Jesus is our model for living…Jesus modeled who He was in God and who we are in Him. Jesus came to show us who we are in His image with His spiritual authority as, “sons and daughters of God.” “Because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). “… the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17)...

Jesus prays,

"...That they [believers in Jesus] all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.

I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:

I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me" (John 17:21-23).

The Mystery -

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. - Colossians 1:26-29

The Bible teaches us that the Resurrection is - The Foundation of Christianity:

The apostle Paul wrote, “And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is in vain [it amounts to nothing] and your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless (without effect, empty, imaginary, and unfounded)” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is mere delusion [futile, fruitless], and you are still in your sins [under the control and penalty of sin]; And further, those who have died in [spiritual fellowship and union with] Christ have perished (are lost)!

If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hope only in this life and that is all, then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied. But the fact is that Christ (the Messiah) has been raised from the dead, and He became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep [in death]” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20).

“For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship]. For the creation (nature) was subjected to [frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—[yet] with the hope

If the resurrection of Jesus were just another historical miracle, then Christianity is but a dead religion!

Creation is invested with meaning only when we look back at it from the perspective of resurrection. Jesus Christ was active in creation as Creator (John 1:3, Col. 1:16); as the indwelling presence of the Divine character that was to be visibly expressed, i.e. imaged, in man (Genesis 1:26, 27). The initial Genesis creation "set the stage" for the "new creation" brought into being in Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:16). By the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have the fulfillment of creation, the re-creation of a new functional humanity (Ephesians 2:15), wherein the "image" is restored so that the Divine character might be expressed in righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24).

Jesus was "Emmanuel, meaning God with us" (Matthew 1:23), and God intended to be with and in everyone who would receive the resurrection dynamic of Christ by faith. The incarnation becomes a prototype of deity functioning within humanity when viewed through its universal fulfillment in the resurrection.

By the resurrection we come to appreciate the dynamic that made the life of Jesus what it was. He lived by the Life of Another - He let God be God in Him for every moment in time for thirty-three years. "I do nothing of My own initiative," He said, "The Father abiding in Me does His works" (John 14:10). Even His miracles were but what God did through Him (Acts 2:22). Thus He modeled the life of a man, normal humanity, a man who let God be God in a man, man as God intended. By resurrection He makes that same dynamic of life available to Christians.

The behavioral expression of the life of Jesus here on earth is only encouraging to us today because of the resurrection. The life lived once in Christ can be lived in us.

The crucifixion of Christ on the Cross of Calvary is not an end in itself. It was but a remedial action, to remedy the problem of the death consequences of man's sin. The problems of sin and death and satan's dominion were remedied at the Cross. God then made His Life available to mankind by the Resurrection. On the Cross, Jesus exclaimed, "It is Finished!" (John 19:30); He saw ahead to the completed work of God in the Resurrection. Whenever Paul refers to "the word of the cross" (I Corinthians 1:18; Galatians 6:14), and preaching "Christ crucified" (I Corinthians 2:2), he always does so from the perspective of the "finished work" of the Resurrection.

REGENERATION: The Resurrection is the reality that invests regeneration with meaning. Jesus was raised from the dead, life out of death, in order that we might be "raised to newness of life" (Romans 6:4) in Christ Jesus. Jesus IS the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) with which (Whom) we are re-lifed spiritually in regeneration. (John 14:6 and Col. 3:4). Regeneration is not facilitated by the Cross, but rather by the Resurrection. I Peter 1:3 - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Regeneration is a re-genesis, bringing man into being again spiritually, rebreathing into man the "breath of life" (Genesis 2:7). Thus we become a new creature in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17), a "new man" (Ephesians 4:24; Col. 3:10) with the image of God restored in man. Regeneration is the resurrection-life of Jesus brought into being in the Christian.

JUSTIFICATION: "Justification" is a Biblical word that has been much confused and misunderstood by Christians because it has been defined apart from the Resurrection. The popular explanation is that God, the heavenly Judge sits in His heavenly courtroom, and when a person believes in His Son, Jesus Christ, the Judge bangs down His gavel, saying, "Declared righteous!" Thus justification becomes a legal acquittal, a word of pardon, the non-imputation of sin, "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned. But the declaration is regarded as a legal fiction which is on the heavenly accounting books, having no practical effect in terms of behavioral righteousness in one's life today.

The Resurrection invests justification with practical implications for Christian behavior today. The Risen One is the Righteous One - Jesus Christ. Paul indicates in Romans 4:25 that Jesus "was raised for our justification." The resurrection-life of Jesus that comes to dwell in us when the Spirit of Christ is in our spirit (Romans 8:16), is righteous-life. We are "made righteous" (Romans 5:19); we become the "righteousness of God in Christ" (II Corinthians 5:21); Christ Jesus becomes to us righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30). The righteous character of the Righteous God is actualized in us by the resurrection-life of Jesus.

Justification requires the living content of resurrection in order to be properly understood.

SALVATION: Salvation has been trivialized by its separation from the Resurrection in contemporary evangelical theology. Salvation separated from the Resurrection is conceived of as but a rescue from the results of sin or a "fire insurance policy" from the effects of hell. Likewise, salvation apart from the resurrection dynamic is regarded as but a commodity of "eternal life" which one can "possess" by reason of one's attestation of the historicity and doctrine of Jesus Christ; a spiritual benefit dispensed by a benefactor. Salvation apart from resurrection is merely preventative or beneficent.

Only when salvation is understood in the on-going continuity of the resurrection-life of Jesus Christ, only then does salvation remain connected with the work of the eternal Savior. Salvations does “make safe” from the dysfunctional humanity enslaved to sin, but Christians are saved unto the functional humanity of the Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ living through us. We are "saved by His life" (Romans 5:10), as the resurrection-life of Jesus, the "saving life of Christ" is operative in our behavior.

The resurrection gives salvation a positive vitality, which is far more than escapism.

GRACE: Because resurrection has been absent from evangelical conceptions of grace, the grace of God has been relegated to merely "redemptive grace" (God's Redemption at Christ's Expense) or the threshold factor of "saving grace." When grace is thus interpreted as static event or experience, it is then dispensed with for any practical purpose, and gives way to law, legalism and the performance of self-effort. The Christian life is regarded by many Christians as a life of performance, commitment and involvement.

The Grace-life of Christianity can only be understood in the context of the Resurrection. The free-flow of God's activity is made operative in Christian lives by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Christian life is the resurrection-grace-life. Paul says, "I am who I am by the grace of God" (I Corinthians 15:10). The Christian life is all of grace or it is not Christian life.

FAITH: Faith, apart from resurrection becomes but mental assent to a belief system, or dogmatic assertions of the veracity of propositional truth from the Book. Worse yet, faith may be regarded as superstitious expectations which are no more than "faith in faith."

Biblical faith can only be understood and exercised in the context of resurrection-grace. Faith is the response of reliance on the resurrection dynamic of God in Christ. Faith is our receptivity to His resurrection activity.

SANCTIFICATION: Sanctification, apart from resurrection, will inevitably be conceived in terms of externals. It may be the externals of attire and possessions, avoiding what appears "worldly" and utilizing the out-dated which appears more "spiritual." Sanctification is sometimes regarded as the impossible ideal of a perfect life to be lived by imitating the life of Jesus Christ. Sanctification is most often conceived of as behavior governed by morality and ethics, the codification of behavior into rules and regulations, techniques and formulas, how-to’s; the legalistic conformity to which is regarded as holiness.

Sanctification can only be understood and experienced by the resurrection-life of Jesus. It is the process of allowing the holy character of God to be lived out in our behavior as the Risen Lord Jesus lives out His life through us. It is the "life of Jesus manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Corinthians 4:10). Sanctification is resurrection-living!

HOLY SPIRIT: Considerations of the Holy Spirit apart from the Resurrection either "box" Him into a theological box as "the third person of the Godhead," or set Him up as a spiritual "stimulant", a power-force, that is available as a super-spiritual experience, subsequent to receiving Jesus Christ in regeneration.

The Holy Spirit cannot be properly understood in the life of the Christian apart from the resurrection. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Risen Lord Jesus. Paul writes in II Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The Holy Spirit is present in the spirit of every genuine Christian (Romans 8:16), to express the resurrection-life of Jesus Christ in character and activity.

CHURCH: Apart from the resurrection-dynamic of Jesus Christ, the Church becomes a mere historical or theological society for further discussion of the same. Sometimes it becomes a fellowship of like-minded believers, gathering for subjective "worship" experiences. When the church becomes a social organization or religious institution it binds people up in the absolutism, authoritarianism and activism of religion.

Only on the basis of the Resurrection does the Church become the collective Body of the life of the Risen Lord Jesus. The Church is intended to be the collective expression and interactions of those "called-out" to function in resurrection-life; Jesus Christ living in resurrection community, the inaugurated kingdom of God, the fulfillment of the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16; Romans 9:6)..

Christianity IS resurrection, the resurrection dynamic and Life of Jesus Christ operative in everything. The Resurrection is not just an historical or theological fact to be believed; He is a living Person to be received by faith, moment by moment in every situation of our existence. Jesus said, "I AM the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25), and the implications of that are beyond the abilities of human contemplation.

Christianity IS Resurrection, because Jesus IS Resurrection and Life. Oh, that those who call themselves "Christians" today might understand what it meant for Jesus to be raised from the dead on that first Easter morning. It was Eternity intersecting into time with "eternal life." It was God re-creating humanity and society. It was God interpreting all of history. It was God in Christ bringing Life to a world dead in sin.

Christianity IS Resurrection. Have you received resurrection? Are you enjoying resurrection?

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I AM the Vine, You Are the Branches

Source worldinvisible.com

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. - John 15:1-8

“I am the vine, Ye are the branches” (John 15:5). What a simple thing it is to be a branch— the branch of a tree, or the branch of a vine! The branch grows out of the vine, or out of the tree, and there it lives and in due time bears fruit. It has no responsibility except just to receive from the root and stem sap and nourishment. And if we only by the Holy Spirit knew our relationship to Jesus Christ, our work would be changed into the brightest and most heavenly thing upon earth. Instead of there ever being soul-weariness or exhaustion, our work would be like a new experience, linking us to Jesus as nothing else can. For, alas! is it not often true that our work comes between us and Jesus? What folly! The very work He has to do in me, and I for Him, I take up in such a way that it separates me from Christ. Many a laborer in the vineyard has complained that he has too much work, and no time for close communion with Jesus, and that his usual work weakens his inclination for prayer, and that his too much intercourse with men darkens the spiritual life. Sad thought, that the bearing of fruit should separate the branch from the vine! That must be because we have looked upon our work as something else than the branch bearing fruit. May God deliver us from every false thought about the Christian life!

Now, just a few thoughts about this blessed branch-life.

In the first place it is a life of absolute dependence. The branch has nothing: it just depends upon the vine for everything. That word, absolute dependence, is one of the most solemn and large and precious of words. A great German theologian wrote two large volumes some years ago, to show that the whole of Calvin’s theology is summed up in that one principle of absolute dependence upon God; and he was right. If you can learn every moment of the day to depend upon God, everything will come right. You will get the higher life if you depend absolutely upon God.

Must I understand that when I have got to work, when I have to preach a sermon, or address a Bible class, or go out and visit the poor neglected ones, that all the responsibility of the work is on Christ?

That is exactly what Christ wants you to understand. Christ desires that in all your work the very foundation should be the simple, blessed consciousness: Christ must care for all.

And how does He fulfill the trust of that dependence? He does it by sending down the Holy Spirit—not now and then only as a special gift, for remember the relation between the vine and the branches is such that hourly, daily, unceasingly, there is the living connection maintained. The sap does not flow for a time, and then stop, and then flow again, but from moment to moment the sap flows from the vine to the branches. And just so, my Lord Jesus wants me to take that blessed position as a worker, and, morning by morning and day by day and hour by hour and step by step, in every work I have to go out to, just to abide before Him in the simple, utter helplessness of one who knows nothing, and is nothing, and can do nothing.

Absolute dependence upon God is the secret of all power in work. The branch has nothing but what it gets from the vine, and you and I can have nothing but what we get from Jesus.

But secondly, the life of the branch is not only a life of entire dependence, but of deep restfulness. Oh, that little branch, if it could think, and if it could feel, and if it could speak—and if we could have a little branch today to talk to us, and if we would say: “Come, branch of the vine, tell me, I want to learn from thee how I can be a true branch of the living Vine,” what would it answer? The little branch would whisper: “Man, I hear that you are wise, and I know that you can do a great many wonderful things. I know you have much strength and wisdom given to you, but I have one lesson for you. With all your hurry and effort in Christ’s work you never prosper. The first thing you need is to come and rest in your Lord Jesus. That is what I do. Since I grew out of that vine I have spent years and years, and all I have done is just to rest in the vine. When the time of spring came I had no anxious thought nor care. The vine began to pour its’ sap into me, and to give the bud and leaf. And when the time of summer came I had no care, and in the great heat I trusted the vine to bring moisture to keep me fresh. And in the time of harvest, when the owner came to pluck the grapes, I had no care. If there was anything in the grapes not good, the owner never blamed the branch; the blame was always on the vine. And if you would be a true branch of Christ, the living Vine, just rest on Him. Let Christ bear the responsibility.”

You say: “Won’t that make me slothful?” I tell you it will not. No one who learns to rest upon the living Christ can become slothful, for the closer your contact with Christ the more of the Spirit of His zeal and love will be borne in upon you. But, oh! begin to work in the midst of your entire dependence by adding to it deep restfulness. A man sometimes tries and tries to be dependent upon Christ, but he worries himself about this absolute dependence: he tries and he cannot get it. But let him sink down into entire restfulness every day.

Rest in Christ, who can give wisdom and strength, and you do not know how that restfulness will often prove to be the very best part of your message. You plead with people and you argue, and they get the idea: There is a man arguing and striving with me. They only feel: Here are two men dealing with each other. But if you will let the deep rest of God come over you, the rest in Christ Jesus, the peace and rest and holiness of heaven, that restfulness will bring a blessing to the heart, even more than the words you speak.

But a third thought. The branch teaches a lesson of much fruitfulness. You know the Lord Jesus repeated that word “fruit” often in that parable; He spoke first of fruit, and then of more fruit, and then of much fruit. Yes, you are ordained not only to bear fruit, but to bear much fruit. “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” In the first place, Christ said: “I am the Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman who has charge of Me and you.” He who will watch over the connection between Christ and the branches is God; and it is in the power of God, through Christ, that we are to bear fruit.

O Christians! you know this world is perishing for the lack of workers. And it needs not only more workers. The workers are saying, some more earnestly than others, “We need not only more workers, but we need that our workers should have a new power, a different life—that the workers should be able to bring more blessing.”

What is wanting? There is wanting the close connection between the worker and the heavenly Vine. Christ, the heavenly Vine, has blessings that He could pour on tens of thousands who are perishing. Christ, the, heavenly Vine, has power to provide the heavenly grapes. But “ye are the branches,” and you cannot bear heavenly fruit unless you are in close connection with Jesus Christ.

Do not confound work and fruit. There may be a good deal of work for Christ that is not the fruit of the heavenly Vine. Do not seek for work only. Oh! study this question of fruit-bearing. It means the very life and the very power and the very Spirit and the very love within the heart of the Son of God—it means the heavenly Vine Himself coming into your heart and mine.

Stand in close connection with the heavenly Vine and say: “Lord Jesus, nothing less than the sap that flows through Thyself, nothing less than the Spirit of Thy divine life is what we ask. Lord Jesus, I pray Thee let Thy Spirit flow through me in all my work for Thee.” I tell you again that the sap of the heavenly Vine is nothing but the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is nothing but the life of the heavenly Vine, and what you must get from Christ is nothing less than a strong inflow of the Holy Spirit. You need it exceedingly, and you want nothing more than that. Remember that. Do not expect Christ to give a bit of strength here, and a bit of blessing yonder, and a bit of help over there. As the vine does its work in giving its own peculiar sap to the branch, so expect Christ to give His own Holy Spirit into your heart, and then you will bear much fruit. And if you have only begun to bear fruit, and are listening to the word of Christ in the parable, “more fruit,” “much fruit,” remember that in order that you should bear more fruit you just require more of Jesus in your life and heart.

A fourth thought. The life of the branch is a life of close communion. Let us again ask: What has the branch to do? You know that precious, inexhaustible word that Christ used: Abide. Your life is to be an abiding life. And how is the abiding to be? It is to be just like the branch in the vine, abiding every minute of the day. There are the branches, in close communion, in unbroken communion, with the vine, from January to December. And cannot I live every day—it is to me an almost terrible thing that we should ask the question— cannot I live in abiding communion with the heavenly Vine? You say, “But I am so much occupied with other things.” You may have ten hours’ hard work daily, during which your brain has to be occupied with temporal things; God orders it so. But the abiding work is the work of the heart, not of the brain, the work of the heart clinging to and resting in Jesus, a work in which the Holy Spirit links us to Christ Jesus. Oh, do believe that deeper down than the brain, deep down in the inner life, you can abide in Christ, so that every moment you are free the consciousness will come: Blessed Jesus, I am still in Thee. If you will learn for a time to put aside other work and to get into this abiding contact with the heavenly Vine, you will find that fruit will come.

What is the application to our life with regard to this abiding communion? What does it mean? It means close fellowship with Christ in secret prayer. I am sure there are Christians who do long for the higher life, and who sometimes have got a great blessing, and have at times found a great inflow of heavenly joy and a great outflow of heavenly gladness; and yet after a time it has passed away. They have not understood that close, personal, actual communion with Christ is an absolute necessity for daily life. Take time to be alone with Christ. Nothing in heaven or earth can free you from the necessity for that, if you are to be happy and holy Christians.

Oh, how many Christians look upon it as a burden, and a tax, and a duty, and a difficulty to get much alone with God! That is the great hindrance to our Christian life everywhere. We need more quiet fellowship with God, and I tell you in the name of the heavenly Vine that you cannot be healthy branches, branches into which the heavenly sap can flow, unless you take plenty of time for communion with God. If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with Him, and give Him time every day to work in you, and to keep up the link of connection between you and Himself, He cannot give you that blessing of His unbroken fellowship. Jesus Christ asks you to live in close communion with Him. Let every heart say: “0 Christ, it is this I long for, it is this I choose.” And He will gladly give it to you.

And then my last thought. The life of the branch is a life of entire surrender. This word, entire surrender, is a great and solemn word, and I believe we do not understand its meaning. But yet the little branch preaches it. “Have you anything to do, little branch, beside bearing grapes?” “No, nothing.” “Are you fit for nothing?” “Fit for nothing! The Bible says that a bit of vine cannot even be used as a pen; it is fit for nothing but to be burned.” “And now, what do you understand, little branch, about your relation to the vine?” “My relation is just this: I am utterly given up to the vine, and the vine can give me as much or as little sap as it chooses. Here I am at its disposal, and the vine can do with me what it likes!”

Oh, we need this entire surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the most difficult points to make clear, and one of the most important and needful points to explain—what this entire surrender is. It is an easy thing for a man or a number of men to offer themselves up to God for entire consecration, and to say, “Lord, it is my desire to give up myself entirely to Thee.” That is of great value and often brings very rich blessing. But the one question I ought to study quietly is: What is meant by entire surrender? It means that just as literally as Christ was given up entirely to God, I am given up entirely to Christ. Is that too strong? Some of you think so. Some think that never can be; that just as entirely and absolutely as Christ gave up His life to do nothing but seek the Father’s pleasure, and depend on the Father absolutely and entirely, I am to do nothing but to seek the pleasure of Christ. But that is actually true. Christ Jesus came to breathe His own Spirit into us, to make us find our very highest happiness in living entirely for God, just as He did. 0 beloved brethren, if that is the case, then I ought to say: “Yes, as true as it is of that little branch of the vine, so true, by God’s grace, I would have it be of me. I would live day by day that Christ may be able to do with me what He will.”

Ah! here comes the terrible mistake that lies at the bottom of so much of our own religion. A man thinks: “I have my business and family duties, and my relations as a citizen, and all this I cannot change. And now alongside of all this I am to take in religion and the service of God as something that will keep me from sin. God help me to perform my duties properly!” That is not right. When Christ came, He came and bought the sinner with His blood. If there was a slave market here and I were to buy a slave, I should take that slave away to my own house from his old surroundings, and he would live at my house as my personal property, and I could order him about all the day. And if he were a faithful slave he would live as having no will and no interests of his own, his one care being to promote the well-being and honor of his master. And in like manner I, who have been bought with the blood of Christ, have been bought to live every day with the one thought—How can I please my Master?

Oh, we find the Christian life so difficult because we seek for God’s blessing while we live in our own will. We would be glad to live the Christian life according to our own liking. We make our own plans and choose our own work, and then we ask the Lord Jesus to come in and take care that sin shall not conquer us too much, and that we shall not go too far wrong; we ask Him to come in and give us so much of His blessing. But our relation to Jesus ought to be such that we are entirely at His disposal, and every day come to Him humbly and straightforwardly, and say: “Lord, is there anything in me that is not according to Thy will, that has not been ordered by Thee, or that is not entirely given up to Thee?” Oh, if we would wait and wait patiently, there would spring up a relationship between us and Christ so close and so tender that we should afterwards be amazed how far distant our intercourse with Him had previously been.

I know there are a great many difficulties about this question of holiness; I know that all do not think exactly the same with regard to it. But that would be to me a matter of comparative indifference if I could see that all are honestly longing to be free from every sin. But I am afraid that unconsciously there are in hearts often compromises with the idea: “We cannot be without sin; we must sin a little every day—we cannot help it.” Oh, that people would actually cry to God: “Lord, do keep me from sin!” Give yourself utterly to Jesus, and ask Him to do His very utmost for you in keeping you from sin.

In conclusion, let me gather up all in one word. Christ Jesus said: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” In other words: “I, the living One who have so completely given Myself to you, am the Vine. You cannot trust Me too much. I am the Almighty Worker, full of a divine life and power.” Christians, you are the branches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is in your heart the consciousness: “I am not a strong, healthy, fruit-bearing branch, I am not closely linked with Jesus, I am not living in Him as I should be”— then listen to Him saying: “I am the Vine, I will receive you, I will draw you to Myself, I will bless you, I will strengthen you, I will fill you with My Spirit. I, the Vine, have taken you to be My branches; I have given Myself utterly to you; children, give yourselves utterly to Me. I have surrendered Myself as God absolutely to you; I became Man and died for you that I might be entirely yours. Come and surrender yourselves entirely to be Mine.”

What shall our answer be? Oh, let it be a prayer from the depths of our heart, that the living Christ may take each one of us and link us close to Himself. Let our prayer be that He, the living Vine, shall so link each of us to Himself that we shall go on our way with our hearts singing: “He is my Vine, and I am His branch; I want nothing more— now I have the everlasting Vine.” Then when you get alone with Him, worship and adore Him, praise and trust Him, love Him and wait for His love. “Thou art my Vine, and I am Thy branch. It is enough, my soul is satisfied.” Glory to His blessed name!

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Redemption and Forgiveness of Our Sins

The most important theological meaning of the Resurrection is that attributed to it by Paul. By Jesus’ death on the Cross, His resurrection saves and justifies us according to Romans 4:25, “Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God].”

www.desiringgod.org ©  Desiring God

How is the resurrection connected to our forgiveness? Isn't it the death of Jesus that takes away our sin, because he bore our sins and took our judgment (1 Corinthians 15:3)? Yes. But the connection with the resurrection is very important. Romans 4:25 puts it like this. "He was handed over [to death] on account of our transgressions, and he was raised on account of our justification."

This means that by his death he paid the penalty for our sins and purchased our acquittal, our justification, our forgiveness. And since the achievement of the cross was so complete and the work of our justification so decisive, God raised Jesus from the dead to validate our forgiveness and to vindicate his Son's righteousness and to celebrate the work of justification.

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Channels of His Power

www.understandingprayerandfaith.com

Empowered living as the “sons and daughters in the image of Christ” - Jesus’ Resurrection gives us eternal resurrection life, and newness even in this life. The Word of God says, “We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

We further walk in this sonship according to Philippians 3:10-11, “ [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].” - Emphasis added…

“And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh.

For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!” (Romans 8:11-15)

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We Are Channels for His Power

Source - www.smithwigglesworth.com

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death...I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:10, 13-14).

Paul got a vision and revelation of the resurrection power of Christ, and so he was saying, “I will not stop until I have laid hold of what God has laid hold of me for.”

For what purpose has God laid hold of us? To be channels for His power. He wants to manifest the power of the Son of God through you and me. God helps us to manifest the faith of Christ, the compassion of Christ, the resurrection power of Christ.

There is power in the name of Jesus. Let us apprehend it, the power of His Resurrection, the power of His fellowship with the Father, and the power of His love.

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Following Christ Jesus

Source christianscience.com

Jesus inspires us to rise up and follow him. In Christian Science, this is more than worship. His love was so powerful that it rouses us to love God supremely and to love others as ourselves. Learning from Jesus evokes a desire to obey him and emulate his works. This includes healing the sick by becoming so filled with the eternal Christ spirit that all fear and doubt vanish. Christ is that Word of God lived so abundantly by Jesus that we can discern it in all ages.

Christ, the title given to Jesus, is the healing power that dissolves suffering in exchange for the profound feeling of being loved and being well. Mary Baker Eddy finds in Scriptures evidence that Jesus was human—among us—but he was the divinely appointed Messiah, or as he said himself, “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:16). 

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The Greatest News in All the World 

www.desiringgod.org ©  Desiring God

The greatest news in all the world is that God and his Son are most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in them. And to make that true God raised his Son Jesus from the dead to reign forevermore.

In raising Him from the dead:

• he gave us forgiveness and glorified Jesus as the all-sufficient forgiver;

• he gave us a friend to count on and glorified Jesus as utterly reliable;

• he gave us guidance and unchanging truth and glorified Jesus as the absolute foundation for truth and righteousness;

• he gave us a life that is not pitiable but enviable, a ministry that is not in vain but fruitful, and glorified Jesus as the source and goal of all life and all ministry;

• and he gave us everlasting joy that will not be ended by death, and glorified Jesus as the author of life, the victor over death, and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

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