Week 5

Jesus came to give us our lives back, and as the true Human, He showed us what it looks like to be the image bearers of God that we were created to be. Through the gift of the Spirit, Jesus enables us to experience and live out this true life, even if just in small tastes and glimpses, while we wait for the full renewal of all things, us included. It really is the best life, walking in the way of Jesus, aligned with the greatest power and peace in existence. But it is not a blissful progression from triumph to triumph. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.” And, our Lord showed us that the way to overcoming resurrection life is through surrender to death. There is no other way.

Paul says in Romans 14:17 that “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” These are not abstract or detached ideals—they are the fruit of a particular kind of life: a cruciform life. The righteousness, peace, and joy of the Spirit are not attained by striving or self-assertion, but by union with the crucified and risen Christ. The Kingdom comes to us the same way it came through Jesus: through humility, surrender, and self-giving love.

In Week 5 we will explore, with our speakers Kyle Toner & Melissa Lochhead, how these Kingdom realities—righteousness, peace, and joy—are mysteriously and beautifully born through the pattern of the cross. As we follow Jesus in this downward way, we find that it truly is the path to life, and life to the full.