In celebration of Easter, I’ve decided to do an series of blogs on the resurrection.

Too often the resurrection becomes a “remember-it-once-a-year” thing. We put on our Easter dresses, give away Easter baskets, and then hunt eggs.

Let’s admit it, the resurrection has become pretty far removed from our daily lives. This should not be. The resurrection is central to the Gospel. To live Gospel-centered lives means to realize the implications of Easter morning.

The message of Christianity is this – redemption. The word “redeem” means to “compensate for the faults or bad aspects of something” or “regain possession of something in exchange for payment.” Christ paid it all on the cross. He took on the sin of the world and died that we might gain possession of life. He has redeemed us, and the entire world. His work of redemption is complete, our only possible response is to accept His redemption through faith. We cannot be redeemed through good morals, acts of justice, or being really nice (something that “being Christian” is often reduced to). We can only be redeemed by accepting Christ’s redemption – His death & victory over death so that we can gain possession of life.

However, God’s redemption isn’t limited to you and I! Scripture clearly indicates that he plans to redeem all things (see Revelation 21-22, Isaiah 65:17-25 for example)! The resurrection, then, is the proof that redemption has begun for the whole world. Death and all the things that belong to death have been defeated and are being swallowed up by God’s goodness, mercy, and grace! Any version of Christianity that offers escape instead of redemption is not biblical. God’s plan is not escape, it’s renewal.

The purpose of the resurrection, then, is not so we can be more ethical or have a new spirituality or even “get to heaven when we die.” The resurrection means redemption has come and is coming to our world and to us! It’s all about you being made new. It’s about God’s new world breaking into the middle of this one! So to live in Gospel-centered ways is to proclaim God’s new world, to live according to this new world, and to help bring it about. God could just fix brokenness in a moment, but he chooses to use the obedience of His followers to bring about change.

Somehow, this is a scandalous idea. People are more comfortable with a Gospel of escape because it requires nothing of them now. We believe Christ died and rose, confess our belief to Him and then wait for this world to be destroyed in favor of heaven. Under this framework our only responsibility is to get others to believe so they avoid hell. The resurrection life of Jesus is much more profound than avoiding hell. If we allow the resurrection to sink in, embrace the full scale of his redemption we will begin to see that it is the stamp of the new world God is bringing, and God is inviting us to enter into this new world, participate in it, live in accordance with it, and work to bring it about. That moves the resurrection from a “once-a-year remembrance” to a way of life.

I close with this quote from New Testament scholar N.T. Wright:

“The world could cope – and would cope – with a Jesus who ultimately remains a wonderful idea inside his disciples’ minds and hearts. The world cannot cope with a Jesus who comes out of the tomb, who inaugurates God’s new creation right in the middle of the old one.”