Easter Devotional - Day 7: The Power to Live The Gospel

I once knew a man who lived very poorly. His small house had very little paint and his car looked and sounded like it was about done. In fact, I worked on his car once and didn’t charge him because I was sure he was struggling just to have the basics. Boy was I surprised when he gave me a fairly large check to help with my college tuition! I tried to talk to him about giving away money he didn’t have to spare. All he said was, "it's not mine to keep". Who lives like that? A few people do and the power to do it flows from this very day.
 
It's Easter, resurrection day. I pray that you are well prepared for this most special day. We started our week with a new commitment to believe the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Romans 1:16). So then, like matching bookends, we will greet this resurrection day just as we began our week, with the gospel. Do you remember?

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to
Cephas, then to the twelve. (1Cor. 15:3–5)
 
This gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe and this day is the proof of the reality of that salvation… that he was raised on the third day, proves that Jesus conquered sin and death. That's why saving faith cannot exist apart from a heart changing belief in the resurrection of Christ. Paul writes that righteousness (being right with God or possessing saving faith [Rom. 10:6]) is this:

⁹ …if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes
and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses
and is saved. (Romans 10:9–10)

The heart and the mouth. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34) and when in the heart there is belief in the resurrection of Christ, there will be many evidences coming from the mouth (1John 4:3). Believers constantly confess a different reality than do the unsaved because we live in light of eternity. Living and dying is not all there is, and so, we are free to live and give and forgive and tell the truth and be gracious and joyful.    
 
⁵⁴ “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1Cor. 15:54-57)