How to be good

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things …
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature …
Colossians 3:1-2, 5 (NIV)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

How to be good
What would you say the resurrection of Jesus achieved?  Now, there are many answers we could give to that question – all of them good and true.  Here are just some of the more obvious answers: Jesus’ resurrection means that we can be forgiven our sins, that we have eternal life, that death has been conquered, that our bodies too will be raised, and that Jesus really is Lord and Messiah.

How many of us would say that Jesus’ resurrection means that we can now be good, living a new life, pleasing to God?  I confess, it is not the first thing that comes to my mind.  And yet that is exactly where the opening verses of Colossians chapter 3 take us.  Because we have been “raised with Christ” we can expect to “set [our] hearts on things above” and also to “put to death … whatever belongs to [our] earthly nature.”

Interestingly, it is also where Cranmer’s Collect for Easter Day takes us.  And on Easter Day of all days!  Of all the places the resurrection of Jesus may lead us in our thinking, he takes us to the fact that because “Jesus Christ hast now overcome death” we can now at last “bring … to good effect” the “good desires” which God has “put in our minds”:

Almighty God, which through thy only begotten son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; we humbly beseech thee, that, as by the special grace, preventing (= “going before”) us, thou dost put in our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect, through Jesus Christ our Lord…

In other words, the resurrection of Jesus means that we can now at last be good – genuinely good, good as God defines good.  Jesus has conquered the grave and broken the power of sin, and so we can now say ‘no’ to sin.

Why not, slowly and carefully, phrase by phrase, pray that Collect now?

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)