“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that Your resurrection has made a big difference for us in our everyday lives. We can live in the realm of resurrection through Your Holy Spirit. 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.” The person who had to take the place of Judas had to be a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. We must be witnesses of His resurrection. Resurrection for us is not just about the historical fact of resurrection but that resurrection is a current reality in our lives. This is our witness to the resurrection of Jesus.
II Corinthians 5:14-16 “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; (15) and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (16) Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer”. This sentence in verse 16, Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer, is a challenge but this is the key to understanding the passage.
We have discussed that Jesus came on earth, lived in the flesh and He condemned sin in the flesh. This is true and glorious. This was the basis, of how Jesus provided the solution for us to live victoriously over sin in our flesh. Yet, it is not the life of Jesus, lived out in the flesh, on which we base our lives. We base our lives on His resurrection. For us, the joyful life is the life of His resurrection through the Holy Spirit. This becomes true in us when we identify with His death. Jesus paid our debt, which is death. God has pronounced the verdict on us as deserving of death. This is our status. Jesus took our death on Himself and therefore when we identify with Jesus, we consider ourselves dead. Jesus did not die for Himself, for He did not do anything deserving of death, but He died our death. Our old man and our flesh, which is contaminated with sin, are now done away. This is what we must reckon. We die along with Jesus for it is our death that He dies. Therefore, when we live now, we can no longer live for ourselves because our old man is dead and gone, with the death and burial of Jesus. It is only when we have understood and are experiencing the fact that we are living no longer for ourselves, that we begin to live for Jesus.
Many want to live for Jesus without dying to their old man. This is not possible. Jesus rose again and that is the life that we now live. We, therefore, do not know Jesus who lived in the flesh but we know Jesus who is resurrected through His Holy Spirit. We live out His resurrected life, which is the life of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9-11 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (10) And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
If a person is not living in the dimension of the Holy Spirit, he is not Christ’s (Romans 8:11) The flesh working in us is of no use, for we do not know Christ according to the flesh but we know Jesus according to His Spirit. Having Christ in us implies that we have died to the old man. The righteousness, which we could not obtain because of our sin in the flesh, is now a reality on two counts. One, we received the imputed righteousness of Christ, by faith and two, we now live out the righteousness of Christ, through His Spirit, also by faith. Therefore, Jesus commanded that the disciples must be baptised with the Holy Spirit. It is only in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that we can be witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.
Acts 1:4-5 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; (5) for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This is what Peter is affirming to the audience that was gathered, as the disciples were baptised with the Holy Spirit and spoke in different tongues. Acts 2:32-33 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. (33) Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
“Being witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus through His Holy Spirit, is our task.”