Why the Resurrection?

Oftentimes after Easter Sunday our minds return to the daily-grind of secular life. One day a year (maybe for a period up to one week) we pay great homage to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, emphasizing this great truth and remembering the empty tomb. After this we return to what we so joyfully term “everyday life” and to the doldrums of existence. We so quickly forget that Christ came to give us abundant, eternal life, in knowing Him and the Father (John 10:10; 17:3).

Life is not meant to be lived in the drudgery of many days. Rather, we are to live life in light of the resurrection of Christ every day—every moment! We are to cling to the cross and know Christ in His sufferings (cf. Philippians 3:10). Yet to know Him in His sufferings is so much more than just to participate in His sufferings, the sufferings which God graciously gives us to perfect our faith, much as Christ was matured and shown perfect through His sufferings (cf. Philippians 1:29, 1 Peter 1:6-9, Hebrews 4:15, 5:8-10).

To cling to the cross is much more than just to live counting our own righteousness as rubbish and being credited with the righteousness of Christ (cf. Philippians 3:7-9), though this is an extremely weighty matter. To cling to the cross and to suffer with Christ, despising our own filthy righteousness and accepting His is to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10), so that we will be “conformed to His death; in order that [we] may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:11).

It is impossible to experience the power of the resurrection without dying to ourselves and clinging to the cross—as I have just explained above. Without knowing and experiencing the power of the resurrection of Christ, we will be confined to a life that is merely drudgery and listlessness. To live an abundant life, one that is filled with joy in knowing and serving God, we must continually be mindful of the resurrection.

We cannot experience the remembrance and power of the resurrection one day a year and expect to live a victorious Christian life. We must always return our hearts to the resurrected Lord, lest we lose hope and forget why we would ever even desire to live the Christian life—which is by no means a simple stroll in the park. Only by contemplating the resurrection will we be able to walk with boldness before this wicked and perverse world. We can only overcome the world through our faith if we will continually return to the empty tomb and stand in wonder that the Man who bore the complete wrath of God, the Man rejected by all and murdered upon the cross, Jesus Christ the righteous, lives eternally, never to experience death again.

In what follows, I will consider nine biblical truths of why God resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. These truths, when properly understood by our minds and our hearts, will give us hope and boldness to face this evil world, our own sin, and the trials that beset us. While we will be hated for Christ’s sake, yet knowing these truths and Christ Himself will give us confidence that the final victory is Christ’s, and ours’ in Christ. May this help us to always have the resurrection in our hearts and upon our minds. The resurrection is a powerful thing!

As Proof that He is the Son of God

Jesus made some very radical claims during His ministry. Many of these claims, such as His prerogative to forgive sins (cf. Mark 2:5-12), His claim to act just as He has seen God the Father act (John 5:17-18), and His declaration to be one with the Father (John 10:30), are blasphemous for one who is merely a human being to speak. Christ often referred to Himself as the heavenly “Son of Man” and even referred to Himself as the “Son” of God. The authority He had was His as the Son of God.

Yet Jesus’ claims needed the authentication of the resurrection. In John 2, after Jesus has cleansed the Temple and the people ask Him who or what has given Him authority to act as He has, Jesus tells the Jewish people, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Though they thought He was speaking of the Temple edifice in Jerusalem (John 2:20, cf. Mark 15:29-30), Jesus was speaking concerning His body (John 2:21-22). He was telling them that if they wanted a sign, all they needed to do is kill Him, and He would show them that His authority was from God, for He is the Son of God.

The people made good on their end of the bargain and crucified Christ. Then He was laid in the tomb. If Jesus were to fail and not to come out of the tomb at the foretold time, He would be a liar. If He had not come forth, then He would have been wrong about the sign that He was giving them. Jesus would have been a liar and nobody should have even thought for a moment that He was the Son of God, for everyone knows that God cannot lie.

But it happened. On the third day, Jesus arose from the tomb. The people had been given their sign; though many of them rejected it, others accepted it (cf. Acts 2:41). This confirmed that all He said was true. Jesus was alive and never to die again. He “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness” (Romans 1:4). God would not resurrect just anyone—especially not a blasphemer! Thus the resurrection gave proof that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the Christ, the Son of God, and all authority is His.

It was proven that Christ’s authority for performing miracles and making such claims was His right as the Son of God. The Father furnished the proof that Jesus was truly His beloved Son, with whom He is well pleased (Mark 1:11). The resurrection demonstrates to both adversaries and allies of Christ that Jesus’ authority comes from the Father.

To Ascend to the Seat of Power and Glory

Jesus, so that He might reconcile God and mankind, had to leave His place of honor with the Father and the glory that He and the Father shared before the world was even created (John 17:5). Since He is the immortal Son of God, He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” By doing this, Christ was able to be humbled and obedient “to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).

Without becoming a human being, Jesus could not die. As the eternal “Word” of God, Jesus is immortal in His glorified state. Thus “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He needed to become human so that He could die and so that He could reverse the curse of Adam (we will discuss this point later). Only by emptying Himself and leaving His heavenly throne could Jesus possibly fulfill His earthly role. He had to descend; otherwise He could not be the mediator between God and mankind (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5-6).

Being God, however, Jesus could not remain in a permanent state of humiliation. He could not remain in the grave after He died upon the cross. With His role as a servant completed, He had to rise from the grave and return to His former state of glory. Jesus Himself said while speaking to the Father, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:4-5). He could not remain on earth. He had to return to the Father. This is why He tells Mary at the tomb, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’” (John 20:17). It was time for Jesus to be restored to the seat of honor at the Father’s right hand.

For forty days after the resurrection Jesus taught the disciples “the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). After this He was lifted up from their presence and He returned to the Father, so that His followers might receive the Holy Spirit.

For His obedient work, and because He was resurrected and alive, never to die again, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). He was given the greatest honor possible.

“When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:3-4). Jesus had finished His earthly mission and so returned to the place of glory. Jesus Christ ascended. He could not ascend if He remained in the grave. “Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:9-10).

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.

To Prove God’s Satisfaction in Christ’s Propitiation

Because Christ died, Christians are promised that their sins have all been atoned for. Paul tells us, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:33-34).

God has justified us and so since He no longer condemns us, no one can. Why is it that God does not condemn us? Because Jesus Christ died and has risen from the dead; He is our perfect mediator before the Father. The Father has accepted Christ’s atonement upon the cross, and so believers have confidence that He has bore God’s wrath that was due us. Yet, can we be certain that the Father was pleased in the Son’s sacrifice?

First, let me establish a clear Biblical truth: God is holy. He is perfect—without sin—and all that He does it good and right. He is above and beyond all things, and so He is Lord of all, having supreme right over His creation. God cannot compromise His holiness, or any of His other attributes. Thus, God cannot tolerate sin in His presence or in His creation—for He is the ruler and owner of His creation.

However, mankind is sinful. Every human is sinful because we are all the descendents of Adam (cf. Romans 3:23, 5:12-14). You owe your DNA to Adam, and so when he sinned, it affected all of his descendents, including you. This sin is a profound distrust in God which leads to every sort of evil deed.

God, who is holy, and therefore must deal justly with sin, giving to the offenders the punishment deserved, cannot just forgive sinners at a whim. Rather, sin must be paid for. A sufficient atonement must be made for sin—either by the offensive party or by a mediator. Sinners who trust Christ are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness” (Romans 3:24-25).

Because God has demonstrated His justice in the horrific suffering of Christ and has thus poured out His grace upon all those who belong to Christ, we can be absolutely certain that Christ’s atoning work was the sufficient atonement for our sins. Jesus drank the full cup of God’s wrath on behalf of all who trust in Him. Christ Himself said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). His work was completed upon the cross in God’s complete forsaking and punishment of Him, because Christ was viewed by the Father as the offender—He was credited with our sin.

Under the Old Covenant, High Priests offered sacrifices yearly as a temporary atonement for sins. “But when Christ [as contrasted with the earthly high priests] appeared as a high priest of the good things to come… through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11, 12). Christ’s sufferings were sufficient to effectually obtain God’s grace for His people. He has redeemed them—purchased them from the power of sin and the wrath of God for their sins, eternally. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

God demonstrated that Christ’s death was sufficient to satisfy His wrath by raising Christ from the dead. If Christ had remained in the grave, there would be no guarantee that Christ had fully atoned for sins and that Christ had fully drunk every last drop from the cup of God’s wrath. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:3-4). At this time, Christ was shown to be victorious, it was shown that Christ, as both the Son of Man and the Son of God, was worthy of the title of God’s Son and the Lord of lords, and that Christ had indeed purchased for God a people by atoning for their sins (cf. Revelation 5:9-10).

To Reverse the Curse (so Christ would be the firstborn)

Jesus is to have the supremacy in all things. Because He is the creator of all, He is given the birth-rite over all creation. “He is… the firstborn of all creation…. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:15, 18). This is a particularly interesting phrase. He is the heir of God, receiving all the blessings of the firstborn son, and He also receives the reward because “He is… the firstborn from the dead.” As the writer of Hebrews says, Jesus has been “appointed heir of all things” (Hebrew 1:2).

Both Paul and the writer of the Hebrews make clear that Jesus, because He is the creator of all things (Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2), is supreme over all of creation, as God rightfully is. Yet on account of the resurrection, Jesus is “declared the Son of God with power” (Romans 1:4), to be God’s beloved Son (cf. Hebrews 1:5). Through His work upon the cross Christ has redeemed His creation and has become the heir twice over. He has every right over His creation now both because He created it and because He redeemed it for His own possession.

Through the resurrection, Christ has taken over the role of Adam. As humanity fills the earth in the image of Adam and under his rule as the son of God, so those who are in Christ are to fill the earth in the image of Christ (the redeemed and sanctified image of Adam, who was the image of God) and to subject all to His rule. Through the resurrection, Jesus takes Adam’s role as the lord over creation.

Christ can only do this, however, because Adam fell. There had to be a second human, a second father of all creation to rule. Through Adam came sin and death (Romans 5:12-14). Man was made the enemy of God through Adam—both through being credited with his sinfulness and through receiving it as his children. As all those who receive the blood of Adam receive the condemnation for his sin, so all those who receive the atonement in Christ’s blood receive His righteousness and His reward—eternal life (Romans 5:12-17). Jesus has reversed the curse of Adam. Adam brought death through his disobedience; Christ brought life through His obedience (Romans 5:18-19).

By being the firstborn from the dead, Jesus has become the heir of the promises of God, His Father, and has been given everything that was Adam’s before the fall. All who are in Adam receive the condemnation of Adam. Likewise, all who are in Christ receive the same perfected life that is His. “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

It had to be this way. God the Son had to empty Himself of His eternal glory with the Father (cf. John 17:5, Philippians 2:7-8) in order that He might become a human. The curse came through a human and so it had to be extinguished through a human. Jesus had to be obedient in the place of Adam and He had to make atonement for Adam’s transgression (and the transgressions of those who are to be redeemed). Only by doing this could the sin that was credited and infused through Adam be made obsolete and the righteousness of obedience be credited and infused. Since the offspring are His, Jesus is now the firstborn and the “Head” of the church (Colossians 1:18).

To Defeat and Overcome Death

Death is the perfect enemy of mankind. It has a 100% success rate, killing all whom it targets (with the exceptions of two men for whom God intervened—namely, Enoch and Elijah). No one is safe from its power; it works on its own schedule; it often works unexpectedly. Death is a champion. Like a warrior in battle, such as Goliath, death has a guaranteed victory over all whom it faces, and it is willing and able to face anyone and everyone. Death was even willing to take on God’s Chosen One—the Messiah.

Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, was both predetermined and calculated; it was not a mistake or merely ‘Plan B’. Death did not take Christ by surprise, nor was death ever in control. The writer of Acts, in recording the Apostle Peter’s first sermon, makes this clear to us when he says, “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” (Acts 2:24). Jesus laid down His own life and, as He made clear to His opponents, He had the power to take His life again from death’s icy grip (John 10:17-18).

Jesus looked death straight in the face, unflinchingly submitted to it, and then defeated it. “Having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,” Jesus was given absolute jurisdiction over death and its power (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus won the victory over death and strangled it of its great power over mankind. Thus the apostle can say, “‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).

Death was like the serpent himself. Mankind was fearful of death, having no hope, knowing that death would take each and every one of them. Death struck like a yellow jacket. Its sting was bitter, taking the precious gift of life from people. Death owned this sting because of mankind’s sinfulness. Sin, having complete sway over mankind, brought them just condemnation under the law. Thus death was rightfully taking peoples’ lives away. They were all judged and found worthy of death by the righteous standard of the law of God.

Yet, because Christ, the firstborn from the dead, has been resurrected unto the fullness of eternal life, taking the just penalty of God’s wrath upon Himself, He has robbed death of its sting and victory. Death no longer has its power and sway. It no longer has the ability to rob the children of God of their hope. Christ, coming under subjection to the Law, has redeemed us from the curse of the Law (cf. Galatians 3:13, 4:4-7).

We can therefore exclaim, “thanks be to God!” The victory is now ours, through Christ Jesus. We no longer have to fear death. We have a mediator beyond the grave who has promised to prepare a place for all those who follow Him to the end (cf. John 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:1-2). Jesus is the victor over death. Death now submits to the wishes of Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate champion; death has been defeated!

So We Might Be Forgiven

If Christ’s work has not been vindicated by the resurrection, we can have no confidence that God has forgiven us our transgressions. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then it is impossible for Him to be a High Priest. “The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing” (Hebrews 7:23). In other words, a person is no longer able to serve in the ministry of the priesthood when he is dead—as this only makes sense; for the mediator between God and His people must be alive, for God is the God of the living, not the dead (Matthew 22:32). In order for Christ to be the permanent High Priest, the perpetual and only mediator between God and mankind (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5), He must be alive.

Because Christ is eternally alive, and it is impossible for Him to die (cf. Romans 6:9), He is “a priest forever,” as God has sworn He would be even before the Son came into the world (Hebrews 7:21, Psalm 110:4). Only because “He continues forever,” Christ is able to hold His High Priesthood permanently. Because He does hold it permanently, “He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:24-25). As High Priest, Christ is able to continually plead on our behalf with the Great Judge, the Father. Only in this way can He intercede for all who draw near to God by faith in Him.

Christ’s intercessory work guarantees the forgiveness of all who trust in Him. Without Christ it would be impossible to draw near to the Father (cf. Hebrews 4:15-16), for only in Christ are we righteous before God (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus Paul can tell us, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).

If we trusted in a dead high priest, we surely would have no hope, since His mediation would not be permanent, but would be just as that of the priests under the Old Covenant sacrificial system, requiring a sacrifice year after year. Faith in Christ’s sacrifice being a true atonement for sin would be worthless, since He would still be in the grave and unable to be a mediator. But since Christ is alive, He “does not need daily, like [the Old Covenant] high priest, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:26-27). Because Christ was perfect, He need not sacrifice for Himself. Because Christ’s sacrifice was eternal, accepted by the Father, He only had to offer Himself once (cf. Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18).

As Paul says, if Christ is still dead, our hope is only in him for this life, since He does not stand as an eternal mediator. We would continue to be in our sin, since our High Priest is not alive. We would also have no hope for those who have died trusting in Christ, for they have eternally perished in a vain hope. In this case, we should be pitied by all, since we have a false hope and wretched views of mankind. We believe humans to be sinful and in need of a mediator. If Christ is still dead, no such mediator exists. We believe that we have been forgiven on account of Christ’s bearing the penalty for our sins. If Christ is still dead, then our sins remain upon us because God was not satisfied in Christ’s sacrifice as a High Priest. We believe that we shall receive resurrected bodies and live eternally. If our High Priest, the one who is our divine rescuer, is dead, who will save us from the wrath of God? No one, so our hope is in vain.

Christ is alive, however. This shows that God was satisfied with His sacrifice. We have assurance because the wrath of God has been satisfied by Christ’s work upon the cross. We know that as long as Christ stands in mediation for us, no one can tell us to depart from the Father’s presence; no one can take our eternal life away, for Christ is the sovereign Lord of eternal life, and He stands on our behalf. Our forgiveness is sure, for the risen Christ is the proof that we are now justified, we are righteous in the sight of God, the judge.

So that We Would Be Born Again to a Reasonable Hope

By His death, Christ secured the promises of the New Covenant for His people. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus said to His disciples of the wine cup that came to be known as the Communion cup, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27). The covenant of which Christ spoke was that which was prophesied in Jeremiah 31, where God said, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel… I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (vv. 31-34). He also speaks of this New Covenant in Ezekiel 36 by saying, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (vv. 25-27).

The promise of the New Covenant is that God will regenerate the hearts of His people so that they will act in faithfulness toward Him. In other words, God will give them new life—He will cause them to be born again, for one must be born again by the Holy Spirit, or else he/she “cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5-8).

This new life, however, would be of no value if it did not have any genuine and significant benefits. Such, however, is not the case. As Peter tells us, God deserves praise for regenerating our hearts because this regeneration gives us a true hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3, emphasis added).

Peter describes this hope as “living” because it is given to us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Christ is living, and so the hope we have is in the One who is living, and so the hope itself is living—it is genuine, dynamic, and certain. This hope would not be living, however, if Christ were not alive.

But Jesus Christ is alive, and so the hope we have is living. Christ’s death brings us two types of hope: one now and one for the future resurrection.

The first hope is that the power of sin is, and will ultimately be, defeated in us. The Apostle Paul tells us, “If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:5-7).

We have been freed from the condemnation of sin (cf. Romans 8:1-4), since we are justified in Christ. We have also been freed from the power of sin controlling our nature and our will. We are now able to consider ourselves dead to sin and its control over our desires (Romans 6:11-19). We are thus “freed from sin” and now “slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). When Christ returns, we will be entirely sanctified at His return, putting a complete end to all sin still in our flesh (cf. Romans 8:29-30).

The second hope is in our inheritance. We have been born again “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). Those who have been born again are guaranteed eternal life. Our reward is to know God, now and forever (John 17:3).

Thus, on the basis of Christ’s resurrection, we have the hope of knowing God and of being freed from sin. We will be made complete; for we will be made to be as He is, bearing His image (cf. Romans 8:29-32, 1 Corinthians 15:49, 53-54). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” for raising Christ from the dead, and securing our hope.

As Our Guarantee of the Resurrection of Life

The apostle Paul was certain that Christ had been physically raised from the dead. His language conveys his certainty. Paul Himself saw Christ as he traveled to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9), and a great number of fellow disciples testified that they too had seen the risen Lord (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Paul devoted a great amount of space in 1 Corinthians to securing the Corinthians’ faith, that they too would be resurrected because Christ was raised.

As Paul argues his points of the surety of Jesus’ physical resurrection, he comes to the point where he plainly asserts the fact of Christ’s resurrection: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep”(1 Corinthians 15:20). We as Christians are not to be pitied because we have not hoped in vain because, without a doubt in Paul’s mind, Jesus has been physically raised from the dead, and we will be too.

There is, however, a proper and necessary order to the resurrection: “In Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). All Christians, including those who have died, will be resurrected at Christ’s return. While this is not yet experienced, Christ has been raised, and He is the “first fruits” from the dead.

As in the Old Covenant, where the Israelites would bring the first fruits of the harvest to God as a sacrifice, so Jesus was the accepted sacrifice to God, and He is the first to be resurrected (cf. Leviticus 23:10-11). As the sheaf of the first fruits of the crop “was not only prior to the main harvest but was also an assurance that the rest of the harvest was coming,” so it is with Christ. “He preceded his people in his bodily resurrection and he is also the guarantee of their resurrection at his second coming.”[1] Because Christ has been resurrected, you are guaranteed to be resurrected “if you hold fast the word which [was] preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:2). If you remain in Christ as a member of His body, the Church, you will take part in the resurrection of life (Revelation 20:4-6). Christ, being both the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23) and the guarantee to all who trust in Him, was the first to be resurrected, as is His right, being of a higher rank. In the same way, all the faithful will be resurrected at His coming.

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that he died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:8-11). Christ has put on immortality, and He shall never die again. Since He is God’s guarantee to us of what we shall be at His coming (cf. Colossians 3:1-4), we can trust God that we shall live eternally with Him. And so just as Christ has died to the power and curse of sin, we too have confidence to kill sin in ourselves that we might live to the glory of God and attain the goal of our faith: eternal life (cf. 1 Peter 1:9).

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). The guarantee of the resurrection gives us confidence in the face of all trials, and it gives us reason to persevere under any and all circumstances (cf. Romans 5:2-5, James 1:2-4). It also guarantees us that our earthly labors are not done in vain. We shall receive the reward for our labors at Christ’s return (cf. 2 Timothy 2:7-8). Therefore, we can, and should, desire for Christ to return and to establish the fullness of His kingdom.

The resurrection displayed the power of God and the person of Christ. The whole of the Christian faith rests upon Christ being resurrected from the dead. It is the resurrection that gave Paul the confidence to proclaim, and for us to say along with him, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

The same power that raised Christ from the grave (cf. Romans 1:4), is the same “power of God” to transform lives and save all who believe. The same power that raised Christ is the same power that regenerates us, forgives us, keeps us, and will resurrect us from the grave at Christ’s return. We can thus proclaim the gospel to all, trusting in God to save the hearers: for “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). The power of the gospel, “the word of Christ,” is the power to bring about faith in its hearers and to effectually save them. We should thus not be ashamed to proclaim the gospel; “For the promise [of the gospel for the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit] is for… as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:39). The gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

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[1] Frank E. Gaebelein, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1 Corinthians 15:20.