“We often excel at understanding and teaching the meaning of Christ’s death—its significance for accomplishing our salvation. Sometimes, we are less adept at grasping the significance of Christ’s resurrection, at least beyond how it signals retrospectively the effectiveness of the cross. We may struggle to explain why Christ’s resurrection itself matters, what the resurrection specifically contributes to our salvation.”
“Mark tells us this story not merely as background to the crucifixion, but as a window into its meaning. And the longer we look through that window, the more we recognize ourselves in it.”
Join Logos’s Word Together: He Is Risen study to access my brief teaching on 1 Corinthians 15.
The American Dream beckons us to waste our lives on trivial diversions like “success,” pleasure, and comfort. In contrast, in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, pastor John Piper directs us to scripture’s call to live lives that matter for eternity. Piper directs us to live with a single, unifying, all-embracing, all-transforming passion for God’s glory–which also will mean our highest joy.
Our culture elevates self-esteem and self-worth. But this results in anxiety and insecurity as it leaves us needing constant validation. Instead, Tim Keller points us to 1 Corinthians 4 to propose that true peace is actually found by shifting the focus away from ourselves, freeing us from the tyranny of self-concern. By understanding and embracing the gospel message, we are released from obsessing over our own successes, failures, and what others, or even what we ourselves, think of us.
Kirk E. Miller 