New Resurrection Life

New Resurrection Life

A man named Thomas had been an alcoholic for twenty-two years. He had tried and failed to quit seventeen times. On a Wednesday afternoon, broken and sober for three days, he walked into a church and heard the pastor say: 'The resurrection is not just about what happens after death. It is about a new life available right now to everyone willing to die to the old one.' He wept in the back row. He gave his life to Christ that afternoon. That was eleven years ago. He now leads a recovery ministry for addicted men. 'The Easter miracle happens in ordinary Wednesday afternoons,' he says. 'The resurrection isn't only in April. It's available any day you die to the old life.'

Romans 6 describes baptism as a burial and a resurrection — dying with Christ, being raised with Christ. But Paul doesn't leave it in the past tense. The purpose clause is present and future: 'that we too may live a new life.' The resurrection of Christ is not only a historical event to be celebrated annually; it is a power released into the world that is available to believers right now. The resurrection life Paul describes is the daily, ongoing experience of someone who has died to the old patterns and been raised to walk differently. This is not a distant hope; it is a present reality accessed through continued trust and surrender. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available for the ordinary Wednesday of your life.