Resurrection Life 

We affirm it with our lips each Easter, yet often live as though Christ remains in the tomb and we are left to struggle alone. But the gospel declares something far richer and nearer. Resurrection life is not merely a future hope but a present reality for all who are in Christ. It is the very life of Jesus Himself, risen and reigning, now at work within His people.

When the apostle Paul writes, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” Galatians 2:20, he is not speaking in poetry alone but in a profound spiritual fact. The believer’s old life, bound by sin and self, has been brought to the cross. In its place, there is a new life, not self-improved but Christ-implanted. This is the wonder of resurrection life. It is not that we strive harder to imitate Jesus, but that His own risen life becomes the source and strength of all we are.

Charles Spurgeon once spoke of the resurrection as the turning point of all history, the moment when death itself was defeated and the grave robbed of its victory. Yet he also pressed home the personal implication. If Christ has risen, then the believer is no longer a captive to the old dominion. Sin may still tempt, the flesh may still protest, but its authority has been broken. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 6 verse 11. This reckoning is not wishful thinking. It is faith laying hold of what God has already declared to be true.

In the quiet rhythms of daily life, this truth becomes deeply practical. Resurrection life meets us not only in moments of spiritual triumph but in weakness, disappointment and weariness. When we feel unable to forgive, Christ’s risen life within us provides grace. When anxiety presses in, His life brings peace that is not of our own making. When we face the slow grind of responsibility, His strength sustains us beyond our natural capacity. This is not abstract theology. It is the lived experience of those who walk in fellowship with the risen Lord.

Jesus Himself said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” John 11 verse 25. These words were spoken before the cross, yet they point beyond it to the full revelation of His power. He does not merely give life. He is life. Therefore, to belong to Him is to be joined to a source that cannot diminish or decay. The same power that raised Him from the dead is now at work in those who believe, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 1:19-20.

There is also a corporate dimension to this resurrection life. As a fellowship, we are not simply a gathering of individuals striving separately but a body animated by one living Head. The health of the church depends not on programmes or personalities but on the degree to which the life of Christ is allowed to flow freely among us. Where there is humility, love and a shared dependence on Him, there is evidence of resurrection life. Where there is pride, division or self-reliance, that life is hindered.

For Runnymede Christian Fellowship, this is both a calling and an invitation. The risen Christ is present among His people, not as a distant figure but as an active Lord. He calls us to abide in Him, to draw from His fullness and to reflect His life in our homes, our workplaces and our community. This is how the church becomes a living testimony, not merely proclaiming that Christ is risen but demonstrating it through transformed lives.

It is worth asking ourselves with honesty, are we living as those who have been raised with Christ? Do we approach each day conscious of His indwelling presence? Do we rely on His strength or default to our own? The difference is not subtle. One leads to striving and exhaustion. The other is fruitfulness and quiet confidence in God.

The resurrection assures us that the final word over our lives is not death but life. Yet it also calls us to live now in the good of that reality. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above” Colossians 3 verse 1. To seek these things is not to withdraw from the world but to live within it with a new orientation, shaped by eternity and empowered by Christ Himself.

May we as a fellowship increasingly know what it is to walk in resurrection life, not only in doctrine but in daily experience, until the life of Jesus is clearly seen in us and through us, to the glory of God.