“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that we can understand Your resurrection. Our old life has died with You and we can live the new life in You. This is a wonderful experience that You are giving us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 1:21-22 “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, (22) beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” We are focussing on this matter of being a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. This was one of the criteria that was needed to be in the person, who would replace Judas, and be numbered with the eleven.
Let us understand the resurrection of Jesus. We saw that the flesh of Jesus did not see corruption. How did this take place? Romans 8:3-4 “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, (4) that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”. The Law is good and holy. It gives the righteous standards of God. Nevertheless, we were not able to fulfil the righteous requirement of the Law, because there was inherited sin as well as committed sin in our flesh. The Law could do nothing to change the condition of our flesh. Therefore, our flesh was the hindrance that prevented us from fulfilling the righteous requirement of the Law.
This was our predicament and there was no solution that we could produce to overcome this dilemma. God took the initiative to give us the solution to overcome this problem. God’s solution was to send His Son in the likeness of man’s sinful flesh. He was born of a virgin, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, Jesus had no inherited sin in His flesh. Jesus had the flesh of the first Adam, who was initially without sin. The first Adam was tempted and he fell into sin. Jesus was tempted at all points and yet he did not commit sin. Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus did the will of His Father. John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me”. Jesus overcame sin in the flesh so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in the Son of man. His flesh is now available for us so that through His flesh, we can meet the righteousness of the Law.
How do we fulfil the righteousness of the Law? Through His Spirit, the flesh of Jesus is now one with us and we can fulfil the righteousness of the Law. For us to be one with Jesus, our old man must die. I cannot have the old man alive in me and expect to be one with Jesus. This is the matter of resurrection. We are living out the resurrected life of Jesus, in our flesh, through His Holy Spirit. This is what makes us be His witnesses. Romans 6:7-11 For he who has died has been freed from sin. (8) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, (9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. (10) For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. (11) Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What was the death that Jesus died? Jesus died by taking our sin on Himself. He who knew no sin (Both inherited as well as experiential) became sin for us. Since He became sin for us, He had to die. The wages of sin is death. The cost of the sin of humans has been settled once and for all by Jesus. When we appropriate what Jesus has done for us, by faith, we reckon or consider that we have also died with Christ. He has died in our place. We now can take into effect, the fact that we are dead. The old man is over. This is essential. If we have not died with Christ, we cannot be raised with Christ. Without death and burial, there can be no resurrection. By dying to our old man, the sin problem in us is over. We must reckon this fact. The devil will tell us that we still have the problem of sin. We must live by the fact that sin has been settled and you and I can live out the resurrected life of Jesus, in our flesh.
Jesus who has been raised from the dead dies no more. The sin problem of man has been settled. The life of Jesus, which He always lived to please the Father, is now made available to us. Jesus is inviting us to come and live His resurrected life with Him, by the Holy Spirit and please the Father. It is indeed tragic that most of us in the church have not fully experienced the power of resurrection.
“The Lord longs for us to enter the abundance that He has made available to us through His resurrection.”