Jesus died, was buried, and was raised from the dead. He is risen, and He is alive. This is the essential truth upon which Christianity depends.
If Christ is not risen then there is no Christianity. We are utterly reliant on the fact of His resurrection. He told us that He is the resurrection and the life (John11:25). Anyone who believes in Him, though he may die, yet he shall live. In other words, His resurrection leads to our resurrection.
We may ultimately die physically, but we shall be raised and receive a new, incorruptible body, glorified and made heaven-bound through Him. But that resurrection life begins now, as soon as we have received Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
The new life that comes from His resurrection is crucial to our becoming a new creation in Him. His resurrection makes possible ours.
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
John 5:24
Here, then, is the power of the resurrection. Through His being raised from the dead we are able to pass from death into life. Being resurrected means to die and to be revived, to pass away and yet to come back to life again.
This is the entry into eternal life. It takes place now in this life. We will not be able to receive Jesus as Lord once we pass away if we have not already accepted His Lordship over our lives whilst we are alive in this earth. Now is the time to make this decision.
The way to life
Once we agree to God’s free offer of eternal life through salvation, we are made spiritually alive in Christ. Previously we were dead spiritually through sin, which separates us from God. Any sin, every sin separates us from Him. The only way back is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6
He is the only way, and the way is through His resurrection. A resurrection is completely dependent on a death. When Jesus died it was not because He deserved to die in any way. He had never sinned.
The wages of sin is death, but He did not sin, we did. He took our place and died on our behalf to free us from sin. So, He died for our sin, not for anything He did.
He took our place on the cross. He was our substitutionary sacrifice for our our sin. When He died He died for us. When He shed His blood He shed it for us. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin, and the life of the person is in the blood.
When we sinned we acted against God’s will and we deserved to die because human life is dependent on obedience to the Creator. He made a covenant with the original man that his life would be sustained in covenant with God if he lived a worshipful and dedicated life before God.
It should not have been considered onerous to go along with God’s will. In fact it was a wonderful, peaceful and satisfying life that was offered. God determined that we should follow His simple agreement so that we would live a fulfilled life, but, like Adam, each of us fell.
We all broke covenant with God and deserved death, but Jesus died that death on our behalf, and the Spirit, the blood and the water testified that He had completely spent Himself on our behalf (1 John 5:7-8). Blood and water pouring from His pierced flesh signified that He had given everything to save us from sin.
The power of the resurrection
Paul looked at the resurrection and desired that He know its power. It’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Can you see how amazing this is. Who can die and come back to eternal life? Only the power of God can accomplish this.
Not only the resurrection of the One who took our place, but also the resurrection of all who believe in Him. The power is that because He was raised we can all be raised.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion 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. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:5-11
Our former person, the old man, was crucified with Him so that we can live with Him and be made brand new. That is why we are called a new creature in Christ (2 Cor.5:17). Old things have passed away, and all things are made new.
The power of His resurrection. There is so much more to it, but the new life offered through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the starting point into knowing its power (Phil.3:10).
To be conformed to His life, His death, His suffering and His deliverance, is to be empowered to achieve all He has called us to in this life and the life to come.
