The resurrection is the starting point for setting expectations for the Christian life. I get this from Romans 6:4.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

What it looks like to walk in newness of life is directly linked back to the resurrection. Our newness of life is “just as” Christ was raised from the dead. This is not a small thing.

It is not a rounding off of some of the edges of your personality. It is something much more remarkable and striking such that Jesus calls it being born again. And Paul in 2 Corinthians says that whoever is in Christ is a new creation. Not merely a changed creation. Something so dramatic and different is going on such that Paul throughout the New Testament uses the language of the old man and the new. Consider the incredible changes wrought in Paul and in Peter. Are these extraordinary edge cases? Are these kinds of dramatic developments just for the apostles?

I sure hope not.