Since the beginning of time, God has planned for us to receive and live out a vital and fruitful condition in life (Gen. 2:9). When we wake up each morning after a deep sleep or watch the world around us come alive as winter turns to spring, we get a foretaste of the power of life. Indeed, this life is nothing but the very resurrection life we read about in the Bible, the victorious life that overcame death.
Yet even if we’ve been believers for many years, does this life have any power in our daily living? What does this life have to do with us? Many of us would admit that such a pure, simple, and vibrant sense of life feels quite distant from us. The satisfaction of waking up from sleep dissipates when we remember how many tasks of the day await us, and the awe we used to feel when watching flowers bloom is more fleeting as the days go by. But this is nothing new. Since the fall of man, the human trajectory has been toward death (Rom. 6:23). There are many situations in our life where we feel the sting of death, weakness in the face of challenges, and weariness from our endless toiling and anxieties.
Yet, this destiny was not God’s original view and intent when He formed man from the clay of the earth. He desired His life to be given to man in an abundant and bountiful way (John 10:10). When Christ walked on the earth, He said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24). Although a seed is seemingly unremarkable — little more than a hard, dead shell — when the life within breaks forth, there is fruit. God planned Christ to be a prototype of this death and resurrection experience. Because He first passed through death into life, we are able to not only be one with Him in His death, but also come into a new life through being one with His resurrection (Rom. 6:5;8).
This picture of something sown and raised — a germinated seed, a spring flower — should be a constant reminder to us believers. We not only have the death of the Lord to redeem us, but also the resurrection power that He has put into us — and He wants us to live by the Spirit who indwells us (8:11). When we live by the Spirit, we live by and live out this very resurrection life that is deposited in us. When we claim this resurrection life, we give room for His operation and multiplying power to come into our living. We find the way to stand and rise up, and be freed from the sting of death. We can free fall and fully trust ourselves into the hands of the One whose life fills us. Through this One, all those who receive His grace and righteousness have been brought from a situation of death into one reigning in life (Rom. 5:17). We died with Him, and now His overcoming life is in us, readily accessible and available at any time and in any place.
What a great joy and freedom it is to submit our entire lives to this life, to apply this resurrection life in every situation. In this way, every day we can enjoy the freshness of eternal life — the one true Life. This is a life that is unending, overflowing, ever satisfying. It is alive, powerful, and reigning in us today. The resurrection life is sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a soulish body, raised a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:42-44). This is a life that has swallowed up death in a victorious proclamation: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (vv. 54-55). Today, such a powerful life dwells in us, His many sons raised in His life and led into glory (Heb. 2:10)!
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 3/16/2025, not reviewed by the speaker.)