The Savior promised, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Just as Easter celebrates Christ’s victory over the grave—guaranteeing life after death for all God’s children—it also represents Christ’s triumph over sin, allowing all who seek it to enjoy the powers and privileges of a life in Christ.

“Life in Christ: A Celebration” is the theme of this year’s BYU Easter Conference that will be held Thursday, April 2, in the Joseph Smith Building auditorium. BYU President C. Shane Reese will be the keynote speaker. The proceedings from this year’s conference and last year’s conference appear in a book under the same title, edited by Philip Abbott, Daniel Becerra, Mark Ellison, and Joshua Sears. Life in Christ: A Celebration is available at deseretbook.com and in Deseret Book stores. It will also be sold at the event April 2. Contributors to this volume reflect on what it means to experience that life of hope and abundance.

Peace and Joy

C. Shane Reese writes that a life in Christ lends joy even in our darkest moments—a peace “which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). After the Crucifixion, Christ’s early disciples found renewed hope on Resurrection morning when they discovered the great stone rolled away and the tomb empty. And when they at last witnessed their resurrected Lord, they “believed not for joy” (Luke 24:41). Reese says: “We need not have such a physical encounter with the risen Lord in this life to know this joy. Indeed, Christ’s peace and joy isn’t just reserved for a select few in ancient times. No, it is available to you and me today.”[1] A life in Christ means that the inevitable grief and fear of mortality will eventually soften and give way to even brighter joy.

Newness of Life

Jesus Christ therefore enables us to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Robbie Taggart suggests that while a life in Christ does not promise us freedom from the suffering inherent in the human condition, it does empower us to then rise from the ashes: “Where we shuffled, we dance. Where we limped, we leap. Light pours from us. Despite the irrevocability of death and loss, ecstatic celebration becomes inevitable.”[2]

He further says: “When we arise from that grave in Christ, with Christ, covered by Christ, we have entered a new quality of life. We see the world differently. The very air has changed. The melodies of wind and laughter possess a hymnic quality. There is simultaneously a delicious quietude—the very silence sings. And now we walk this ragged world as in a melee of miracles.”[3]

Expansive view of Ourselves and Others

Amy Easton describes how Christ’s transformative power expands our vision of ourselves and others. Just as he turned workaday fishermen into fishers of humankind, Jesus Christ can elevate each of us beyond what holds us back. Easton says: “A life in Christ challenges us. At times it calls us to choose the more difficult path. It always calls us to seek to change, to grow, to alter ourselves and our lives as we strive to live more fully within Christ. And perhaps most importantly it requires us to look outside ourselves and to spend our lives loving and helping others become their best selves.”[4]

Grace

Ryan H. Sharp reflects on the enduring reality of the Resurrection and its implications for us today. He shares the story of his young son who said: “Jesus died. He came alive again. And he stayed alive.”[5] Because Christ lives still, we have access to his empowering grace, which allows us to become “new creatures” in him (Mosiah 27:26). “Because he lives, he continues to minister now. Because he lives, we can draw strength from him in our moments of difficulty, in our moments of weakness, and in our moments of sin. We can rely daily on his enabling grace. Because he lives, we can turn our lives over to him and trust that he can make more out of our lives than we can. And because he lives, we can experience the absolute thrill of working and serving in the kingdom of God. Indeed, we can experience the vitality of ‘that life which is in Christ’ (2 Nephi 25:27).”[6]

Eternal Life

Stephan Taeger speaks to the longing for something enduring in a world that inevitably brings us change and loss—a longing we feel in late winter when “we are tired of muddy snow and barren twigs. Instead, we want summer. We want to sit on the wood dock and feel the lake water around our ankles. . . . We want crickets and conversation on the front porch at night. Truly, our souls want eternal life.”[7]

Because of Jesus Christ, the story of our fallen world—with its narrative of continual death and decay—has “a plot twist”: an empty tomb, dried tears, the promise of new life for all God’s children.[8]

Linked to Christ

Marcus H. Martins relates the concept of quantum entanglement to our relationship with Jesus Christ. In physics, two particles can “become linked in such a way that they share certain properties, regardless of the astronomic distances separating them.”[9] Our “entanglement” with Christ is strengthened by the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and helps us to incorporate Christlike virtues while serving others. We enjoy a portion of God’s power and internalize his perspective.

We can thereby increase our proximity to the Savior and ultimately realize the prophecy of Joseph Smith, who said, “The Spirit of God will also dwell with his people, . . . and all things whether in heaven or on earth will be in one, even in Christ.”[10]

More significant than any of the physical manifestations that will precede the Second Coming may be that oneness the Lord grants to his Saints who follow him.

Conclusion

The messages of each contributor come together to testify that Christ’s triumph over death is not only a miracle of the past but a present source of joy, healing, and renewal. The volume testifies of the Savior’s life-giving power and echoes the witness of modern-day prophet Dallin H. Oaks, who said, “We solemnly affirm that Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God the Eternal Father, is the light and life of the world.”[11]

Notes

[1] C. Shane Reese, “The Joy of Christ’s Resurrection!,” in Life in Christ: A Celebration), ed. Philip Abbott, Daniel Becerra, Mark Ellison, and Joshua Sears (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2026), 4–5.

[2] Robbie Taggart, “The Paschal Way: Walking in Newness of Life,” in Life in Christ, 21.

[3] Taggart, “Paschal Way,” 23.

[4] Amy Easton, “Life in Christ: An Expansive View,” in Life in Christ, 38.

[5] Quoted in Ryan Sharp, “Living a Life in Christ,” in Life in Christ, 56.

[6] Sharp, “Living a Life in Christ,” 76.

[7] Stephan Taeger, “One Eternal Summer,” in Life in Christ, 82.

[8] Taeger, “One Eternal Summer,” 83.

[9] Marcus H. Martins, “‘In Him We Live, and Move, and Having Our Being’: A Quantum Entanglement with Jesus Christ,” in A Life in Christ, 96.

[10] Joseph Smith, as quoted in Martins, “‘In Him We Live,’” 110.

[11] Dallin H. Oaks, “The Light and Life of the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 63.