3 Reasons the Resurrection Matters

Posted on 2014/04/18 by Guestspeaker

The resurrection of Jesus (alongside his crucifixion) is by the majority of Christians the central historical event in the Christian faith. You could say that

Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity.

The Jewish fighter against the first followers of Christ, after some time changed his mind and wrote to the Corinthian community:

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of people came to the faith because of the tremendous stories they heard and because they came to believe that resurrection of Christ Jesus was not a joke or a fairy tale. Many do not stand still what importance such an act of coming of the dead, by a man really means. Those trinitarian (believing in a three godhead) Christians who take Jesus to be God nullify his death, because the God of gods can not die, and make a farce of this man, who only wanted to follow the will of his Father and not of himself.

“41 And he was parted from them about a stone’s cast; and he kneeled down and prayed, 42 saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:41-42 ASV)

We should understand that Jesus did not pray to himself, but to a much Higher Being, to Whom he would go later.

“28 and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who hath given [them] unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29 ASV)

“Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28 ASV)

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.” (John 14:12 ASV)

“Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods; yea, in the thing wherein they dealt proudly against them.” (Exodus 18:11 ASV)

Several Christians say they believe in the resurrection and are convinced that after dying a violent death on a Roman cross on a Friday afternoon in 30 A.D., Jesus of Nazareth came back to life and emerged from the tomb on Sunday morning. Those days are not correct, but are not the subject of what we want to bring forward today.

Jesus, as a devote Jew celebrated the Passover or the liberation of God’s People. On the 14th of Nisan, the first month of the Judaic year, he with his closest friends installed a New Covenant, between his Father and those who wanted to come close to God . The Jews had got their opportunity to be the most praised people of God, but now others could also come into the House of God, thanks to what Jesus accomplished.

He was a man of flesh and blood who could be tempted. His heavenly Father is a Spirit and has no flesh, blood or bones. God also can not be tempted and can not sin. Jesus himself never had claimed to be God and always had spoken with respect of his Father in heaven, without Him he could do nothing. Him always referring to his Father made the Pharisees willing to get rid of him.

“17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. 18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.” (John 5:17-19 ASV)

“21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. 22 Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24 ASV)

That he was not a spirit he would proof to his disciples after he was taken our of the dead, after having resided for three days in hell. (In case many Christians could count well, they would not take Good Friday as a day Jesus died and Sunday being the day he stood up from the dead, because than he would not have been three days death.)

Lamentation at the Tomb, 15th century. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We may already be happy those Christians say Jesus was put unto death, put in a grave (sheol = the hell) and was resurrected. They should come to see it was not Jesus who came from himself out of the grave, but that it was his Father Whom took him from the dead. This is important, because when Jesus is a man of flesh and blood, who can get up from being death, this makes it also possible for us. In case Jesus is God that does not proof anything for a humble human being, who can sin and probably did more than one sin in his or her life. When we know how severely God punished the first human beings and did not make an end straight ahead to this distorted situation and broken relation, we should wonder what the use would be in case God Himself would come to earth to play a man and to do as if He could be tempted and as if He could die. You might wonder why such a charade would have any use and why God than waited such a long time to come to this earth to play the role of Messiah.

From historical writing we got to know what happened in the past with the people who claim to be God His People. We also got to know about the Nazarene Jew Jeshua who did many miracles and who claimed to be the son of God, but never said he himself was God.

His resurrection is not easy to believe. But if it is true, it is the most pivotal event in human history. Much has been written in defense of Jesus’ resurrection, according to Brian G. Hedges, Lead Pastor for Fulkerson Park Baptist Church and the author of Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin, and Active Spirituality: Grace and Effort in the Christian Life, the most thorough and convincing book being N. T. Wright’s massive 800-page volume, The Resurrection of the Son of God. (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 3) (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003)

What is unquestionable is that the first generation of Jesus’ followers did believe he had risen, and were convinced that everything had changed as a result.

Consider just three of the ways the New Testament highlights the significance of the resurrection.

1. Jesus’ resurrection means that his sacrificial death on the cross was sufficient, and therefore our sins can be forgiven.

Paul emphasizes this in 1 Corinthians 15, reminding us that

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (vv. 3-4).

Then, in verse 17, he argues that

“if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

In other words, Paul saw a direct connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the sufficiency of his death to atone for our sins. When Jesus rose again on the third day, it was the public announcement that God was fully satisfied with the sacrificial death of his son Jeshua. In his resurrection, Jesus was vindicated (1 Timothy 3:16). But in his vindication, we are vindicated too. That’s why Paul says in Romans 4 that Jesus

“was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

2. Jesus’ resurrection means that death is defeated once and for all.

As Peter proclaimed on the Day of Pentecost,

“God raised [Jesus] from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24).

The distinctive English image, with Christ stepping on a soldier, in a 14th century Nottingham alabaster relief (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are told that ‘Death‘ lost its grip on Jesus! Death could never have had a grip on God. But every man, though being created in the image of God, would, because of the sin of the first man, be in submission to death.

When Jesus was a man of flesh and blood and not a spirit, like his Father, this all makes sense. By the Father taking His son out of death and even by taking him to sit on his right site, to become a mediator between God and man, we have the assurance Jesus can mean something to us. He is not only our solicitor or privileged intercessor by the Most High, he is also an example to what can happen also to us.

The resurrection means that Jesus not only defeated death for himself, but that he defeated it for us. He died and rose as a new representative for humanity, as the Second Adam.

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,”

writes Paul,

“the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

It is in that way that Jesus his disciple John looks at the genesis of the New World of Christ, where Jesus is that begin for all of us, the alpha, but also the end, the omega.

After the default Adam, we have a remake Adam to which we can refer; In him we find a new harddisk to start anew, fresh under his guidance, with his software.

His resurrection guarantees ours.

Perhaps no one has said this more eloquently than C. S. Lewis. In his 1947 book Miracles, Lewis wrote:

“The New Testament writers speak as if Christ’s achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the ‘first fruits,’ the ‘pioneer of life.’ He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has been opened.”

The empty tomb assures us that sickness and suffering, death and disease will not have the final word.

This should be both personal and powerfully hope giving to all of us.

3. Jesus’ resurrection means that the material world matters.

Lest there be any misunderstanding, when the apostles said that Jesus rose again, they meant that his physical body came back to life. The risen Jesus wasn’t a phantom or ghost, but a breakfast-eating, flesh-and-bone, human being (see Luke 24:36-43 and John 21:10-14).

As the Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist John Updike once said,

Make no mistake: if He rose at all

it was as His body;

if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules

reknit, the amino acids rekindle,

the Church will fall.

When Jesus’ came out of the tomb in a physical body, it was God’s definitive stamp of approval on the creation project with all of its materiality. The resurrection shows us that matter matters. And this is why the early Christians looked to the future with confidence that the created order itself would be redeemed (see Romans 8:18-25).

Though we wait for the full consummation of new creation, the Scriptures also teach that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is already working within us (Ephesians 1:19-20). The resurrection, you see, not only assures of God’s forgiveness and comforts us in suffering as we anticipate the final reversal of death, disease, and decay; it also motivates and empowers us to push back the tide of suffering and evil in the present world, through word and deed, in mercy and in justice, all in Jesus’ name.

(Having taken in mind words from Brian G. Hedges,Lead Pastor for Fulkerson Park Baptist Church and the author of Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin, and Active Spirituality: Grace and Effort in the Christian Life. Brian and his wife Holly have four children and live in South Bend, Indiana. Brian also blogs at www.brianghedges.comand you can follow him on Twitter @brianghedges.)

End Notes

N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 3) (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003).

The Greek word for “justification” (dikaiosin) in Romans 4:25 is closely related to the word “vindicated” (edikaiothe) in 1 Timothy 3:16.

C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1947) 236–237.

John Updike, “Seven Stanzas of Easter,” in Telephone Poles and Other Poems (Random House, 2013).

Preceding articles:

Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord

Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be

Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God

Additional reading:

+++

Can you question the Resurrection and still be a Christian? (religionnews.com)
Did Jesus literally rise from the dead in a bodily resurrection, as many traditionalist and conservative Christians believe? Or was his rising a symbolic one, a restoration of his spirit of love and compassion to the world, as members of some more liberal brands of Christianity hold?As Easter approaches, many Christians struggle with how to understand the Resurrection. How literally must one take the Gospel story of Jesus’ triumph to be called a Christian? Can one understand the Resurrection as a metaphor — perhaps not even believe it happened at all — and still claim to be a follower of Christ?
Resurrection – for ME? (aworldontheedge.com)
Resurrection is defined in the dictionary as the act of causing something that had ended or been forgotten or lost to exist again, to be used again, etc.We come into this world innocent, and nothing can change that we’re made in the image and likeness of God. Part of each one of us is spiritual, like it or not. And it is that spirituality that draws us to God.
The Resurrection is Believable (burrissblog.wordpress.com)
Opponents of Christianity and skeptical minds have always questioned the resurrection, just as they question many other teachings of Christianity. Such skeptics are more common in contemporary America, but they have always been around. What is surprising is that more and more Christians are stating their skepticism about the resurrection.
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1. Something dramatic happened that changed the disciples from a hiding, defeated group to a group willing to die for their faith in Jesus. They were devastated when Jesus was killed. Did they just decide to reinterpret His death or did they see Him alive again?2. If Jesus’ dead body was in a tomb near Jerusalem, why didn’t His opponents simply bring out the dead body when His disciples started preaching that He was alive?
The Significance of the Resurrection (spyghana.com)
The embalmed remains of Lenin lie in a crystal casket in a tomb in Red Square in Moscow. On the casket it says: “He was the greatest leader of all peoples, of all countries, of all times. He was the [savior] of the world!”All is in the past tense for Lenin. How forward-looking, by contrast, are the triumphant words of Christ: “I am He that [lives] . . . I am alive forevermore.”
+
What judge would listen to you in a court of law, if you said that while you were asleep your neighbor came into your house and stole your TV set? Who knows what goes on when he/she is asleep? A testimony like this would be ridiculed in a court of law. Besides, the guards would have lost their heads if they told the Roman governor, Pilate that they were asleep at their post and the disciples came and stole the body. Furthermore, we are faced with a psychological and ethical impossibility. Stealing the body of Jesus was something totally foreign to the disciples and all that we know of them. It would mean that they were perpetrators of a deliberate lie, which was responsible for the deception and the ultimate death of thousands of people.Each of the disciples faced the test of possible torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. People will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If anything is clear from the Gospels and the Book of Acts, it is that the apostles were sincere. They may have been deceived, if you like, but they were not deceivers. Hypocrites and martyrs are not made of the same stuff.
The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ Is The Greatest Single Event In Human History (fggam.org)
Do you realize that Jesus never corrected, withdrew, or amended any statement He ever made? I wish I could say that! Jesus Christ never apologized for anything He ever did or said. Jesus Christ never sought advice from anyone, never had to ask for forgiveness. Jesus Christ doesn’t have any strong points. For Him to have strong points, He would have to have weak points.
Three Implications of the Empty Tomb (mainthings.wordpress.com)
Paul says, if the King is risen and if the King is enthroned than nothing done for Him is meaningless. It is His triumph and not our fruitfulness that determines these realities.
Because of Easter, We Are Overcomers (chronicillnesspaindevotionals.wordpress.com)
As I think about the power that God exerted to raise Christ from the dead, my human mind can’t fully comprehend what that entailed. But I do know that no other power is so great, and as a Christian, that power now lives in me.
The Resurrection of Jesus is not optional (gracedigest.com)
Notice that there are three key parts to the gospel Paul preached. 1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 2. He was buried. 3. He as was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. This is important! If you take away the resurrection component you have nothing! Try sitting on a stool with two legs! Just so, a gospel without the resurrection of Jesus is no gospel (good news) at all! Paul went to great lengths to assure his readers that indeed Christ did rise from death.
Is Jesus’ Resurrection the Best Explanation of the Evidence? (jkw00d.wordpress.com)
1. Historical claims are strong when supported by multiple, independent sources.
2. Historical claims which are also attested to by enemies are more likely to be authentic since enemies are unsympathetic, and often hostile, witnesses.
3. Historical claims which include embarrassing admissions reflect honest reporting rather than creative storytelling.
4. Historical claims are strong when supported by eyewitness testimony.
5. Historical claims which are supported by early testimony are more reliable and less likely to be the result of legendary development.+
  Some skeptics argue that Jesus may have been crucified but He did not actually die. Instead, He lost consciousness (swooned) and merely appeared to be dead only to later be revived in the cool, damp tomb in which He was laid. After reviving He made His way out of the tomb and presented Himself to His disciples as the “resurrected” Messiah. Thus the Christian religion begins.
The Doctrine Without Which Holy Week Is Not Good News (derekzrishmawy.com)
Unless I am united to Christ, all of his obedience to the covenant, or righteousness, is not mine–I am left to stand on my own false works before the judge of all the earth. Unless I am united with Christ, then his sin-bearing death is not mine, and I am left to give an account for all my wicked sins. Unless I am united with Christ, I am not part of the crop of which Christ is the first-fruits, and I can only reap the death that sin leads to and have no life through the Spirit.

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3 Reasons the Resurrection Matters

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