Power to Rise

It is not simply the fact of Christ's resurrection that we are called to affirm but the power of His resurrection. It is true that to throw doubt on the reality of the bodily resurrection of Christ is to throw doubt on the whole claim of Christian faith. Biblical faith is grounded in a real historical event, even if that event is beyond present explanation. Reducing the truth of the resurrection into a consoling metaphor or a triumphant symbol of good triumphing over evil while being skeptical about its historicity may satisfy trendy theologians and find some acceptance by a despairing world but it fails to do justice to the death-shattering confidence and the sin-slaying freedom that is our inheritance in Christ.
But what of those who have a belief that Jesus really rose from the dead and yet live as if it has little personal relevance to our everyday lives. This would be to have a form of godliness but to deny its present power - something the apostle Paul strongly warned against. The life of faith cannot exist apart from a real participation in the power of Christ's death and resurrection. We cannot slip into the Kingdom without being united with Him in His dying and rising. It is the meaning and power of the cross/resurrection event that must come through to us if we are to know its power to aid us in our personal struggle with evil desires '...as those who have been brought from death to life.