one who did not struggle with those things, and I was able to receive his teaching. 

It’s the same way with the Lord and with His Word.

“Lord, how would You perceive this situation, and how would You handle it? Please show me in Your Word what to think, where to stand in faith, how to respond, and how to act.”

He will freely give of His Spirit to all who ask Him for help (Romans 8:32). If we belong to Christ, His Spirit dwells in us and, if we will submit to Him, we will be able to receive His teaching.

He is asking us today, “Will you step into My will and let Me give you true freedom? Will you finally exchange your old life for Mine?”

I pray wholeheartedly that we will let this Resurrection Sunday be the one that changes our lives for good, in Jesus’ name.

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

Romans 6:4-5