Thoughts on Easter pt. 4 "The Cross as Life"

Easter means life. It is the Christian’s time to celebrate victory over death! And not only do we celebrate Jesus’ own resurrection, but ours as well. Both spiritually in the new birth and also our future hope when all sin, sickness, death and decay will be done away with once and for all. As we look forward to that great and glorious day, we can truly live now in the life that Jesus gives us. The life that he received after his faithful obedience at the cross God also freely gives to us, that we may live like Jesus.

Paul, wrapping up his “death to self” theme to the Philippians writes, “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil. 3:7-11)

Here we see Paul sum up how he views his own life by considering all that he has rights to as “rubbish” (the stronger, more appropriate word actually used here by Paul we’ll leave off…let’s just say we shouldn’t use it in this setting). We see evident in his life that he has “suffered the loss of all things…in order that [he] may gain Christ.” The voluntary laying down of rights is the cruciform life Paul entreats each of us to live. But to what end?

First, that we may know Christ. In Paul’s mind, to “know” Christ is to take up the mind and life of Christ. Sacrificial love and wisdom are necessary to genuinely know Christ, here and now.

Second, in addition to knowing Christ he desires to know “the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.”   As we have seen in the previous 3 posts, time and time again Paul’s gaze is toward the cross. Even to know “the power of His resurrection” he becomes like Him in His death. Resurrection life, Jesus’ way of kingdom living, is done by dying!   In short...the more we live like Christ, the more we are conformed to his death, the more we willingly lay down toward the goal of Christ and His kingdom, then the more we will live the life of the resurrection.  They go, unswervingly, hand in hand.

The power of the cross for all that we do is in dying to ourselves and our rights.  The wisdom of the cross tells us that we must have the same mind of Christ, one of sacrificial living.  The love of the cross is demonstrated through us to the world as we imitate the demonstration of God's love towards us....the cross.  And finally, in all of these, we see the power of the resurrection.  The power of new life being poured into earthen vessels, the wisdom for decisions and right, kingdom living, and the love which fulfills the law of Christ.  These are the resurrection life, here and now.

"For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." Romans 6:5