Facet 6: Resurrection - Transcript
Welcome to Facet Six of Awake: Resurrection. We’ve been looking at the Larger Story of who God is and who we are, and how the Divine Family came to rescue humanity. In the last Facet of this Larger Story we talked about the death of Jesus and how His death brought about two things: reconciliation and redemption.
And we unpacked the beauty and glory of both of those things.
That last Facet, Death, is what I would call the crown jewel of this whole series that’s really looking at this diamond of revelation, a diamond of truth—the diamond of God’s identity and our identity.
But if that last Facet was the crown jewel, then this one, Resurrection, is the sparkle and shine.
You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the shining proof of what His death accomplished. When Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, he was telling us that something happened. The power of that false identity and everything that causes brokenness in this world had been defeated. It was finished.
The resurrection that happened three days later was the proof of this. When Jesus came out of the grave, that was the tangible, authoritative evidence of everything we learned in the last Facet… And here’s one way to think about this.
Last time I mentioned a Scripture where Jesus said He came to give His life as a ransom for us. His body was the ransom payment us to get out of our captivity to sin. We were kidnapped into this false identity and into the power of guilt and shame. His death was the payment, in a way, that broke us out of that.
The resurrection was like the gift receipt. See, when I pay for something at the store, let’s say it’s a box of candy, as soon as I give the right amount of money over, that candy is mine. It’s a done deal. But the receipt is the proof, and it gives me the authority to claim that candy as mine, if anybody ever wanted to challenge that.
Well, with His own blood, Jesus paid for us to be forgiven and free, reconciled back to God, and redeemed to our true selves. That’s what the cross accomplished.
The resurrection was the proof that Jesus was successful in this work. And now, it gives us the authority—the right—to grab hold of this freedom. We can now eat and drink of that sweet life-giving candy of truth for ourselves.
The resurrection part of the story invites us to live in this reality now…
Ok. So, hundreds of years before Jesus arrived on the scene, during the days of the Law, there was a prophet by the name of Hosea. And Hosea said these mysterious words long before the death and resurrection of Christ. Listen to this. He said,
He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
Jesus was killed on a Roman cross and three days later He rose from the dead. This resurrection was seen and testified by many different eyewitnesses.
This is a side-note, but one of the more interesting pieces of evidence that Jesus really rose from the dead is how the Bible said the first eyewitnesses were women—because back then the eyewitness testimony of women wasn’t accepted by the culture of the day. Jesus actually gave dignity and honor to women like none before him. But it’s evidence because if the apostles and others were lying about the whole thing, they wouldn’t have used female testimony in a world like that. It would have been shot down.
But Jesus Christ did rise from a real grave in Israel, in the Middle East, and was seen by women and men—and it changed the world…
But that prophet, Hosea, who came years and years before Jesus, said that God would raise us up on the third day.
In other words, it wasn’t just Jesus who died. We died with him. And it wasn’t just Jesus who was resurrected into a new life… We were resurrected as well.
We’ve been resurrected out of that false identity, which is what we’ve been talking about. That’s that orphan mindset; the life of fear and survival; of just existing. The old identity of anger and fear and loneliness, and living without purpose; living addicted to things instead of the life and love of God.
All of that died at the cross. Jesus took all of that on himself, and showed His forgiveness to us. And then, when He came out of the grave, we came out with him, restored to a new identity that is available for us right now.
For this Facet, we’re going to talk more about this new resurrected identity. That’s really what this part is about…
Our new identity in Christ can be compared to two different things. One is a child, as in a son or daughter. The other has to do with a Bride.
Those two types of people, or types of roles, are at the heart of the very meaning of life itself, and of who we really are, and I’ll attempt to explain that now a little bit.
And let me say this… Finding out who you really are isn’t meant to be some super-complicated, super-spiritual thing. It’s actually something very simple and breathtaking.
So we’ll start with our true identity as children of God.
Whether daughter or son, the point here is that we are God’s kids. Which means we come from Him. Which means we are valuable beyond anything.
Any good parent puts the highest value on their children above any material object they own. If my house was on fire, and I knew my clothes, my phone, my computer, was about to be destroyed, my first thought and only passion would be my children. That’s what I mean by “highest value.”
That is how God feels about us. That is who we truly are. We belong to the Trinity, the Divine Family, in the most intimate, emotional, social, physical way. We came out of the very womb of God in creation, and He is still bonded to us, even though we cut off connection to Him in our hearts.
What I want to do now is give you three characteristics of a beloved son or daughter, because this is what Jesus resurrected and gave back to us as a gift.
The following are three things any loved child experiences; and therefore they tell us more about who we really are in this new life that Jesus brought out of the grave.
So first of all, a loved child is simply the delight of their parents... So it is with God and us... We are truly the delight of God. We are His joy. We are precious in His sight.
Now, this was always God’s heart toward us, but the cross removed every barrier in us from seeing that and enjoying that for ourselves.
Jesus once said something remarkable. He said that he loves us the same way the Father loves him. That is a crazy statement, but it is utterly true.
The Father looked at Jesus one time and said, “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Jesus actually makes God feel joy and pleasure. “Well-pleased” is an emotion-filled term. God receives happiness from Jesus.
And when we were resurrected with Jesus, we were restored to this truth about our identity.
We are just as enjoyed by God as Jesus is. God delights in us in the same way. That is who we are.
Now, remember as I share all of this, these things are what Jesus paid for with His own blood, and what He fully restored to us at the cross. These things are the truth about you right now, and you are invited to have confidence in them, because of the resurrection.
Ok. Now here’s a second basic characteristic of a daughter or son… A loved child (really, any child) has the DNA of their parents… So it is with God and us…
Understand something very important. We are not trying to become like God, we are already like Him. That was the lie Eve bought into back in the Garden. The enemy of her soul came and tempted her and said, “If you do this, you will become like God.” But she was already made in His likeness.
She bit into that lie though and lost sight of it, and because she lost sight of it, she started to act unlike her Father. She started acting according to a lie. That’s the false identity and the power of sin that Jesus had to deal with.
So, to this day the human race acts unlike God, but the truth is still the truth. We are like God. We come from Him and that never changed.
When Jesus resurrected as a human being, He affirmed who we really are. He took away the lie, the false existence that was unlike God and He broke its power with forgiving love. And He said to us, you don’t have to live in that anymore. You’re forgiven. And not only are you forgiven, but that lie doesn’t hold any power over your anymore.
You are already like your Father . . . So awaken to that truth. Trust in this reality.
You know, I’m part Italian. It’s in my blood. So I don’t have to wake up in the morning and say, I’m going to try really hard to be Italian today. No, I’m just Italian. It’s just the truth. Now, if I were to study more of my origin, and look into my family history and culture, and come in touch with that more, I might start to act more like that part of my family line. But either way, I am Italian by nature.
Well, it’s the same with our identity in God. You are like God. That was your original blessing. You don’t do anything to become that. You are already like Him. That means you are already are holy. You already are good—in fact, “very good,” He said. But of course, as you learn more of who you are, as you trust and come in touch with your Origin, your Divine Family, you will act more like them. But either way, this is the truth. It just needs to come out.
And we’ll talk about that more in the last Facet.
But here’s the third and final characteristic of a loved son or daughter. And this is something that pertains more to the time period the Bible was written in, although it still speaks to us today. This is more about a son in particular, though what I’m about to share is a reality for women and men.
In ancient times, the son would usually carry on the family business. This still happens but not as much as it did in biblical times.
So, the child carries on the work of the father… So it is with us and God...
We get to carry on the work of our Divine Family. And what was God’s work?
Well, we saw it in the life of Jesus. Jesus said, I came to do the works of the Father… And what did Jesus do?
Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, released the Kingdom of heaven on earth. We are called to do the same. We are called to release life and healing—spiritual, physical, and emotional healing, just like Jesus.
This is what God’s kids do. And we are restored to that identity and it is also who we are. Again, it’s not something we have to strive for. You have literally just inherited your Dad’s business freely. And that business is the work of healing and restoration.
This is also part of our true identity and, once again, the resurrection of Jesus is the proof and authority that this is true forevermore.
So those are some of the aspects of your identity that has been restored through the life, death, and the proving resurrection of Jesus. You are a child of God, which means you’re deeply and freely loved; you are like your Divine Family in every way; and you are one who is called to the work of healing and to releasing heaven on earth. You have divine purpose on your life just like Jesus.
Now. The other aspect of our redeemed identity is what the Scriptures refer to as “the Bride of Christ.”
And this might be a hard pill to swallow, especially for some guys, but you need to get over that. This isn’t about literal marriage. This is pointing to a higher reality. We are children of God and the Bride of Christ.
So let’s again think about some characteristics, this time of a loved Bride, especially during the biblical culture, because that gives us a lot of insight into this part of our identity.
First, a Bride in the Scriptures is one with her spouse; and yet she maintains distinction. She is her own unique person. This is what we see in the Adam and Eve story…
When Adam’s Bride Eve came forth, it says the two became one flesh. And yet Eve didn’t lose her distinction. She was this beautiful and yet unique reflection of her husband… Well, so it is with us and Jesus.
We are one with him, and yet each of us reflect him in a unique way. And of course this ties back to the son or daughter having the DNA of the Father. It all connects because it’s all getting at the same diamond revelation. Just different facets.
We reflect Christ. We are like Him. We have a oneness with Him and bear His DNA. But we all reflect that in a distinctive way. Each of us is a unique expression of God. And a beautiful, powerful reflection of God.
Ok, here’s another characteristic of a Bride that we learn in Scripture. The Bride would share her husband’s name and his assets… So it is with us and Jesus…
When we receive Jesus and what He did, we receive everything that is His as well. All that belongs to Him, belongs to us. And that might sound overwhelming and crazy, but it’s the truth.
Listen to this Scripture. In Ephesians chapter 1, it says:
Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ…
By virtue of the fact that you are the “Bride” of Christ, you are united to Him, and therefore you have everything that belongs to Him. That means there is no such thing as lack.
That also means we have authority to speak in His name. Praying “in the name of Jesus” isn’t about tacking Jesus’s name at the end of your bedtime prayers like it’s a magic password.
Praying in Jesus’s name means you know who you are. You are the wedded Spouse, the One who is united to the Lord. So when you pray for things you do it with humility and thankfulness, because you didn’t earn it. It was all a gift. And yet you also pray with confidence and authority, because you’re one with Him, in His death and in His resurrection—in this new life we’ve been given.
So that’s a second characteristic of our “bridal” identity in Christ. Here’s the last characteristic about this part of who we are…
A true bride is in love with her husband! So it is with us and Jesus… And this is may be the most important part of what Jesus has restored to us.
Christianity is not about religious works and things you’re supposed to do or not do.
It’s all about love. And it’s about realizing how much He loves you first and then living in the overflow of that love. Because when someone knows they’re loved, they can’t help but give love away to others.
So understand something else here as we wrap this up and prepare to move onto the final Facet… Christianity was not originally called “Christianity” or Catholicism or Protestantism or whatever. Christianity was originally called “The Way.” That’s how people referred to this movement of people who believed in what Jesus did on the cross and in the resurrection that followed.
You had people who believed in the power of Jesus’s death and resurrection and they celebrated it. They received it like food for their souls. Like candy from heaven. And they were baptized into it, meaning they fully embraced it.
And as a result, they began to live as sons and daughters of God. They begin to live in love. And as the Spouse of God on earth, they began doing the same works as Jesus in partnership with Him. The work of healing and restoration. That’s how this movement originally spread.
And it was called the Way, and it was really the Way for humanity to come back to our Original Blessing—our identity as God’s beloved children and Jesus’s united Ones.
So that means Christianity is really about discovering our true selves and living accordingly. That is the gift Jesus gave us in His life, death, and resurrection.
And when someone finds rest in this truth; when they eat and drink of it for themselves, they are brought back into this way of true life and original blessing.
But there’s one more thing to say about all of this; to wrap all of it up—or unwrap it, I should say. So join me in the final Facet. Facet 7… The True Solution.
Welcome to Facet Six of Awake: Resurrection. We’ve been looking at the Larger Story of who God is and who we are, and how the Divine Family came to rescue humanity. In the last Facet of this Larger Story we talked about the death of Jesus and how His death brought about two things: reconciliation and redemption.
And we unpacked the beauty and glory of both of those things.
That last Facet, Death, is what I would call the crown jewel of this whole series that’s really looking at this diamond of revelation, a diamond of truth—the diamond of God’s identity and our identity.
But if that last Facet was the crown jewel, then this one, Resurrection, is the sparkle and shine.
You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the shining proof of what His death accomplished. When Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, he was telling us that something happened. The power of that false identity and everything that causes brokenness in this world had been defeated. It was finished.
The resurrection that happened three days later was the proof of this. When Jesus came out of the grave, that was the tangible, authoritative evidence of everything we learned in the last Facet… And here’s one way to think about this.
Last time I mentioned a Scripture where Jesus said He came to give His life as a ransom for us. His body was the ransom payment us to get out of our captivity to sin. We were kidnapped into this false identity and into the power of guilt and shame. His death was the payment, in a way, that broke us out of that.
The resurrection was like the gift receipt. See, when I pay for something at the store, let’s say it’s a box of candy, as soon as I give the right amount of money over, that candy is mine. It’s a done deal. But the receipt is the proof, and it gives me the authority to claim that candy as mine, if anybody ever wanted to challenge that.
Well, with His own blood, Jesus paid for us to be forgiven and free, reconciled back to God, and redeemed to our true selves. That’s what the cross accomplished.
The resurrection was the proof that Jesus was successful in this work. And now, it gives us the authority—the right—to grab hold of this freedom. We can now eat and drink of that sweet life-giving candy of truth for ourselves.
The resurrection part of the story invites us to live in this reality now…
Ok. So, hundreds of years before Jesus arrived on the scene, during the days of the Law, there was a prophet by the name of Hosea. And Hosea said these mysterious words long before the death and resurrection of Christ. Listen to this. He said,
He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
Jesus was killed on a Roman cross and three days later He rose from the dead. This resurrection was seen and testified by many different eyewitnesses.
This is a side-note, but one of the more interesting pieces of evidence that Jesus really rose from the dead is how the Bible said the first eyewitnesses were women—because back then the eyewitness testimony of women wasn’t accepted by the culture of the day. Jesus actually gave dignity and honor to women like none before him. But it’s evidence because if the apostles and others were lying about the whole thing, they wouldn’t have used female testimony in a world like that. It would have been shot down.
But Jesus Christ did rise from a real grave in Israel, in the Middle East, and was seen by women and men—and it changed the world…
But that prophet, Hosea, who came years and years before Jesus, said that God would raise us up on the third day.
In other words, it wasn’t just Jesus who died. We died with him. And it wasn’t just Jesus who was resurrected into a new life… We were resurrected as well.
We’ve been resurrected out of that false identity, which is what we’ve been talking about. That’s that orphan mindset; the life of fear and survival; of just existing. The old identity of anger and fear and loneliness, and living without purpose; living addicted to things instead of the life and love of God.
All of that died at the cross. Jesus took all of that on himself, and showed His forgiveness to us. And then, when He came out of the grave, we came out with him, restored to a new identity that is available for us right now.
For this Facet, we’re going to talk more about this new resurrected identity. That’s really what this part is about…
Our new identity in Christ can be compared to two different things. One is a child, as in a son or daughter. The other has to do with a Bride.
Those two types of people, or types of roles, are at the heart of the very meaning of life itself, and of who we really are, and I’ll attempt to explain that now a little bit.
And let me say this… Finding out who you really are isn’t meant to be some super-complicated, super-spiritual thing. It’s actually something very simple and breathtaking.
So we’ll start with our true identity as children of God.
Whether daughter or son, the point here is that we are God’s kids. Which means we come from Him. Which means we are valuable beyond anything.
Any good parent puts the highest value on their children above any material object they own. If my house was on fire, and I knew my clothes, my phone, my computer, was about to be destroyed, my first thought and only passion would be my children. That’s what I mean by “highest value.”
That is how God feels about us. That is who we truly are. We belong to the Trinity, the Divine Family, in the most intimate, emotional, social, physical way. We came out of the very womb of God in creation, and He is still bonded to us, even though we cut off connection to Him in our hearts.
What I want to do now is give you three characteristics of a beloved son or daughter, because this is what Jesus resurrected and gave back to us as a gift.
The following are three things any loved child experiences; and therefore they tell us more about who we really are in this new life that Jesus brought out of the grave.
So first of all, a loved child is simply the delight of their parents... So it is with God and us... We are truly the delight of God. We are His joy. We are precious in His sight.
Now, this was always God’s heart toward us, but the cross removed every barrier in us from seeing that and enjoying that for ourselves.
Jesus once said something remarkable. He said that he loves us the same way the Father loves him. That is a crazy statement, but it is utterly true.
The Father looked at Jesus one time and said, “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Jesus actually makes God feel joy and pleasure. “Well-pleased” is an emotion-filled term. God receives happiness from Jesus.
And when we were resurrected with Jesus, we were restored to this truth about our identity.
We are just as enjoyed by God as Jesus is. God delights in us in the same way. That is who we are.
Now, remember as I share all of this, these things are what Jesus paid for with His own blood, and what He fully restored to us at the cross. These things are the truth about you right now, and you are invited to have confidence in them, because of the resurrection.
Ok. Now here’s a second basic characteristic of a daughter or son… A loved child (really, any child) has the DNA of their parents… So it is with God and us…
Understand something very important. We are not trying to become like God, we are already like Him. That was the lie Eve bought into back in the Garden. The enemy of her soul came and tempted her and said, “If you do this, you will become like God.” But she was already made in His likeness.
She bit into that lie though and lost sight of it, and because she lost sight of it, she started to act unlike her Father. She started acting according to a lie. That’s the false identity and the power of sin that Jesus had to deal with.
So, to this day the human race acts unlike God, but the truth is still the truth. We are like God. We come from Him and that never changed.
When Jesus resurrected as a human being, He affirmed who we really are. He took away the lie, the false existence that was unlike God and He broke its power with forgiving love. And He said to us, you don’t have to live in that anymore. You’re forgiven. And not only are you forgiven, but that lie doesn’t hold any power over your anymore.
You are already like your Father . . . So awaken to that truth. Trust in this reality.
You know, I’m part Italian. It’s in my blood. So I don’t have to wake up in the morning and say, I’m going to try really hard to be Italian today. No, I’m just Italian. It’s just the truth. Now, if I were to study more of my origin, and look into my family history and culture, and come in touch with that more, I might start to act more like that part of my family line. But either way, I am Italian by nature.
Well, it’s the same with our identity in God. You are like God. That was your original blessing. You don’t do anything to become that. You are already like Him. That means you are already are holy. You already are good—in fact, “very good,” He said. But of course, as you learn more of who you are, as you trust and come in touch with your Origin, your Divine Family, you will act more like them. But either way, this is the truth. It just needs to come out.
And we’ll talk about that more in the last Facet.
But here’s the third and final characteristic of a loved son or daughter. And this is something that pertains more to the time period the Bible was written in, although it still speaks to us today. This is more about a son in particular, though what I’m about to share is a reality for women and men.
In ancient times, the son would usually carry on the family business. This still happens but not as much as it did in biblical times.
So, the child carries on the work of the father… So it is with us and God...
We get to carry on the work of our Divine Family. And what was God’s work?
Well, we saw it in the life of Jesus. Jesus said, I came to do the works of the Father… And what did Jesus do?
Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, released the Kingdom of heaven on earth. We are called to do the same. We are called to release life and healing—spiritual, physical, and emotional healing, just like Jesus.
This is what God’s kids do. And we are restored to that identity and it is also who we are. Again, it’s not something we have to strive for. You have literally just inherited your Dad’s business freely. And that business is the work of healing and restoration.
This is also part of our true identity and, once again, the resurrection of Jesus is the proof and authority that this is true forevermore.
So those are some of the aspects of your identity that has been restored through the life, death, and the proving resurrection of Jesus. You are a child of God, which means you’re deeply and freely loved; you are like your Divine Family in every way; and you are one who is called to the work of healing and to releasing heaven on earth. You have divine purpose on your life just like Jesus.
Now. The other aspect of our redeemed identity is what the Scriptures refer to as “the Bride of Christ.”
And this might be a hard pill to swallow, especially for some guys, but you need to get over that. This isn’t about literal marriage. This is pointing to a higher reality. We are children of God and the Bride of Christ.
So let’s again think about some characteristics, this time of a loved Bride, especially during the biblical culture, because that gives us a lot of insight into this part of our identity.
First, a Bride in the Scriptures is one with her spouse; and yet she maintains distinction. She is her own unique person. This is what we see in the Adam and Eve story…
When Adam’s Bride Eve came forth, it says the two became one flesh. And yet Eve didn’t lose her distinction. She was this beautiful and yet unique reflection of her husband… Well, so it is with us and Jesus.
We are one with him, and yet each of us reflect him in a unique way. And of course this ties back to the son or daughter having the DNA of the Father. It all connects because it’s all getting at the same diamond revelation. Just different facets.
We reflect Christ. We are like Him. We have a oneness with Him and bear His DNA. But we all reflect that in a distinctive way. Each of us is a unique expression of God. And a beautiful, powerful reflection of God.
Ok, here’s another characteristic of a Bride that we learn in Scripture. The Bride would share her husband’s name and his assets… So it is with us and Jesus…
When we receive Jesus and what He did, we receive everything that is His as well. All that belongs to Him, belongs to us. And that might sound overwhelming and crazy, but it’s the truth.
Listen to this Scripture. In Ephesians chapter 1, it says:
Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ…
By virtue of the fact that you are the “Bride” of Christ, you are united to Him, and therefore you have everything that belongs to Him. That means there is no such thing as lack.
That also means we have authority to speak in His name. Praying “in the name of Jesus” isn’t about tacking Jesus’s name at the end of your bedtime prayers like it’s a magic password.
Praying in Jesus’s name means you know who you are. You are the wedded Spouse, the One who is united to the Lord. So when you pray for things you do it with humility and thankfulness, because you didn’t earn it. It was all a gift. And yet you also pray with confidence and authority, because you’re one with Him, in His death and in His resurrection—in this new life we’ve been given.
So that’s a second characteristic of our “bridal” identity in Christ. Here’s the last characteristic about this part of who we are…
A true bride is in love with her husband! So it is with us and Jesus… And this is may be the most important part of what Jesus has restored to us.
Christianity is not about religious works and things you’re supposed to do or not do.
It’s all about love. And it’s about realizing how much He loves you first and then living in the overflow of that love. Because when someone knows they’re loved, they can’t help but give love away to others.
So understand something else here as we wrap this up and prepare to move onto the final Facet… Christianity was not originally called “Christianity” or Catholicism or Protestantism or whatever. Christianity was originally called “The Way.” That’s how people referred to this movement of people who believed in what Jesus did on the cross and in the resurrection that followed.
You had people who believed in the power of Jesus’s death and resurrection and they celebrated it. They received it like food for their souls. Like candy from heaven. And they were baptized into it, meaning they fully embraced it.
And as a result, they began to live as sons and daughters of God. They begin to live in love. And as the Spouse of God on earth, they began doing the same works as Jesus in partnership with Him. The work of healing and restoration. That’s how this movement originally spread.
And it was called the Way, and it was really the Way for humanity to come back to our Original Blessing—our identity as God’s beloved children and Jesus’s united Ones.
So that means Christianity is really about discovering our true selves and living accordingly. That is the gift Jesus gave us in His life, death, and resurrection.
And when someone finds rest in this truth; when they eat and drink of it for themselves, they are brought back into this way of true life and original blessing.
But there’s one more thing to say about all of this; to wrap all of it up—or unwrap it, I should say. So join me in the final Facet. Facet 7… The True Solution.