Christ is Risen!

In the letters Paul wrote, there are fifty-three references to the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is the even that sets and keeps in motion the entire gospel enterprise. Most of these resurrection texts assert either the centrality of Jesus' resurrection or the certainty of our final resurrection from the dead, or both. But six of these resurrection citations explicitly identify our present and ongoing spiritual formation with Jesus' resurrection (see Romans 6:4; 8:11; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:10; Colossians 2:12; 3:1). In other words, this is not a future resurrection but a present resurrection -- which is what we're interested in right now.

Clearly, Paul's witness is that resurrection is not only a doctrinal/historical truth to be believed about Jesus, and not only a doctrinal/eschatological truth to be believed about our final destiny, but also the focus for our spiritual formation -- formation-by-resurrection.

From Eugene Peterson's Living the Resurrection, p. 102