Dead to Sin Alive to God (Romans 6:5-11)

“It might have been possible, we could say, before Christ rose from the dead, for someone to wonder whether creation was a lost cause.  If the creature constantly acted to uncreate itself, and with itself to uncreate the rest of creation, did this not mean that God’s handiwork was flawed beyond hope of repair? … Before God raised Jesus from the dead, the hope that we call ‘gnostic,’ the hope for redemption from creation rather than hope for the redemption of creation, might have appeared to be the only possible hope. ‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…’ (1 Cor. 15:20). That fact rules out those other possibilities, for in the second Adam the first is rescued.  The deviance of his will, its fateful leaning towards death, has not been allowed to uncreate what God created.”

— Oliver O’Donovan, Resurrection and Moral Order

Peace Be With You (John 20:19-31)

“‘We do not know… how can we know the way?’
Courageous master of the awkward question,
You spoke the words the others dared not say
And cut through their evasion and abstraction.
Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith,
You put your finger on the nub of things
We cannot love some disembodied wraith,
But flesh and blood must be our king of kings.
Your teaching is to touch, embrace, anoint,
Feel after Him and find Him in the flesh.
Because He loved your awkward counter-point
The Word has heard and granted you your wish.
Oh place my hands with yours, help me divine
The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.”

—Malcolm Guite

The Work is Finished; Everything has Changed (John 20:11-18)

“The finality of Christ’s death on the cross - which left to itself, could be so soothing to us, in the somber glow of our wisdom and tragedy’s pathos - has been unceremoniously undone, and we are suddenly denied the consolations of pity and reverence, resignation and recognition, and are thrown out upon the turbid seas of boundless hope and boundless hunger.”

—David Bentley Hart

The Image of the Lamb (Revelation 5)

“Repeated crimes awake our fears, and justice armed with frowns appears. But in the Savior’s lovely face, sweet mercy smiles, and all is peace, all is peace .... He lives! The great Redeemer lives! What joy the blest assurance gives! And now, before His Father, God, pleads the merit of His blood. He lives! The great Redeemer lives! What joy the blest assurance gives! And now, before His Father, God , pleads the merit of His blood. He lives, oh, He lives.” — Anne Steele, He Lives