Alive - by Dave Smith

Spirit.’ The word ‘righteousness’ can be translated as ‘right standing’.
It’s only when we know this right standing with God that we can
experience true peace, which in turn is fundamental if we’re to
experience real joy.
Unsurprisingly, once the disciples realised that this person in the
room was the once-crucified and now fully alive Jesus, proclaiming
‘peace’ to them, they were filled with joy. Hence, we read: ‘The
disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord’ (v20). Their grief
and sense of defeat had turned into overwhelming joy. In the words of
one scholar: ‘Joy is the basic mood of Easter.’ 9
There’s a big difference between the ‘joy’ that the disciples
experienced here, and that is mentioned throughout the Bible, and
how we often view ‘happiness’ today. Now, there is nothing wrong
with happiness: who doesn’t want to be happy?! The problem is that
happiness is essentially based on our mood and circumstances,
which can go up and down based on everything from the weather
through to whether we have had enough sleep or whether our sports
team is winning! And even when we seem to achieve what we set out
to, lasting happiness is still elusive.
Biblical joy, on the other hand, is dependent on something much
deeper than our circumstances or feelings. It comes from meeting the
risen Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). This ‘joy of
the Lord’ is not dictated by outside influences, and it also has many
wonderful benefits, impacting not just our spiritual and emotional
state, but our physical health, strength and wellbeing too (see
Nehemiah 8:10). As Proverbs 17:22 makes clear: ‘A joyful heart is
good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones’ (ESVUK).
THE PEACE THAT EMPOWERS US