Resurrection

May 1, 2016

Devotions:

        Today the Orthodox Church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  This is the most unique feature of Christianity.  Our whole salvation rest upon Jesus' victory when He rose from the dead.  Jesus rose victorious over death, hell, the grave and sin.  His victory is our victory. Jesus' victory was because He took all of our sins in His own body on the tree.  He paid the full price before the Father inorder to restore us to relationship with Himself and the Father.  His victory was so we could freely call God our Father and know that there is no cause of offense between us and our Father not based on our actions but upon Jesus' perfect obedience.  Our relationship with our Father will always be based on Jesus' perfect obedience as proven by His time on the earth and His perfect yielding to the Father.       

        When Jesus was raised from the dead, He imparted His righteousness to us who believe when He imparted unto us His eternal life.  This is the resurrection life that raised Jesus from the dead and is active in us who believe.  This life will overcome all sin and the effects of sin in our lives as we believe.  The work is already finished but we must see it as a finished work and not something we need to beg God to do for us. 

        Jesus' resurrection from the dead is the full assurance that everything that we need for life and godliness is ours because we have partaken of His resurrection life, we have His standing before the Father. Through Jesus we know the Father intimately.  Our intimacy is only constrained by our lack of pursuit of His presence. Everything we need is in Him and through Jesus we have free access.