The New Life
If I say, “Ahhh, this is...” you might complete the sentence like this: “...the life!” We’ve all said it, lying out by the pool or next to the ocean, relaxing with a cool drink somewhere. Most of us have had a taste of how “the life” feels.
Many make the mistake of believing that the life is this life, just more of it and better. So they move to the tropical islands and soak in what this world has to offer. But soon they discover that it’s not better, it’s just more of the same.
I remember an incident back when Wendi and I were newlyweds; on our honeymoon in Hawaii. We were on the beautiful island of Maui, and I decided to try parasailing. Trying to impress my new bride and wanting the whole experience, I requested the longest rope so that I could sail as high as possible. Wendi stayed in the boat.
The driver was a tanned, muscular guy with long blond hair and a handlebar mustache. If anyone appeared to be living the life, he did. He got to cruise the waters around Maui all day, soak up the rays, and make the big bucks. What else could he want? He even seemed to have the perfect name, and I can’t forget it: Rhett Tucker. Not Bill, Bob, or Doug. Having me hoisted high in the air, it appeared he was interested in more than the waves and the rays. I could see from the end of my tether in the sky that Rhett was pretty interested in my bathing suit-clad wife!
He seemed to give me the extra-long ride while he flirted below with Wendi, never glancing in my direction. I was anxious for my seemingly endless sky-high adventure to end. And nearly 38 years later, if Rhett Tucker is still around, he’s no doubt an old, sun-damaged guy, like a lot of old guys who lived to chase the things they believed would provide the life. But there’s something much better than “the life,” something God created us all to experience. The Bible describes a life better than the so-called life; it is called new life.
Ironically, biblically speaking, dead people are the ones looking for the life. They generally pursue more comfort, more stuff, more of what the world has to offer, thinking this is how they will secure the elusive life they believe is out there somewhere. The only problem is that the more of that stuff they acquire, the more disappointed they become in the life they thought was the life. Being dead, they don’t realize that what they need is to awake from their state of deadness and not simply find an improved version of the life they’re living, but find the new life God offers.
That’s where Easter comes in. Jesus demonstrated what it took to gain the new life available to all. It required death and resurrection. The good news is—we’re already dead! Paul writes, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). The world is full of dead people trying to dress up death and call it the life. Jesus offers an entirely new life, born out of death. It looks like this: You were dead…
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-7).
Easter is about Jesus rising from the dead. He died for your sins and rose bodily from the grave. Apart from Christ, “the life” is nothing more than dressed-up death. If you have received Him, God raised you! In Him, you are risen, you are risen indeed!! Resurrection life is new life, a completely new life.
“When you were dead in your transgressions...He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions”
—Colossians 2:13