Dear world, caught in fear of the future and panic over a pandemic … Dear people stuck in your living rooms or at your kitchen table feeling trapped and troubled by the coronavirus. There is more to this difficult time in history than being victims of our circumstances.
Easter makes you a victor! Here is how.
Jesus took on death as not just your enemy, but his. He took on sin not just as your enemy, but his. He became their victim, and then rose from the dead.
Easter means that Jesus made sin a victim. Jesus made death a victim. And Jesus became the living victor. “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54)!
Whose victory? Listen, Jesus is more than inspiration. He gives you his own death, his own resurrection, his own life. He gives you the mercy of forgiveness and the promise of answered prayer. Jesus gives you the victory.
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Jesus raises your hopes, your strength, and yes your new life of drive and determination to trust him and follow him every day. More than that, Jesus will raise your dead body to eternal life. “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
Because Jesus rose, death itself is the victim, sin is the victim, and you are not. Because Jesus rose, you are the victor. Now, live like it!
And yes, you can even die like it! Christ is risen!
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, your love is stronger than death. Your love condemned sin forever. Your resurrection guarantees these truths for me, and I believe them. May the joy of Easter compel me to believe them even more, and to live as the victor you have made me to be! Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Read 1 Corinthians 15:57,58. Why, in the last words of this great resurrection chapter, would Paul toss into the mix the topic of “labor in the Lord?” What does that have to do with the resurrection?