Hope Fellowship Blog

What Difference Does the Resurrection Make?

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The resurrection is meant to be an immediate and constant source of joy and hope to the Christian. The empty tomb gives us meaning beyond the grave, and meaning brings hope—hope that our hearts long for.

Let’s think back to disciples who found the empty tomb. Can you imagine them turning to one another and saying, “Can you believe it? I mean, how could we forget that Jesus told us he was going to rise from the dead? How could we forget what he told us? To think we were so upset and have barely slept for two nights—why didn’t we believe him? Of course he could do what he  said he would— has he ever not done what he said he could? Didn’t he feed 5000 people, and walk on water, and raise Lazarus from the dead with a word?”

If we were there, we wouldn’t have been all that different. We are so easily consumed with our lives that we walk through life forgetting what Jesus tells us in his Word.

Faith in Jesus doesn’t mean taking a leap into the darkness, it means while you are in the darkness, in the valley of the shadow of death, you can fear no evil because your shepherd is guiding you. He conquered death—therefore nothing in your life is too great for him to overcome. We are looking at a reality beyond what is visible.

We have a resurrection-grounded faith.

When you install outlets, there’s always a ground wire so that if there is an accident, rather than a person being electrocuted, the electricity surges to the ground wire and trips the circuit.

Having a resurrection-grounded faith is like this. We can walk through trials and circumstances that would be too impossible without knowing that Jesus has conquered death and that there is meaning and life after this one. The resurrection grounds us and changes our outlook—it trips our circuits. When we face death, we can do so with the resurrection grounding us in peace and hope.

When Paul writes to the Thessalonians about grieving with hope, he uses the resurrection as proof: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep (died).” (1 Thes 4:14–15)

God doesn’t intend for the resurrection to be something we just think about once per year at Easter, then put it away. The resurrection changes everything.

 

God is so powerful that no problem we have or difficulty we face  or trial we walk through is too challenging for him. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means God can conquer that which is filling our minds with fear. If God has the power to set us free from this fear of death— we have nothing to fear.

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