Why the Resurrection? Day Three/Reason Three

So that He Will Be Lord of All

Jesus’ ascension is not just one in name, but it is also one in power and authority. He has not just taken a position and become a figurehead. As Jesus explained to His disciples after the resurrection and before His ascension, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). When Jesus says “all authority” He literally means all authority. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27 emphasis mine).

Jesus died and was resurrected so that He would be sovereign and supreme over all. Paul tells us, “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:9). Through His death upon the cross and His resurrection, Christ has reclaimed His dominion of what is rightfully His: all creation. He has purchased it with His blood.

The resurrection is proof of God giving all things into the hands of Christ. It is also the time at and occasion upon which the formal transaction occurred.

“God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power…. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear [on the day of Pentecost]…. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:24, 32-33, 36).

Christ is thus the judge and only mediator for all mankind. No one can receive eternal life except through Him (cf. John 14:6, Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:5), and He is the divine judge of the world (cf. John 5:22-24).

Christ now rules over the kingdom of God until He has abolished all that is in opposition to His rule. “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25). Though as of yet Christ has not returned and the kingdom has not come in full physical manifestation and power, it is “set in stone” that Christ will completely conquer all of His enemies, and that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). He is Lord and Sovereign, proven by the resurrection, and He will fully establish His kingdom.