My project results – part 6 continued

 

When is the last day?

 

We speak about a condemned prisoner’s last meal. Or that a dying man’s last day was peaceful with his family at his bedside. We say that a man was laid to rest as his funeral because he is no longer busy with the affairs of life. The last day is the last day of your life.

 

The last day is the day you die. For Jesus, it is at the cross. For us, the day we die is the day we are baptized. The last day is the last day of your life as a first Adam man.

 

I have descended from heaven that I may do the will of the one sending me. And this is the will of the Father having sent me, that all which he has given me, I shall not lose of it, but shall raise up it in the last day. And this is the will of the one sending me that everyone seeing the son and believing in him should have life everlasting, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:38-40)

 

Jesus defines the last day by what he does on it. Jesus raises us up.

 

The women came to the tomb. Two men stood by them in shining clothing. Why seek you the living one among the dead ones? Jesus is not here, but was raised. Remember how he spoke to you, yet being in Galilee, saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and to be crucified and the third day to rise again. (Luke 24:4b-7)

 

When did Jesus rise? On the third day. (see Luke 24:4b-7)

When does Jesus raise us up? The last day. (see John 6:38-40)

We are raised with Christ. (see Ephesians 2:1-10)

We are raised (resurrected) with Jesus in baptism (see Colossians 2:12)

 

Jesus defines his last day as the 3rd day - the day he rises. Jesus defines our last day as the day he raises us. We are raised in baptism.

 

We are raised by Jesus in AD 33. At baptism it becomes our experience, we have what Jesus did for us. Our baptism is us joining Jesus in both his baptism in water, his death on the cross, and in his being raised from the dead. God makes us alive with Christ.

 

We die in baptism. We are made alive with Christ. We never die again. For us time is now eternal. It has no ending. The day of our death is in the rear view mirror. It is called the last day because it is the day in which time ceases to have an ending. We now live in eternal, lasting forever time that doesn’t have a beginning or an ending.

 

God speaks of ages. Think of an age as being a way God relates to man during that period. There was the age of Adam in Eden. The age of wicked men until Noah’s flood. The age of Abraham. The age of Israel ruled by judges. The age of Israel ruled by kings. The age of the Messiah, Jesus of earth before the cross. The age of the church. The age all creation shows its glory.

 

 

What does it mean to rise up? It’s like sitting on a stool and then standing. To rise up is the act of standing up.

 

In baptism we are crucified with Christ, we died, we are buried, we are raised with Christ, and we are seated with Christ. (see Ephesians 2:1-10)

 

The Father said to Jesus – sit here beside me while I put all your enemies under your feet.

 

Like Jesus, after we are raised from the dead, at first we are seated with Christ beside the father while God puts all our enemies under our feet. We start out sitting, not standing.

 

We have been set free of sin and death, we have been set free of the sin nature, we have been set free of corruption. But we are infants, we are learning how to walk with the spirit and be who we now are, sons of God. So we sit with God the Father in Christ learning from him, being taught by God.

 

Jesus goes before us. Is Jesus now seated or standing? He’s standing. He stands up when God has defeated all his enemies. The last enemy defeated was death. God raised Jesus from the grave defeating death. The last enemy was placed under Jesus feet in AD 33. We see Jesus standing in Act 7:55 and in Revelation 1:12-20.

 

Jesus tells us to rise, to stand up. How do we do that? We see Jesus is standing and so we stand up too. We stop being seated with Christ waiting for our enemies to be put under our feet. We see that God has put all our enemies under our feet because we are in Christ. We see we have God’s nature, we are righteous. We see death is defeated and we have life. That is the change we make. When we see all our enemies are defeated, the last one being death, we stand up. We literally stand up every morning and keep living. There is no more death in us. We stand up. We rise. Every morning.

 

 

Click here to read more of part 6