Holy-Week-Easter-Morning

This blog is a part of our Holy Week series.

Dr. Dennis P. Hollinger

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words. (Luke 24:1-8)

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

The empty tomb is at the very heart of the Jesus story and the Christian faith. It is evidence that Jesus was no mere mortal and is the completion of Jesus’ death on the cross for human sin. Scripture teaches that without Jesus’ resurrection we are still in our sins. And a dead Jesus is hardly worth following in life. What Jesus experienced in overcoming death and the grave on Easter morning can become part of our lives experientially. The Apostle Paul put it this way: “As Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:4b–5 NIV). This means that the power of the resurrection becomes our power to live lives free from sin, anxiety, and the false patterns of the world around us. Being united with Christ through faith in him as Savior and Lord leads to resurrection-style living in every domain of life. Not only will we one day experience a resurrection to eternal life, but that life can begin now through the power of the risen Christ.

Dr. Dennis Hollinger is Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics at Gordon-Conwell.

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This post first appeared in the devotional, Journey to the Resurrection, published by Gordon-Conwell, April 13 – 20, 2014.