Dear Trinity (part 4)

1 Corinthians 15.12-20

If no resurrection?

1. Futile faith. v.17

2. Still in sin. v.17

3. The sleeping? Perished. v.18

But, Christ has been raised from the dead. And more than that! He is the first fruits.

Resurrection is not a very odd event in the present old world, but the archetypal event and the paradigmatic event in the new world. NT Wright at Veritas Forum

For Paul the point of the resurrection is not simply that the creator god has done something remarkable for one solitary individual, but that, in and through the resurrection, 'the present evil age' has been invaded by the 'age to come', the time of restoration, return, covenant renewal, and forgiveness. And event occurred as a result of which the world is a different place, and human beings have the possibility to become a different kind of people." NT Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Fortress, 332.

Joe Johnson asked Dallas Willard, "Why is he [Bill Vaswig] so effective in his prayers for healing?" Willard answered, "Because he lives in a universe where those things happen--naturally and normally."

Dear Trinity,

We are in a tug-o-war. Bad new: we are the rope. On one side is the old world were were born into, where we learned to walk and talk. It has a strong pull. That world makes a lot of sense. If someone hits you, you hit them. Maybe they will learn to not do that again. If people don't listen to you, say it LOUDER. The old world feels like the most natural reality, because it is what we are used to. Guilty people should get what is coming to them. Lay in the bed you made. Do the crime, pay the time.

Maybe the core reality of the old world is: you die. Everyone dies. Are you poor? You die. Rich? You die. Healthy people die and so do sick people. The only questions are "How will you die?" and "When will you die?" To return to the tug-o-war image, you could say the old world has a death grip on us.

The old world's strength is in it's rigor-mortis, it's inflexibility. it is a stiff grip. 

The good news is, you are a root that is in contention. Because you are held by strong hands. Living hands. Raised from the dead, muscle, sinew, bone, tendon, oxygenated from a strong and devoted heart, receiving covenantal impulses from the head which are communicating  the following through the nervous system:

    "I'm not going to let go."

    "Ever."

    "I'm not just alive--I am resurrected from the dead."

    "Death, sin, the old world full of fate, and luck, and karma, and bootstraps, vacillating wildly between optimism and pessimism, between conservative and progressing, that old world killed me. But God raised me from the the dead. And, I'm the first fruits--the archetype of the world to come. In fact my resurrection from that old world of death and decay, my resurrection is the inauguration of the kingdom, the new creation, the re-genesis."

The key question for you Trinity, is "do you perceive it?" Or is the death grip so strong, that Adam and Eve rebellion and death so practiced, the crowd's and Barabbas' insurrection so persuasive that you have lost hope, lost faith in the resurrection?

The old country can only imagine death solutions to life's problems.

The new country can only imagine life solutions to death's problems.

The old death country has solutions for eradicating birth defects, the sick, the undesirable, the guilty, the unplanned, the lonely.

The new country also has solutions: Life! Love! Compassion! Tender care! Acceptance! Redemption! Forgiveness! Transformation! Redemption!

Do you feel the cold stiff hand of the old country?

Do you feel the warm supple hands of the resurrected Lord, contending for you now?

That soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose. I will not, I will not desert to it's foes. That soul though all hell should endeavor to take. I'l never, no never, no never forsake!