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The Resurrection: Truth and Experience
The Lord is risen, indeed! Hallelujah! Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE points to the fact and the feeling (head and heart) of the resurrection of Jesus. The author is Tim Keller. THE RESURRECTION: TRUTH AND EXPERIENCE On one hand, the resurrection is a fact to be believed. On the other hand, it is an experience to connect with. If you have one without the other--if you believe in the resurrection as historical fact but never experience the resurrection personally, or if you think of the resurrection as a spiritual experience but don't believe it was a fact--you come out with a form of religion with no power. My question is: DO YOU KNOW THEM BOTH? DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION AS A HISTORICAL EVENT, AND HAVE YOU ALSO HAD THAT PROFOUND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION? Christianity refuses to be stuck in either category. It is not all about rationality, nor is it all about mysticism. It's both. On one hand, Christianity is about beliefs, proposition, and ethics. But that's not enough. You have to experience him to know him. There has to be a real connection. And on the other hand, Christianity is not only a mystical religion. It's not like Eastern religions with no rational content. Christianity has hard edges to it. It says, "This is true, and this is false. This will get you saved. This will get you damned. This actually happened." Christianity says that if you want to experience God, you have to believe the truth. You have to believe that he really lived, that he really died, that he was really raised. And if you see that truth and believe in it, it leads to an experience, which leads to more understanding of the truth, and the truth leads to more experience. —Tim Keller, adapted from "Knowing the Risen Christ," a sermon preached at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, April 3, 1994; as collected and adapted by Nancy Guthrie in JESUS, KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS: EXPERIENCING THE PASSION AND POWER OF EASTER. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009, pp. 132-33. ISBN 978-1-4335-0181-4. This volume includes chapters by many authors: Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Francis Schaeffer, and a host of others both living and dead. Highly recommended. See www.crossway.org/product/9781433501814. OTHER WORSHIP QUOTES ABOUT EASTER www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2000-04-25 (Dudley-Smith Hymn) www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2001-04-17 (Dudley-Smith Hymn) www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2004-04-13 (Easter--387 A.D.) www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2000-05-02 (J. B. Phillips) www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2005-12-27 (J. B. Phillips) www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2004-04-06 ("See, What a Morning!") www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2006-03-21 ("Jesus Is Lord") www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2002-04-02 ("Jesus Lives and So Shall I") Have a great week, Chip Stam School of Church Ministries The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.wqotw.org www.sbts.edu/icw =========================== WORSHIP QUOTE OF THE WEEK: To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view a complete index of worship quotes, please visit http://www.wqotw.org. =========================== |