SPIRITUAL MATTERS: Once fearful, now bold in faith

Easter is a wonderful day to remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Less than two weeks ago, millions of His followers gathered across the globe to declare that “Christ is risen, He’s risen indeed.”
Two thousand years have passed since the resurrection and Christians are still celebrating the same thing. If you think about it, it is pretty remarkable.
With that said, it is not primarily the death of Christ that has been under scrutiny, it is His resurrection.
Most people are willing to acknowledge the death of Jesus, but the resurrection is where the controversy exists.
I find it interesting to note that the disciples never offered any proofs of the resurrection. They never tried to explain it.
Instead, they just said, “He is risen, and we are His witnesses.” They were basically saying, “We are the proof of the resurrection. Look at our lives. We were once bound by fear, but now we are bold in faith because we’ve encountered the risen Lord.”
They gave no proofs, just the power of a transformed life.
Following in the disciples’ pattern, I am not going to offer any proofs of the resurrection. Even if I did, you might not believe them.
But there is one proof that is nearly impossible to refute and that is the power of the transformed life. People, who at one time were enslaved to sin, have encountered the risen Jesus and it has changed their life. It has been happening since Jesus rose, and it is still happening today.
The Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He did not die for crimes that He committed.
Rather, He died to be the substitute for your sins and for my sins. Where we deserved the just penalty for our sins, Jesus bore the punishment that we deserved. God was pleased to pour out His wrath against sin on Jesus. He took our place.
Yet, Jesus did not stay dead. After He bore the sins of the world, God raised Him from the dead, as if to say, “I approve of what you have done and you find favor in my sight.”
Because Jesus lives, so can we. We must recognize that we are sinners and that our sin separates us from a holy God. If we will ask God to forgive us from our sin, and if we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, then we can be forgiven our sin and adopted into God’s family. To repent of our sin and believe in Jesus is what it means to encounter the risen Savior.
When we turn to God in repentance and faith, God begins a work in us to change us from the inside out. We start to look less like a sinner and more like Jesus Christ.
Christ becomes our master and our lives are transformed by His grace. It is not long before we become another proof of the resurrection—a life transformed by an encounter with the risen Lord.
The Rev. Joey McNally is senior pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church, Clarkston

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