Early on Monday morning as we go for the snooze button on the bed­side alarm for the third time, what difference does the resurrection of Jesus make? Or as we lower someone we love dearly into the cold earth, confronted again by the painful reality of death, and in an honest moment admit “one day this will be me”, does the resurrection make a real dif­ference?

This article is based on two premises: that the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus actually happened, and that, because it hap­pened, by faith in our crucified and risen Lord we can experience the resurrection. The Bible makes it clear that if Jesus was not really raised from the dead, to speak of expe­riencing the resurrection makes little sense. However, even those Christians who affirm a genuine resurrection ought to ask: what good does it do to believe Christ was raised if it makes no difference to our lives? How then are we to experience and be trans­formed by the resurrection — every day and forever?

The story is told of a Christian scholar in the 1930s who was writing a book on the res­urrection. One day as, he was working in his study, an important truth dawned on him afresh. He got up from his chair and began pacing the full length of the study reciting four simple yet profound words: “Christ is alive today, Christ is alive today!”

Too easily we have forgotten this reality — this most basic truth. Over and above all else, the resurrection establishes that Jesus is still alive. Consider these two of many passages: “Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has domin­ion over him; the life he lives, he lives to God” (Rom. 6:9-10); “he always lives to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7:25). Jesus Christ is alive today — we are not dealing with some dead figure of ancient history. If this were the case, Jesus would appear only as a minor footnote in some obscure history book.

Have we grasped the importance of this truth? Because Jesus is alive it is possible to encounter him; in fact, Christianity is a per­sonal relationship with our risen Lord. Before it ever became a system of doctrines, Christianity is first and foremost a relation­ship with a person. It is not simply a matter of what we know, but who we know!

It was this encounter with the risen Christ that transformed lives in New Testament times. If Christ was alive then, he is alive now. If they could meet him back then, we too can meet him today. This risen Christ is alive and longs to meet us. The res­urrection is a call for us to meet the risen Christ with the wounds of past failures, mis­takes, hurts, sin and guilt — to find forgive­ness and healing. If this doesn’t make a real difference to Monday morning nothing will.

Resurrection and lordship are vitally linked: “and through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:4); “for this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14:9; see also Eph. 1:19-23, where the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to cosmic lordship is for us who believe).

The resurrection was God’s vindication of Christ’s ministry — it made sense of his death. The resurrection is a graphic way of announcing that he has done what no one else has ever done. He alone is Lord.

The practical implications of this for every day life are not always immediately under­stood. What difference does Christ’s lord­ship make for each day? Irrational tragedies and horrible outrages do occur — we some­times wonder if the world is mad, and has simply been left to run out of control. The resurrection reminds us that God will win in the end — that Jesus is in control of the uni­verse and our lives (Eph. 1:21, 22; Phil. 2:9­ 11). We are allowed to live with hope — the resurrection is proof enough that no matter how bad things get, we can trust in God. He loves us. He has our best interests at heart (Rom. 8:28-39). The resurrection gives us a glimpse of his final victory.

The ethics of Paul are based on the fun­damental conviction that “Jesus is the risen Lord”. Colossians 3:1 is an excellent case in point: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above”; or “So then, just as you received Christ as Lord, continue to live in him” (Col. 2:6).

New Testament scholar G. Walter Hansen argues that the resurrection of Christ in Paul’s thought both establishes the authority of Jesus Christ as Lord, and gives liberty to believers to serve the Lord. This is certainly the case in Romans 12:1-15:13. It may come as a surprise to many that lordship and liberty go together. For Paul writes in Romans 14:8, 9: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” In the context of Romans 14 — Paul is promoting moral free­dom, but not moral relativism — freedom from the dictates of an over-zealous fellow Christian is not freedom from obedience to the Lord.

It is through the resurrection of Christ that we are indwelt by the Spirit who is at work in us, changing us at this present time into what we ought to be. It is the Spirit — a resurrec­tion gift — that enables us to serve the Lord in liberty. Romans 8:11f captures this well: “And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you ... Therefore, brothers and sis­ters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature.” The resurrection gives Christ the authority to call us to obedience, the Spirit gives us liberty to obey his lord­ship.

Death is real and frightening. We pay funeral directors well to make death appear a little more distant, a little less real. We are a bit like the comedian Woody Allen who said “I am not afraid of dying — I just don’t want to be there when it happens”, or Maurice Chevalier who said “old age is not so bad — when you con­sider the alternative”. At least they were being honest — without hope, without the Resurrection — how can anyone view death with optimism?

The Biblical vision of Life in the face of death, flowing from the resurrection of Jesus, is immensely hope-filled. There is nothing nega­tive or pessimistic in the Pauline letters — the resurrection of Christ is something entirely new, pioneering, something pivotal to our hope. Because Christ has been raised bodily and glori­ously to life, so also we will be raised bodily and gloriously to life; the first fruits provide the assurance of the full harvest (1 Cor. 15:20-23). Take this wonderful verse in 2 Cor. 4:14: “because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.” This verse, in context, doesn’t simply have future implications but also present impact: “Therefore, we do not lose heart ... though out­wardly we are wasting away inwardly we are being renewed day by day ... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for a glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:16ff). Here we have the assurance that death does not grimly write the last page of our earthly exis­tence — but life does! This certainly puts present sufferings, growing old, illness, pain and death itself in an entirely different light.

The resurrection enables the future — the new creation — to break into the present. The tri­umph of the forces of life over the forces of death is the stamp of God’s promised new cre­ation in Scripture. In this way the power of God’s promised future reaches back into the present and decisively shapes it.

This future/present orientation, based on the resurrection, in Paul’s thought is very impor­tant. In a key passage on the resurrection of the body in 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul speaks of the believers being raised, in the future, with “spiritual” bodies (v. 44) and of death being swallowed up in victory (vv. 51,54), there is a present impact. In the meantime, with this sure hope before them, Christians are free to give themselves to the work of the kingdom — know­ing that their work in the Lord is not in vain (v. 58).

To be sure, we do not yet see the full impli­cations of this identification with our risen Lord. We still wait for the redemption of our bodies from this sin-tarnished world, where things fall apart and people become sick and die. We groan because of the tragedies we experi­ence. Yet in the midst of our pain the resurrec­tion makes a significant difference — every day and forever.