Easter is about life after death. It gives us hope for the future for those who have died, because Jesus rose up from the dead. He was raised first. The dead will be raised with him. Our hope is in God’s power to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The death of loved ones and friends makes us aware of how much we must depend on God for life beyond death. Here is what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (2 Corinthians 4:15).
Easter is also about renewed life while we live each day. In that same passage, Paul makes this amazing claim about the power of the resurrection in everyday life. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”(2 Corinthians 4:16-17).
Outwardly our bodies are dying, but inwardly we are being renewed every day. The troubles we go through everyday are preparing us for something so wonderful it cannot be described. Paul must be talking about the same thing he had in mind when he said, “Don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). The renewal is in your thinking. Your emotions come from your thinking. Therefore your renewal is both mental and emotional. What a thought! When you are growing emotionally and getting better at your relationships, you are experiencing resurrection power at work in you.
On this Easter Sunday let us thank God for the promise of life beyond death and for the promise of inner renewal everyday. Not only will we be given the gift of eternal life when we die, we are being given that gift everyday as our thoughts, emotions, and relationships are transformed, making us more and more like our living Lord.
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