Re: Lent - Week 6 - Youth
Read Matthew 28:1-10
It really is incredible the more you think about it. Maybe for some people, the longer they are Christians the more the resurrection makes sense, but for me it’s different. The longer I’m a Christian, the more the resurrection continues to blow my mind. Confusion really isn’t the right emotion. Amazement is. Wonder is. Mysterious is. These are the words that surround the resurrection for me. Jesus is killed. His heart stops pumping blood. His lungs stop processing oxygen. His brain stops sending electrical impulses throughout His body. Jesus is dead.
But His story is far from over. Three days later, as the sun’s light is just beginning to pierce the darkness, the earth begins to shake, the stone is rolled away, and an event takes place that will change everything: Jesus is alive. His heart is beating, his lungs are breathing, and his brain is firing away impulses throughout his body. Jesus is alive. Death has not won. Sin has not had the last word. Everything we thought we knew about life and death and God and eternity has been turned upside down.
But what does that mean really? We know that the resurrection means we’ve been forgiven, but what does that even mean?
I love how the apostle Paul understands this new resurrected reality in which we live. Listen to his words in Colossians 2:13-15:
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”
This is some powerful language here. You were dead because of your sinful nature. Then God made you alive. He forgave all your sins. He canceled all the charges by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them by His victory on the cross.
We could spend endless hours on each of the many themes expressed in these verses, but I want to spend just a moment and highlight verse 15. Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities. He shamed them by His victory on the cross. He disarmed them. Are you hearing this? This isn’t me, this is Paul. This is Bible. These are God inspired words. Jesus disarmed the powers.
Whatever weapon, whatever force, whatever leverage, whatever threat, whatever tool the enemy used to have to scare you, attack you, wound you, manipulate you, is no more. The powers of darkness have been disarmed.
And this leads us to a powerful but often forgotten truth: We are not victims.
This is what the resurrection teaches us. Death and sin and shame and guilt do not hold sway over our lives. I’m in no way trying to belittle or make light of the pain or hardship that we have each faced. We have been wronged and hurt and offended at times. But to let these things define us, to let these things have the last word over our lives is to ignore the reality of the resurrection. Death and shame and guilt and darkness have no right to dictate who we are and how we live.
The powers of darkness have been stripped of their power and publically paraded by Christ as impostors.
Our sins, our debts, all of them, every last one of them have been cast as far as the east is from the west. They’ve been cancelled out and nullified by Jesus’ resurrection.
We were once dead. Our hearts were beating, our lungs were breathing, our brains were thinking but we were dead in our sins.
But now we are alive in Christ. 2 Timothy 1:7 says that we have been given a spirit of power, love and self control. You are not a victim. God has given you a spirit of power, love and self control.
It’s interesting that after Paul expresses this reality in Colossians, the very next thing he says is, “So don’t let anyone condemn you…” The truth is we can’t control what people say or think about us. If people want to condemn us, tear us down, mock us, they’re going to do just that. But we can control how that affects us. We can control the power we give to their words and accusations and insults. A victim’s mentality would have us whimpering over their words and cowering away at their condemnation. But we must remember that we are not victims.
The powers have been disarmed. We are forgiven. We have been equipped with power, love and self control. May this reality wake us up and renew our hearts with courage and passion to face each and every day not as victims, but as children of God.
Next Steps:
- One of the ways we live as victims is that we operate out of fear. Is there an area of your life where your decisions and choices are being governed by fear? Why is that? Take some time and reflect on the source of those fears.
- Victims feel helpless while victors champion hope. We live in a world where many feel helpless but few feel hope. Is there someone in your life right now who needs you to champion hope for them? Spend some time with them this week and do just that.
- Colossians 2:13-15 says that all our sin has been forgiven. Do you believe this or have you made some exceptions? Are there things in your life that you’ve refused to let yourself be forgiven of? If there are, that is not of God. Jesus didn’t die for most of our sins but for all of them, every last one of them. Take some time in prayer and ask God to help you let go of those things you feel you can’t let go of.
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