LUKE 24:1-53                          JESUS’ RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION                                                     Day 26

He is not here, but is risen! These seven words changed the world forever.

Can you imagine the fear and joy the women who first heard them felt? We have heard them so often our hearts seldom thrill to hear them. But this was the subject of every sermon in Acts.

As Adam was the first man of the old creation, Jesus is the first man of the new creation (1 Cor. 15:45). Because of Jesus’ resurrection:

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Cor. 15:49)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:7).

Already, in Christ we enter into the new creation of which he is the firstfruits.

Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:20-22)

In baptism, we re-enact his death and resurrection. We die with him that we might live with him.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6:11)

This is our new reality. Before being in Jesus, we were dead in sin. Now in Jesus, we are to consider ourselves alive to God because of sharing in his death and resurrection through faith in the power of God. Having entered into the new life that’s in him, the power that raised him from the dead is working in us. Paul prayed that we might know…

…the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. (Eph. 1:19-20)

Jesus is not only raised; he ascended back to the Father where he sits in glory at God’s right hand. This is the fulfillment of Daniel’s vision:

…behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom…. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever. (Daniel 7:13-14, 18)

That is why Paul went on to say in Ephesians 2:4-7,

But God…made us alive together with Christ…and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ.

Already, now, we have been seated with him in heavenly places; in the coming ages he will show even more wonderful riches of grace in his kindness toward us. Just as his crucifixion is about more than removing guilt, his resurrection is about much more than merely proving that he is the son of God – though it does that. In his resurrection, the new creation is breaking into the old creation, this sin-cursed world, to make things right again. It began with Jesus; continues in those who believe in him; and will continue until the restoration of all things. This is where God’s STORY is leading.