Truth of the Risen Lord

Jesus did not come to earth to make you a better person - He is not the author of some sort of self-improvement plan. No, He came to give life to dead people. Because, after all, we were spiritually dead before He made us alive. The apostle Paul was no exception; he wrote in 1st Timothy chapter 1:
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

There it is - Jesus came to earth to save us, to die for fallen humanity, and to be raised to new life so that we can enjoy His new life. Paul was the most religious man of them all - while he was persecuting Christians.  The religion of humanity did not serve him well; he had to have a life transformation - the replacement of a heart of sin with a heart of righteousness.  Humans may have ideas for improving our culture, but they pale in comparison to the superiority of the gospel.

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In order that we and others might live in the resurrected life that Jesus invites us to participate in, it's important that we have a grasp on its true meaning. Romans chapter 6 offers this breathtaking look at what Jesus has done for us:
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

We have recently celebrated Easter Sunday, which marks the resurrection of our Lord. And, while you have those who would entangle the true meaning of the resurrection with more progressive takes, it is important that we hold on tightly to the truth of the gospel.

The fact of the matter is that the resurrection is not some sort of self-improvement program. Jesus did not come to make humans better, but to make us free.  In fact, rather than try to better ourselves, He calls us to die to ourselves so that we are brand new.

Jesus did not come to reinforce our own identity, but to give us His identity. He did not come in order to make humanity live together peacefully on our own, but to raise up fallen humanity to peace with God. Through peace with God, we can then have peace with one another.

There does seem to be a confusion of the fruit of the resurrection and the fact of it.  Jesus rose from the dead to bring people to Himself, not to make us love each other in our human strength.  Socialism, humanism, secularism, globalism, and other forms of human exaltation are merely cheap substitutes for the truth of a new creation.  Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and other inventors of world religions are still in the grave - for the Christian, the grave is empty, and we have been raised to new life.

But we live in a day in which the "progressive," or really, "regressive," individuals who want to redefine Christianity and take aim at the essential doctrines of our faith are seemingly having a field day in diluting and distorting traditional Christian teaching.  Alisa Childers, in a piece that was posted on her website several years ago and recently appeared at Crosswalk.com, wrote:

Progressive Christians are often open to re-defining and re-interpreting the Bible on hot-button moral issues like homosexuality and abortion, and also cardinal doctrines such as the virgin conception and the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

She continues: 

Comments you might hear:

• The resurrection of Jesus doesn't have to be factual to speak truth....
• The church's historic position on sexuality is archaic and needs to be updated within a modern framework...
• The idea of a literal hell is offensive to non-Christians and needs to be re-interpreted....

Childers identifies a shift in emphasis, writing:

There is no doubt that the Bible commands us to take care of the unfortunate and defend those who are oppressed. This is a very real and profoundly important part of what it means to live out our Christian faith. However, the core message of Christianity—the gospel—is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and resurrected, and thereby reconciled us to God. This is the message that will truly bring freedom to the oppressed.

She goes on to identify these "Comments you might hear:"

• Sin doesn't separate us from God—we are made in His image and He called us good....
• God didn't actually require a sacrifice for our sins—the first Christians picked up on the pagan practice of animal sacrifice and told the Jesus story in similar terms....
• We don't really need to preach the gospel—we just need to show love by bringing justice to the oppressed and provision to the needy...

Don't miss this: as Childers emphasizes, and I agree, the core message of Christianity - THE GOSPEL - is that "Jesus died for our sins, was buried and resurrected, and thereby reconciled us to God." The risen Christ was our substitute for sin, paid the penalty, and has been raised to new life. And, all who believe on Him are raised, too.  This has enormous implications for the world we live in - the power of a changed life can impact the world in significant ways.  Rather than buy in to human philosophies that want to make the world "better," we can submit to God's ways, which can bring lasting change and eternal life.