Our Living Lord and His Commission

The resurrection life. His resurrection made such a difference for Jesus. Have you ever tried to imagine what some of the ramifications of His resurrection were for Him? No, I haven't either, at least not until now. Here are two obvious things that have occurred to me: He was no longer bound to conventional means of travel, and He no longer bore the burden of His mission of redemption. There surely are other ways His resurrection made a difference for Him. I challenge you to think of some others.

We can readily recognize that Jesus' resurrection life was an improvement in many ways over the life He lived prior to His death. How wonderful to realize that we can live our own resurrection life! Of course we still have to travel by conventional methods and enter rooms through normal means. But what are some ramifications of the resurrection life in us? Let's consider just a few.

Freedom from guilt. Oh the weight of our sin and our guilt! And oh the freedom from that weight! Those who have in them the resurrection life have been set free from sin and the condemnation of it. The peace that Jesus gives is incomparable because it is a full, genuine peace born of forgiveness. This peace comes from facing our guilt and having it taken care of by Jesus.

Freedom to love. Before the resurrection life of Jesus became mine, I was my own biggest hindrance to love. The next big hindrance was the very people I was supposed to love. But when that new life came into my soul, well, I was free to love by a power and a love far greater than my own. Now Jesus wants to manifest His resurrection life through me in a love for others without regard to how they are or how they treat me. That's phenomenal, but wonderful!

Freedom to serve. The resurrection life is a life of service. Oh, without question the old life was also a life of service. I guess we could say that one of the differences lies in the object of our service. The old life concerned itself with serving self; the resurrection life primarily serves Jesus, which naturally results in serving others. Because of the resurrection life I have been set free from the task of serving myself to the blessing of serving my Lord and my neighbor.

The commissioned life. Just as every Christian has received the resurrection life, so they have received a commissioned life. We have a tremendous assignment to work on: bringing others to the feet of Jesus so they also can know the resurrection life.

This isn't a call to prepare for and serve on the foreign mission field (though the need there surpasses what most people realize). This is a call to shine for the light of the Gospel now right where you are. Just as the resurrection life is liveable all the time, so is the commissioned life. Are you living?!

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