Bright Spot: Faith gives us the power to change

My wife and I were in our usual light-hearted playful mode discussing this: “In classic literature are lead characters usually depicted as being able to change in good ways … or not?” Our more common table topics: “What’s for dinner?”

In a 2017 movie “The Case for Christ,” agnostic and award-winning reporter for the prestigious Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel, is told that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is what the entire Christian faith hinges on.

But does it?

Or is the fulcrum of our faith a person – Jesus of Nazareth?

The respected Christianity Today magazine in April 2017 sought to answer this in its cover story. Pictured on the front is a tomb with a giant stone rolled away from the door, a classic Easter scene. But the author of that lead story argues it is not Jesus’ resurrection that is the biggest miracle of Easter. It’s not even the uniqueness of our God sacrificing his life in our stead. It’s the fact that a person, the resurrected Jesus Christ, God Himself, can live within the human heart.

Equally miraculous is that he can give us the power to change – from inside out. That’s the biggest reason Lee Strobel was convinced that Jesus was real and worth following. He was an eyewitness to the change Jesus brought about in his wife. He saw Jesus living in and through her, completely changing her for the better.

Arguably the greatest apostle, Paul, experienced this same transformation and wrote: “… Therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me … Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27-29) Paul labored like a woman in childbirth to accomplish this end: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19) He echoes that truth in Romans 8:11 – the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in you!

Now that’s not just Good News, but actually new news for so many who don’t believe they, or others, can really change. This resurrection truth is new and old since it has been told for 2000 years. But there is something new about it.

When we are “being conformed to his likeness” (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18) people like Strobel sit up and take notice. So we can not only share this life-changing Good News; we can show it!

Rick Sams is pastor emeritus of Alliance Friends Church.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Bright Spot: Faith gives us the power to change