Dead or Alive
In the beginning of Luke 24, Luke tells of the women who’d come to the tomb to dress the body of Christ. As they arrive, they are frightened to find an open tomb and two figures in gleaming bright clothes. In verse 5, the gleaming figures asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
What a powerful question! The women returned that day looking for the lifeless body of their Lord, but He wasn’t in the tomb. He was alive!
We live in a fallen world that is spiritually dead. In today’s culture, social sins, violence, and depravity is pervasive. The world demands conformity and participation its evils.. It’s called “fitting in”. What used to be wrong is now explained away by declaring those who hold different values as judgmental, naïve and narrow-thinking.
Coming to know Jesus Christ brings us life. Spiritually alive, we no longer linger where sin is rampant. Instead, we stop doing the things that lead to spiritual death. Galatians 5:16-22 says that living in the spirit requires us to stop committing sins like sexual immorality, moral corruption, idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, anger, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, jealousy, and drunkenness to name a few. Instead, we are commanded to exercise spiritual gifts such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There was no doubt that day at the tomb that Christ was alive. Our challenge today is to live our lives in the spirit so that, like that day at the tomb, there’s no question about whether we’re still dead in the grips of sin or alive in Christ.
– TH –