The Resurrected Life: Embracing Love, Surrender, and Contentment

Resurrection Sunday is, by any measure, the high point on the church calendar. This Resurrection Day, we were reminded of some foundational and essential trusts for those who follow Jesus’ path.

Galatians 5:24-26 expresses some essential elements for living the Resurrection Life.

1. You are God’s beloved.
2. God can be trusted with our surrender.
3. The Spirit leads us toward Jesus.
4. The way of Jesus embraces humility, healing, and contentment.

The resurrected life is, first and foremost, a beloved life. This profound truth echoes through the ages: You are loved—deeply, passionately, and eternally—by the God who created you. He pursues you relentlessly, and his love for you is not contingent on your appearance, performance, or behavior.

This beloved status leads us to the second aspect of the resurrected life: it is a yielded life. We are called to crucify our flesh with its passions and desires, surrendering to the only one who can be trusted with our hearts. This surrender may feel frightening, as if we're giving up control. But in reality, we're being called away from the very things that cause us suffering and pain, towards joy, peace, patience, and kindness.

The word translated "passions" in Galatians 5:24 (pathēma) is particularly interesting, as it's often translated as "suffer" in the New Testament. This linguistic connection reminds us that sometimes our passions lead us towards pain, but Jesus calls us away from such suffering. He invites us to stop being enslaved to our earthly desires and instead luxuriate in His love.

The yielded life might feel limiting at first, but it actually leads to true freedom. Just as I knew that I always had a home and family with Mommaw Garnet, we can rest assured that in Christ, we always have a place of belonging and provision.

Thirdly, the resurrected life marches to the beat that the Spirit is drumming. We are called to stay in step with the Spirit, neither rushing ahead nor lagging behind.
 
As we walk in step with the Spirit, we journey towards Jesus by seeking the opposite of conceit, provocation, and envy. Instead, we pursue humility, healing, and contentment.

Humility involves recognizing our own fallibility and using our power and influence to lift others up, not to lord over them. We're called to be people who bring healing to the hurting, not irritation to the injured. Like a soothing balm, our presence should leave others feeling better, even if their circumstances haven't changed.

Contentment is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the resurrected life. It involves being present in each moment, focusing on what God has placed before us rather than fixating on what He hasn't given. This doesn't mean we shouldn't plan or hope for the future, but it does require us to trust that God has us in specific places for specific reasons—often to be a conduit of His resurrection power to others who need it.

This Easter, as we celebrate the empty tomb and the stone rolled away, let's embrace the fullness of the resurrected life.

We are beloved children of God. He does not love us only when we yield to his will. He loves us, full stop! Our surrender starts there, with his love, not our obedience. It can be scary. I can be unsettling. There are no guaranteed outcomes that accompany marching to the rhythm of the Spirit aside from this—God’s love has been proven through the life, message, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He won’t give up on us, and nothing can separate us from his love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39).

(Blog Post for April 20, 2025 Sermon: Resurrection Sunday)