As we contemplate Him, His death and resurrection, I was moved by this passage from Tozer. Read, consider and lift your hands in praise of the life He has given us. Amen.
Christ’s triumph over death, the
foundation and fountain of our faith, was everything to the early enraptured
believers. Christ’s rising from the dead was first an amazing thing, then it
became a joyful wonder, and then a radiance of conviction supported by many
infallible proofs, witnessed to by the Holy Ghost. This became to the first
Christians the reason for everything. The battle cry of those early Christians
was “He is risen,” and it became to them outright courage. In the first 200
years, hundreds of thousands of Christians died as martyrs. To those early
Christians, Easter was not a holiday or even a holy day. It was not a day at
all. It was an accomplished fact that lived with them all year long and became
the reason for their daily conduct. “He lives,” they said, “and we live. He was
triumphant, and in Him we are triumphant. He is with us and leads us and we
follow.” They turned their faces toward an altogether new life because Christ
was raised from the dead. They did not celebrate His rising from the dead and
then go back to their everyday lives and wait for another year to pull them up
from out of the mire . They lived by the fact that Christ had risen from the
dead and they had risen with Him. “If ye then be risen with Christ . . .” That
word “if” is not an “if” of uncertainty. The force of the word is “since ye are
then risen with Christ.”
Tozer, A. W. (2011-09-09). The
Crucified Life: How To Live Out A Deeper Christian Experience (Kindle Locations
396-407). Gospel Light. Kindle Edition.
