1. Resurrection is a present reality for all who believe in Christ:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6).
Through faith in the living Christ, we are joined to Him in spiritual union. God has made us alive together with Christ. Therefore as Paul said, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Baptism represents this union — buried and risen with Christ. Just as His resurrection power raised us up out of spiritual death, now His resurrection life empowers us to live this new life through time and into eternity.
Paul wants us to understand this and he said, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:18-20). The same power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him ion glory is now working in us, enabling us to live this life.
2. Resurrection is a future promise:
Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits (Isa. 26:19).
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Rom. 8:11).
Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you (2 Cor. 4:14).
Jesus’ triumph over sin and death, and our union with Him by faith, means that death no longer has power over our lives. Because the power of death has been broken and because the sin that creates the reality of death has been canceled and because we are living in union with the risen Christ, resurrection is not only a present reality but also a future promise. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die (John 11:25).
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (John 5:24).
The fear of death and the power of death no longer hold dominion over our lives. This does not mean that our bodies will not wear out someday. Unless the Lord returns before we die, then our physical bodies will eventually fall into the dust. However, in that moment of death our spirit will be instantly translated into the eternal presence of Christ. Paul reminds us that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).
This is not the fulness of resurrection — that is a future event when we receive resurrection bodies. But the Apostle Paul reminds 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 (Rom. 6:5).
In the likeness of His resurrection means that we will someday have resurrection bodies like the Lord, bodies that are fit for eternity just as our bodies now are fit for time. John reminds us, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (I Jn. 3:2).
Paul reminds us that Jesus will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself (Phlpn. 3:21).
Again, Paul reveals, Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality (I Cor. 15:51). We will not all sleep refers to believers alive on earth when the Lord returns. In that moment of the Lord’s return, saints alive on earth and saints descending from heaven with the Lord will put on imperishable bodies, for this mortal must put on immortality.
Along with our resurrection, Creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:21-23). Creation itself will be restored to the fulness of beauty and fruitfulness as in Eden’s garden.
When will this happen? Paul says, At His coming — when Christ returns and history is ended (I Cor 15:23). That event may not be today but it is a certain promise to those who believe in the risen Lord who said, Because I live, you will live also (John 14:19).
Job lived centuries before the time of Christ yet with eyes of faith He saw the resurrection of our Redeemer and in that indestructible life, he saw his own resurrection. We rejoice with that ancient man of faith, and share his confession, As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25,26).
Hundreds of years before Christ was born, Isaiah prophesied the resurrection triumph of Jesus, He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken (Isa. 25:8).
The Apostle Paul met the risen Christ and we share his song of triumph:
O death, where is your victory?
O death , where is your sting? (I Cor. 15:55)
The resurrection life of Jesus
is our present experience and the foundation of our future hope.
He is the holy Lamb who reconciles us to God,
the risen Lord who empowers our living.
This is our confession, the rock on which we stand.
Resurrection Questions
1. Why did the risen Jesus not appear to His enemies?
The enemies of Jesus had seen many miracles and yet they did not believe in Him. In fact, they attributed His miracles to the power of the devil (Matt. 12:22-24). Some had even witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus only to become more furious in their opposition (John 11:43-53).
They had heard Jesus preach, yet their hearts were unmoved by truth spoken from the mouth of the Son of God. Their response to His teaching was unbelief, hostile argument and violent blasphemy. The more mighty works Jesus performed and the more truth He taught, the greater the rage of His enemies. If they had seen the resurrected Jesus, they would only have become more entrenched in their hateful opposition.
Remember that the rulers never denied the empty tomb. They simply bribed the soldiers to tell a lie. It does not appear that they doubted the truth of the resurrection. Rather, they chose to reject the truth. When hearts are that hardened in unbelief, even seeing the risen Christ will not produce change.
Earlier, Jesus dismissed the possibility that a resurrection would change the heart of a person who has completely rejected God’s truth and God’s messengers. He told a parable of an evil man who died and went to the holding place of the unrighteous dead (Luke 16:19-31). The man looked across the gulf that separated him from the righteous dead and begged Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers of the torment of hell. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them (16:29). The man replied, No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent (16:30). In the parable, Abraham’s stunning response is simply, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead (16:31).
The principle is this: God gives light to every person on earth and if we act on that light, God will give more light until we come to the saving knowledge of Christ. But if we reject the light that we already have, it will accomplish nothing to have more light. A person committed to unbelief, who tramples on the truth that they have, will not come to saving faith simply by adding another chapter of truth to their library of unbelief.
Jesus said, This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed (John 3:19,20). More light will not save anyone who has rejected the light they have.
In fact, the Lord may confirm them in their unbelief. For every time that Pharaoh hardened his heart, we read that God hardened his heart. Paul speaks of those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved, adding, For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false (2 Thes. 2:10,11). In Romans chapter one Paul speaks of those who reject the truth of God and invent false gods. Three times he says, God gave them over to their corruption and their false gods (Rom. 1:24,26,28).
Jesus did not appear to those who had rejected the clear revelation that He was the Messiah.
2. Why did Jesus not appear to the multitudes?
The crowd was always ready to crown Jesus as king of a new Israeli state, but not so quick to enter His kingdom through repentance and faith. They loved to listen to Jesus but were always ready to betray Him and turn from Him if His teaching displeased them or challenged them. The crowd was as unstable as water. It was not in Jesus that they rejoiced but in the multiplied fish and bread and miracles.
They wanted to make Jesus king (for instance, John 6:15), not worship Him as the King He already is. They wanted to make Him the kind of king who would suit their purposes, a king in their image, a king who would fulfill their national dreams of power and glory; a king they could control; a king they would abandon if His kingdom did not match their expectations.
Jesus is not seeking crowds of fickle admirers or half-converted multitudes, but disciples who have surrendered to His Lordship, who worship Him in spirit and in truth. This requires a personal encounter, a crisis of heart leading to repentance and faith and full submission to Him.
The risen Lord Jesus appeared to those who knelt before Him in loving adoration and faith.
3. Why did Jesus appear first to the women?
Because they were the first ones at the tomb. It really is that simple. That group of women loved the Lord and wanted to worship Him with one last act of devotion — to anoint His body with burial spices. They represent true worshippers in every century who only want to press in and worship the Lord.
The principle which we may apply to our lives is this: the more consistent we are in responding to the Lord’s invitation to know Him, to fellowship with Him and worship Him, to press in to His Self-revelation, the more we will experience His presence and ministry among us.
Luke, in his introduction to the Acts of the Apostles, testifies that Jesus presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
To whom did Jesus present Himself?
Who saw the convincing proofs?
Who heard His teaching?
Those who were present.
The Proof of Resurrection
A commando team burst into the prison and broke open the doors. One inmate was too traumatized to stand so a soldier lay down beside him, looked him in the eyes and said, “We’ll lay here together and when you’re ready, we’ll get up together.”
This is a picture of the God who took on human form, lay down in the dust of death with us and rose again. All who believe in Him rise with Him.
In our resurrection, we will possess glorified bodies and minds. The trauma of this world will be washed away. But there will be one person in heaven who will forever carry scars. It is the Savior who lay down in the dust with us. The nail prints, the scar of the spear-thrust will forever inspire our praise for the unmeasured, unfathomable love of God in Christ Jesus.
But that day is not today. Today we live amidst empires that seduce and deceive, oppress and enslave, persecute and plunder. In the midst of this deafening clamor of chaos, devastation, violence and tragedy, how do we proclaim the great Good News that God has entered our prison, broken our chains and offers freedom to all who will receive Him?
We proclaim the message as did the first generation of disciples — not merely with words but with the empire-shattering eloquence of transformed lives. Washed and cleansed, forgiven and restored, united to Christ’s death and resurrection through faith, those first followers of Christ experienced a complete transformation of their being. They were transfigured in the life and power of the risen Lord Jesus and they were the proof of His rising.
How do we explain a small band of terrified,
traumatized men and women, emerging from behind locked doors
to fill the streets of Jerusalem with joyful news
who proceeded from that holy, bloody city
to look the Roman Beast in the eye and proclaim revolutionary truth,
at the cost of their bodies and their breath?
How do we explain the witness of millions of men
and women over the centuries, turning from sin to holiness,
from self indulgence and selfish hoarding to sacrificial giving,
from bitterness to mercy, from emptiness to fulfillment?
Who can work such a transformation in human dust?
No lie could have such a revolutionary impact.
No fabricated legend. No cleverly devised myth.
It is the reality of the Risen Lord Jesus.
Testimony echoes across the generations
through the lives of men and women today who,
like those before us, kneel into union with Christ,
into His death, into His resurrection.
Reborn and recreated,
we lay down our lives and rise into life.
This is the ultimate, convincing proof that
Jesus rose from the dead:
the living witness of those who encounter Him.
There is no other explanation than this:
Jesus is risen from the dead!
We serve and worship a living Savior!
We are His latest proof.
The Scars of God
Many years ago in an old English village there was a terrible fire in the middle of the night. The town’s people rushed to the burning house but there was nothing they could do; it was too far gone. Then in an upper window appeared the faces of two small children. A woman cried, “Save them,” but the house was engulfed in flames, ready to collapse. No one dared enter.
There was a stranger staying in the village. He suddenly rushed into the flames, fought his way up the stairs, grabbed the children and shielding them in his arms, burst through the front door as the house collapsed with a fiery roar.
The stranger was horribly burned, especially his arms and hands. He had to remain for some weeks in the village as he recovered.
One evening the town met to decide what to do about the children who had lost their mother and father and brothers and sisters in the terrible blaze. The judge asked, “Who will take them into your home?” A wealthy farmer stepped forward, made a good case for his wife and himself. “We’ll care for them as our own,” he said. The mayor made similar promises as did the village priest.
“Is there anyone else?” the judge inquired.
The stranger stepped forward. All eyes were on him. He spoke no words, silently and simply held out his hands, so terribly scarred by the fire. The children ran into his arms.
There is One who has led us to life,
delivered us from the flames of hell,
though it cost Him His life.
Jesus will be the only person in heaven with scars.
In eternity we will behold the scarred Savior and sing:
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.”