Easter is when Christians celebrate the resurrection. But Jesus’ exit from the tomb wasn’t the end of His earthly ministry—it was the beginning. Before His death on the Cross, Jesus lived as an example of how His followers should live. Remember, Jesus laid His deity down to live like a man and die like a man. He had to succeed in all the ways the first man, Adam, failed.
In the wilderness, Satan tempted Jesus to use His deity outside the will of God. For instance, since Jesus hadn’t eaten in forty days Satan tempted Him to turn rocks into bread. The whole of the temptation shows us how Jesus lived on Earth. He was surrendered to the will of God, filled with the Spirit of God, and obedient to the Word of God. He lived exactly how we are to live as His followers.
When believers unite with Jesus in His death, we are forgiven and set free from the penalty and power of sin. The redemption of Christ’s blood on the Cross enables me to identify with Christ’s life per His resurrection. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4).
Jesus got up from the grave and visibly witnessed to others that He was alive. Then He went to be with His Father in Heaven. Jesus went up and the Holy Spirit came down so that we could live the life of Christ on Earth. Now we can live surrendered to the will of God, be filled with the Spirit of God, and be obedient to the Word of God—just like Jesus—because His grace gives us His life through the Holy Spirit. When he Holy Spirit came down, believers went out; visibly living in the power of Jesus and sharing their faith with others.
It’s one thing to celebrate the resurrection, and we most definitely should! But, as believers, we are to live in the power of the resurrection every day; surrrendered to the will of God, filled with the Spirit of God, and obedient to the word of God. Oh yeah, they went back to church, “and were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:53).
