Resurrection: The Joy of The Lord Is Our Strength


As we prepare to celebrate on Resurrection Sunday what we continue to celebrate everyday, that is the bursting victory of God over our sin, hear the words of Saint Paul in Ephesians two.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV)

The believer has been made alive, we have been raised up, and we have been seated in heavenly places. God has done it when we were dead! He did it because of the great love with which he loved us! This is reason to celebrate; in fact we will worship God forever for this reason!

Timothy Keller in his book on what is often called the parable of the prodigal son says this: “Jesus shows the father pouncing on his son in love not only before he has a chance to clean up his life and evidence a change of heart, but even before he can recite his repentance speech. Nothing, not even abject contrition, merits the favor of God. The Father’s love and acceptance are absolutely free.” (Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, pg 24.)

On Resurrection Sunday we celebrate this absolutely free powerful love. The Father pounces on us in love. We need this triumphant love because we are hopeless without it. We need God’s victory because we are impossibly overwhelmed by our predicament. Even as we live our day-to-day lives we can feel so overwhelmed by all our stresses. This is when we need to take joy in God’s mighty love and victory on our behalf. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8: 10) Trust his love now!