Dakota Beacon

Easter offers a time to reflect on the many blessings flowing from Christianity over the centuries. I found it refreshing to ponder again what Christianity brought forth. Here are a few of those blessings.

            --Established a multitude of hospitals throughout the world from the Middle Ages onward.

            --Founded many universities and centers of learning also dating from the Middle Ages.

            --Fostered literacy and education for all people across cultures.

            --Developed the economic basis of what is today known as free-enterprise.

            --Gave the world the foundation of representative government.

            --Provided the genesis of civil liberties.

            --Initiated the centuries-long struggle against slavery.

            --Laid the foundation of modern science.

            --Established many continuing charities and benevolent organizations.

            --Laid the groundwork for higher standards of justice.

            --Provided a sense of value of human life especially for the elderly, infirm, and unborn.

            --Codified and wrote many of the world’s languages.

            --Inspired some of the world’s greatest works of art, music, and literature.

This rich endowment derives from the spread and impact of the Gospel by those who believed in, lived by, and sacrificed for that Gospel. Today, whether from naiveté, historical illiteracy, or the voiding of traditions and conventions, western culture is sadly separated from a knowledge of its own roots. Easter, too, has become a casualty. Faced with mounting criticism and the reproach of Christianity, the significance of Easter becomes all the more important.

There is much to the consequence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was not raised to institute a social welfare system or establish a university of well doing. The scripture record makes clear that God in the form of Jesus Christ came to restore and preserve a relationship with His creation. No preaching or theological diatribe here. Just a recounting of several verses from the New Testament pointing to a mystery being revealed within believers every day if they are willing to search the scripture and accept Jesus Christ for who He said He was.

John 14:20 “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

II Corinthians 4:6 “For God,… hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, …10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”

II Corinthians 13:5 “…Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you…?”

Galatians 1:15 “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:”

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Philippians 1:20 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Colossians 1:26 “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 Whom we preach,… teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; 29 Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”

These are just a few verses. There are more, many more.

A wayward and rebellious people could be restored to a right relationship with their Creator if only the kingdom of Self would be replaced by the kingdom of God in the hearts of people. Sin and the sin nature of rebellion against God, of “doing one’s own thing,” could be expunged and replaced by Christ’s nature. All sense of placing one’s self first above God would be displaced.

And Jesus said, “…The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21-22) Paul’s definition: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17) If permitted, Christ rules in that kingdom. In this way God the Father may be glorified by each believer through His indwelling Son made manifest day by day. The resurrection of Jesus Christ signifies more than just going to Heaven in the sky in the sweet bye-and-bye. It starts now!

This should not be offensive to anyone. It’s what Easter is all about. May the reality of the indwelling Christ be genuine this Easter in the life of all believers.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).