“And rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
This portion of the Nicene Creed concisely describes what Christians have historically recognized as the linchpin of our faith – the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection was foretold by the Scriptures, and by the Lord Himself, and is celebrated formally each year on Easter Sunday – though it ought be celebrated every day by those who bear His name!
But why is the resurrection at the center of the Christian faith? Why does the resurrection of Jesus from the dead make a difference in my life and in the world around me?
Let’s start with a refresher on the narrative of the resurrection, taken from Luke 24:1-12:
“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’ And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.”
The idea that someone could be raised from the dead was as strange and miraculous in the first century as it is in 2025. It was not without opposition. The Sadducees opposed the resurrection (Acts 23:8) and some unbelievers laughed at Paul as he discussed Christ’s resurrection (Acts 17:32). And today, many Christians across the world face mockery and persecution for proclaiming both the death and resurrection of Christ.
The creed is clear not only that Christ rose again on the third day, but that this was in fact a promise made by God throughout Scripture.
Pointing to Calvary: How the Old Testament Foretells of Christ’s Resurrection
From the Bible’s earliest chapters, the victory of God over sin and Satan, and the death that comes into the world as a result of the former, is promised. In the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3, after the fall, God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” In our darkest moment, as death had already begun infecting everything in God’s creation, He had already planned a victory that hell itself could not prevent, through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. That first Easter Sunday, the disciples discovered an empty tomb that sealed the promise made all those years ago in the Garden – the Savior’s heel was bruised, but the enemies of sin, death and Satan had been crushed forever by our resurrected King.
Hebrew poetry also tells of the Lord’s resurrection. In Psalm 16, David writes in verse 10, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” On the Day of Pentecost, described in Acts 2, Peter interprets this as David’s foreshadowing of Christ’s resurrection. It is Jesus who “was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.”
In Psalm 22, the One who suffers is the one who praises the Lord at the end of the psalm, because “he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.” The one who God laid “in the dust of death” now sees the face of God, unhidden. This work of the Father brings “all the families of the nations” to worship Him, a clear reference to the mission of God to glorify Himself through the work of the Son.
And in Psalm 110, David says, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” And praises the coming King, the “priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
And in our last Old Testament passage, the prophet Isaiah points us to the reward of our suffering Savior. In Isaiah 53:10-12, the suffering servant will “see his offspring” after making an “offering for guilt.” His work to make “intercession for the transgressors” results in His days being prolonged and His dividing of the “spoil with the strong.”
This Changes Everything
Outside of the narrative accounts of the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15 might be the most well-known biblical passage dealing with the resurrection. In the latter stages of his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul reminds them that the gospel is “of first importance” before moving into more detail about the resurrection and the appearance of Christ to “more than five hundred brothers at one time,” among many other appearances.
These appearances, recorded in writing, were Paul’s way of assuring the church there was historical evidence and in fact, witnesses, to the Lord’s resurrection. This was not some fanciful claim divined by the frightened apostles, but an eternity-shaping act of God. Those doubting Christianity’s central claim at the time, including the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Roman Empire, desiring to end the faith that “turned the world upside down,” could have interviewed the men who are named or simply asked around and heard from the 500 men who saw Jesus in the flesh.
The late Tim Keller said, “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead.”
Paul’s words helped solidify the truth of the resurrection in the early church. He has risen, and, as Keller said, we now bear the responsibility of following Him as Lord. We now know the truth, not only of His resurrection, but where human history is headed. Those who are in Christ now “share in the events of the last days.” We have met our Messiah, and soon, we will meet Him again, at our own resurrection.
If the resurrection did not happen, Paul says, we are not only still in our sins and without hope of resurrection ourselves, but we will in fact be found guilty of “misrepresenting God.” We are “of all people most to be pitied,” and those who died in that hope have perished.
But because Christ is alive, Paul says, “all things are subjected to him.” If Christ is alive, then every person, living, dead and yet to be born, and every plant, every animal, every atom, all of it, is under the feet of the Son, who will “himself be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him.” Because Christ is alive, He is the divine and promised king who will reign forever, and we owe Him nothing less than our full faith and obedience.
The resurrection is not simply a historical event to be analyzed or a doctrine to be debated, but a truth to cherish that leads us to a Lord we embrace and follow. It is the one truth every person who has ever lived must reckon with.
Let’s dive deeper into some wonderful truths about the resurrection.
Paid in Full
When Paul talks about the imputed righteousness of Christ for believers in Romans 4, he closes that section by referring to the Father as “him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
The apostle here wants his readers to know they are justified, not by anything they’ve done, but by the death and resurrection of Christ. If Christ was not raised, no justification. Because Christ is raised, those who are in Him are made right with God. The life He shares with the Father He now shares with us. J.I. Packer says the resurrection “guarantees the believer’s present forgiveness and justification.” Not a future justification, depending on how the next 40 or so years go, but a present standing before God as saved, justified, not condemned.
As Adam’s sin led to condemnation for all mankind, the death of Christ takes on all our trespasses, laying them in the grave, allowing us to rise with Him. When a bill comes in the mail, or in a notification on your phone, the company expects the bill to be paid in full. If the bill is paid in full, there is no hold on you. No one will shut off your power, turn off your water, cancel your subscription…you are free to enjoy what you have bought.
In Christ, the bill for our sins has been paid, but not by us. His death has paid the penalty for sin. And because that penalty was paid, death could not hold him. The author of Hebrews says after Christ “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (10:12). There was no penalty left to be levied, and thus, the grave was emptied of its power. The bill was paid, the sentence carried out, the execution finished, the Father’s wrath satisfied, the grave no longer able to hold the Savior because the sin that put Him there was atoned for. And if the sin was atoned for, and the Father raised Him from the grave, declaring Him victor over sin and over the grave, we too share in that victory. We now enjoy what He has bought. Brothers and sisters, we need no longer fear the grave nor the wrath of God. Christ has taken it and laid it in the tomb. It stayed there. He did not. He has satisfied the Father, and in Christ, He is satisfied with you.
What marks Paul’s writings on the resurrection, and indeed, many of his texts on the work of Christ and the impact on the believer, is our union with Christ. It is that union with Christ that serves as the foundation for what we believe about ourselves, our salvation and where we’re going.
So, we see the resurrection as God the Father’s testimony that what Christ did was enough for our justification. Now what?
Alive in Christ
Now that our sin has been forgiven, Paul tells us in Romans 6 that we are by “no means” to continue in sin. Addressing some heretics, Paul decries the thought that if we sin more, we will receive more grace.
We can understand our call to sanctification as coming out of Christ’s resurrection by moving deeper into an understanding of our union with Him. If our union with Christ means the death of death through His death and resurrection and means the forgiveness of our sins through the same, Paul understands it means we share in the same life, now lived in relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit and for God’s glory.
“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:9-11).
Those who have been brought from death to life now present themselves to God “as instruments for righteousness,” Paul says. Lest we see this as only a command, the writer of Hebrews again makes clear that this, too, is a gift from the risen Lord.
“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’” (Hebrews 10:14-17).
The writer sees the death and resurrection of Christ as the fulfillment of the promise of a new covenant made in Jeremiah 31, one that sees God’s Word inscribed, not on tablets, but in hearts, the result of a new heart bent toward God by the gospel.
We will not live perfectly after following the risen Christ. But we do want to live differently. We recognize His law on our hearts. We recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit. This, Scripture says, comes from the resurrection.
Where Are We Going?
We all wonder what the future holds. Is our world careening toward ever-increasing, destined for more and more chaos? Am I going to be stuck in the same body forever? Are things ever going to change? Where are we going?
God has an answer for us.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18).
There is a glory to be revealed! There is a new world coming, not just for us, but for all of creation (vv. 19-22). And we can take comfort in knowing that, after His resurrection, the Lord ascended to the right hand of the Father to intercede for us (34). No matter what you are struggling with today, you have a High Priest who is looking out for you and taking up for you before the Father.
Back in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he tells them what they can expect in their glorification, specifically in regard to their resurrection bodies.
“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).
And where do we get this new body?
“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:49)
The resurrection of Christ means we receive a resurrection body, just like our Savior. Paul is adept at examining how our union with Christ informs every part of our lives, and it’s no different here. He reassures the Corinthians that we will “put on the imperishable” and this saying will come to pass, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The resurrection of Christ guarantees our resurrection and our resurrection body, and our home with the Lord forever. His life is now our life. This union with our Savior assures us of our justification, sanctification and glorification. Rest in this wonderful truth!
Every Stone Rolled Away
One morning in 2015, when I was still living at home and working part-time, pursuing my MDiv, my mom woke me up around 6:30. I could tell something was wrong.
“Your dad had a heart attack last night. He didn’t make it.”
The words hit me like a ton of bricks. It was especially hard, given that I had just met my dad five years prior, after growing up without him as a result of divorce. God had miraculously mended past hurts and given us a wonderful relationship.
I miss him daily. He wasn’t there when I got married or welcomed my two children in the world.
And it isn’t the only time death has reared its ugly head. In 2011, a friend was killed by a drunk driver. All four of my grandparents have gone on to be with the Lord. My wife lost her grandfather three months before our wedding.
And we know it won’t be the last time. We have many more tears to shed before we go home. And so do you, reader.
What do we do with our grief? People certainly process it in certain ways. But it seems apparent that most of us, regardless of our spiritual state, desire resurrection. This was true in Corinth, as well, according to Paul.
“Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?” (1 Corinthians 15:29)
Those who have never heard of Easter Sunday will still speak longingly of hoping to see their loved ones again. Our movies and books and TV shows that address death often include language that speaks of a desire to live on after death, to see a new and better world.
But for those of us in Christ, we not only can hope for a better world, but we know that our God has promised it. We know that we will see Him again. We will shake off this mortal coil and put on our resurrection bodies, secured by our risen Savior. And all will be made right.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3)
I’ll close with a quote from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, who reminds us that in Christ, we all experience resurrection.
“We Christians do not believe that Jesus Christ was the only one that ever rose from the dead. We believe that every death-bed is a resurrection; that from every grave the stone is rolled away.”
Photo Credit Unsplash.com
Like the content you see on Reading For The Glory? Consider subscribing to our newsletter to receive updates on new articles, reviews, and podcast episodes. To learn more about the good news of Jesus Christ, please click here.
We also invite you to consider supporting the ongoing ministry of RFTG.
Discover more from Reading For The Glory
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
