September 29

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For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, we also shall be of resurrection. Romans 6:5, KJV

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🔊 Death and resurrection were prophetically written into the fabric of creation in the very beginning, when God created plants and trees bearing seeds that must fall into the ground, die and then bear fruit.  Seeds are generally small and unremarkable in colour, and sometimes even wrinkled and ugly.  But when the seed passes through death, it is ‘raised’ to give beautiful flowers and delicious fruit.  The same is true of believers.  As we look on our own lives, we are discouraged and tempted to despair.  But as we yield to the cross and let go of our lives, to be filled with the Spirit, God makes us “of resurrection”.  Resurrection is not mere resuscitation or restoration.  It is transformation from one order of life to another – the two realms are so different that there seems almost no relationship between them.  Certainly, resurrection life cannot be taught.  It cannot be entered into by small stages.  If we will let go of our lives in absolute surrender to the love of God, we will experience not just a measure of hope or a renewal of faith.  We will experience a transformation so deep that we will hardly be able to recognise ourselves.  Like the sluggish caterpillar that takes to the wing as a butterfly, so our sad, tired hearts soar as they leave behind the heaviness of the ‘cocoon’ of self-centred flesh.  This is hope that never tires and faith that never wavers, for it is the glory of the risen Christ in our hearts.