Set Apart: Holy Resurrection

[Featured art by Jen Horton, “The Resurrection“]

Friday ends. 

“As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law.” 

Luke 23:55-56 NLT

Sunday begins.

“But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.” 

Luke 24:1-3 NLT

These women were crushed beyond measure on Friday. The story had ended in ways no one had dared believe, yet the women rose early the day after Sabbath to carry out an act of faithful love – anointing their dead Rabbi.

Only He wasn’t in the tomb. Puzzled and terrified, they finally remembered that Jesus had told them that He would be betrayed and crucified – that He’d rise on the third day (vv.4-8). Despite the angelic announcement, however, Jesus’ followers had a hard time understanding what was actually happening (vv.11-12). 

Thus began the first Easter – a day that began in deep sorrow, continued on in confusion and  floundering faith, and ended with the deepest of joys. JESUS LIVES! 

What has become for us a holiday of hunting eggs and wearing our new spring outfits to church, Easter is actually the most holy and set apart day of our Christian faith. It’s the day Jesus defeated sin and death. The day Jesus’ resurrection from the dead changed everything!!

Holy Resurrection

As a most holy day, Easter is set apart as a celebration of the most magnificent miracle of all time. It marks the moment when Jesus’ sacrifice became the ultimate victory – over death and sin and the enemy. Without Easter, we’d have no Christianity. Everything Jesus came to accomplish hinged on His death and resurrection. 

Jesus the Christ, dead and buried, rose from the grave on the third day – just as promised (Luke 18:31-33). The Son became flesh and blood because we, the ones He came to save, are flesh and blood; “for only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). Only by His humanity could He atone for our sins (v.17). By the blood of the eternal covenant, our God of peace brought Jesus up from the dead, ushering in a new era in the world – and a new way of walking-out this life in faith of the One True God (Hebrews 13:20). 

Friends, if Jesus had remained in the tomb, nothing would have changed. Sin would still have hold of every person. Death would still reign in our hearts, lives, and world. No one would have any power to overcome Satan’s schemes. And Holy Spirit would remain a story of the past.

Easter celebrates this most holy day, this most holy act. Jesus’ defeat of death is an historical event, but it cannot be contained by history – for Christ’s resurrection “is the shape and substance of the New Reality, the New Creation, the triumph of Life over Death, of Love over sin, of Light over darkness, of good over evil.”¹  

Resurrection Body

Well into my adult life, I was confronted with an assumption I’d had about Jesus’ resurrection – only I hadn’t realized it was an assumption till I read these words from Jesus to His disciples during His first post-resurrection visit:

“Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among [the disciples]. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!

‘Why are you frightened?’ he asked. ‘Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.’” 

Luke 24:36-40 NLT

It was a moment of shock to realize I had thought of resurrected Jesus as a spirit. Yet Luke paints a very clear picture of a human who can touch and be touched, who can eat and drink – yet at the same time can enter locked rooms unhindered or instantly vanish from the dinner table. Jesus’ resurrected body was not a specter of His dead self; His body knew actual life. And glorified as it was, it would never know death again.

It’s equally important for us to understand that Jesus’ resurrection was not on the same level as the life He’d given to Jairus’ daughter or His friend Lazarus. Rather, as many Bible scholars describe, these life-giving miracles weren’t resurrection so much as ‘resuscitation’, for they had come to life but would die again.² This is not the case for our Savior! Jesus lives now and forever!

Scripture also makes it clear that, for all who believe Jesus as the Christ, we are cleansed by His blood, made whole and holy (1 Peter 1:2). We are given a “new birth into a living hope” through Jesus’ defeat of death (v.3). In other words, by faith in the One who led the way by His life, death, and resurrection, we too will never know the permanency of death:

“We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” 

1 Corinthians 15:51-53 NLT

And these resurrection bodies will be spiritual, but not ghostly spirits –  

“What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.”

1 Corinthians 15:46-49 NLT

This hope of resurrection will carry us through the hardest times while we’re here on earth because it is a living hope. Our Savior lives (Luke 20:38; Job 19:25)! And we live in Him! By His blood and by the power of the Spirit that raised Him to life, we have power to live our lives wholly for Him in the here and now (Ephesians 1:18-20)!

And if we’re even just a little doubtful that our bodies will be raised from graves, glorified, made like our heavenly Christ’s body, Jesus’ death and resurrection left us with one last holy sign that His Word is true:

“When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.” 

Matthew 27:50-53

Upon Jesus’ death, tombs broke open and holy people inside were brought to life!
Upon Jesus’ resurrection, those holy people left their tombs – alive! A sign to us that on the Last Day, we too will know resurrection and eternal life in glorified bodies with our Lord and Savior!³ 

It’s guaranteed.

Resurrection and Life

Just before Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for His Triumphal Entry, Jesus made a stop in Bethany to the home of His dear friend, Lazarus, and his sisters, Martha and Mary. It was here that He most publicly raised Lazarus from the dead – a miracle that would stamp Him as Messiah and seal His death sentence. 

But before He called out for Lazarus to come out of the tomb, Jesus spoke with Martha, heart-broken that Jesus had not arrived in time to heal her brother:

“Martha said, ‘Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.’ 

Jesus said, ‘Your brother will be raised up.’ 

Martha replied, ‘I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.’ 

‘You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?’” 

John 11:21-26 MSG

In this one conversation, Jesus reveals the deeper truth about resurrection – as the fullness of life in Christ.² 

And while we have the advantage of hindsight, of knowing about Christ’s resurrection before Martha, too often we continue to see Jesus’ ability of raising the dead through Martha’s eyes – as something Jesus does. As something that He will do when He returns. As His act of moving death out of our way so that we might have eternal life.² Resurrection is these, to be sure. But it’s also “life beyond the power of sin and the reach of death.”² 

If we only think of belief in Jesus as our ticket to heaven, we miss half the picture, half of God’s purpose. Jesus died to give us life in eternity and now. Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead to give. us. life. Life abundant (John 10:10). Life that is rich and full and satisfying, not by the world’s measures but by the standard of holiness. 

Yes! Jesus’ death tore the veil and broke open tombs. 
Yes! Jesus’ resurrection defeated death and opened heaven.
And – Jesus’ death and resurrection have made a way for us to live differently while on earth than all the humans who came before Jesus. 

• Believers in Jesus are now grafted into the original family of God, made one with each other and filled with a love that unifies us with our Father (Romans 11:17-18; John 17:21-23). 
• Our earthly bodies have become walking temples, filled with Jesus’ life, His Spirit, “made for God-given and God-modeled love” so that we might glorify God in all we do (1 Corinthians 6:18-20 MSG). 
• Everyone “united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges” (2 Corinthians 5:17 MSG). 
• With this new life, we are meant to grow each day, to look and act more and more like the One who gave His life for us (2 Corinthians 3:18). 
• We are meant to see ourselves as God’s craftsmanship, given this new life for the purpose of joining Him in the work He is already doing in the world (Ephesians 2:10). 

So when Jesus says He is the Resurrection and the Life, it’s not just for eternity. It is also for right now! What He accomplished by His resurrection has layer upon layer of goodness and purpose. And we get to live these days on earth with eternity already in us, peeling back each layer of resurrection’s purpose as we live more like Jesus each day. For we have died to ourselves and have already been raised in Christ (Romans 6:4; Colossians 3:1). 

Friends, we’ve been given resurrection life in the here and now because when we said yes to Jesus, we died to our old lives. We’ve been given new life, “which is [our] real life—even though invisible to spectators” (Colossians 3:3 MSG). It’s new life that is hidden with Christ in God (v.3 NIV). And as we awaken more and more to the reality that we’ve been raised from the dead before we’ve died, the more fully we will live!¹ The more we embrace that Jesus is our life, the more we will walk in the fullness of life He died to give us.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. And so are we.

This week we’ll pray a mighty Easter hymn as our prayer, “Because He Lives:”⁴ 

Because He lives I can face tomorrow
Because He lives all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He lives

God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal and forgive
He bled and died to buy my pardon
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives

Because He lives I can face tomorrow
Because He lives all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He lives

And then one day, I’ll cross that river
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain
And then as death gives way to vict’ry
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He live
And life is worth the living, just because He lives

In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, amen!

Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.

• 1 – JD Walt, The Wake Up Call, September 22, 2020
• 2 – JD Walt, The Wake Up Call, November 23, 2016
• 3 – Rabbi Jacob Sobel described this scene as a sign during his interview with Annie F. Downs on her podcast episode, “Understanding Holy Week Through Its Original Historical and Cultural Context” on That Sounds Fun.
• 4 – I placed Travis Cottrell and Brooke Voland’s version of “Because He Lives” on our Lent playlist. You can listen to it here or on our series’ Spotify playlist, Set Apart As Holy.
• Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
• My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.

Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike.

• It’s Lent, so it makes sense that we’d pick up the spiritual rhythms of fasting and praying. There’s something spiritually powerful when we combine fasting and praying as abiding rhythms, but it’s important not to turn our spiritual practices into check-lists or magic formulas or even things we worship. I love the way Eugene Peterson describes the ways we’re meant to live in step with Jesus — with “unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11:28 MSG). In my own attempts to fast and pray this Lent, I’ve found I rest in the practices when I enter into them without force, with grace. Rather than coming to God with my list, my agenda, I’ve been more intentional in simply pursuing Him. Of course, the lists pour out — all the people and situations I’m seeking His help for. But as the weeks have gone by, the lists have been shorter and my time in His presence longer. And I’ve noticed my spirit is more attuned to Him, my eyes see Him more frequently, my heart is aligned with His more assuredly. No magic formula. Just an earnest leaning-in. I pray that as we leave Lent we’ll continue to pursue Jesus in all the hope and power He died to give us! XOXO

• We’re all called to share the truth about who Jesus is. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. May we use our whole selves to tell others about our holy God!!

Featured Featured art by Jen Horton, “The Resurrection“

“All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.