Transformation Tuesday: Don't Go Halfsies on the Resurrection
Do you believe in the Resurrection? We’ve spent three weeks following Paul’s arguments about the resurrection in the book of 1 Corinthians. Aside from good, solid evidence for the resurrection, Paul gives the close-to-home argument: what good is our life without it?
It’s common today to accept Christ but on our own terms, picking and choosing in what ways we will worship Him. This is a denial of the resurrection, which demonstrates that you are completely dead to yourself and alive only in Christ. If we affirm the Scriptures and the Apostles’ Creed, then of course we believe in the resurrection. But belief in the resurrection is more than intellectual consent.
In her book, You Who? Why You Matter and How To Deal With It, Rachel Jankovic has a chapter on the dangers of going halfsies with God. In this lifestyle, you write your own story, you are the author of your own identity, but you give Jesus some space in your bio. This is an idolatrous way to live and leaves us without the joy and peace that comes with total surrender.
If we try to write our stories like the world does, composing our little plot points and shaping ourselves into what we think it would be neat to be, but we love Jesus, this is just making Him one more interesting plot point about us. We put our bumper sticker that says, “Jesus-lover” on our little lifestyle car. Depending on how seriously we take our faith, we may have a number of more theologically rich bumper stickers, too. Like “In His service” or “Depraved Wretch.” But Christ will not be managed like that. If He truly bought you with His blood, He did not do so in order to get a sponsorship position in your life. He is not here to look good next to your brand. He bought your life, and you are his.
In you think that his seems like just a silly metaphor, take a minute to really reflect on the struggles that so many Christians seem to be having. We are always trying to harmonize our stories with the Christ sticker instead of submitting wholly to Him. If we are sticking bumper stickers on the backside of our life, and one of them is about Jesus but the others are “I Love Fashion,” “Show Poodles Forever,” or “All about essential oils,” then we really ought to notice that there is something imbalanced going on. If our own little interests are the same size in our life as our Savior and our God, there are only two possibilities. One is that your Savior is coming rather tiny—as insignificant as any other news about you. The other option is that fashion or show poodles or oils is rising to idolatrous levels in your life.
Jesus Christ died for sinners. Jesus Christ did not come to this world and die so that you might live. That is only the partial truth, the truth that skips all the action. Jesus Christ came to this earth, struggled, suffered, and died so that you might die. Let that sink in. It was not His death that gave you life—His death gave you death in Him. But what happened after His death? His victory over death. The resurrection. Jesus Christ died so that you might die, and He lives so that you might live. Your life in Christ is what happens after your death in him.