What divine purpose did the resurrection of Jesus serve? What does the resurrection mean for the human race? How important is it that we understand Christ’s resurrection?
In order to understand better, we need to get some context and understand what led to Christ dying on the cross and rising again to life.
We understand from the Book of Genesis, that God created the world and everything in it in six days and then rested on the seventh day. On the sixth day He created Adam and Eve. Adam walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden. The state of man and his relationship with God was very good in the beginning. Adam knew that God had created him and he did everything that God commanded. Because of Adam’s obedient faith, he was able to enjoy being in the very presence of God.
In Genesis 3 we read about sin entering into the world and the fall of man. (See Genesis 2:15 to 17 then 3:1 to 6).
What exactly is sin? It is disobedience to God. It is a failure to live up to His righteous standards. As the creator of the universe God has the right to set a standard by which His creation will live. He has a right to make the rules.
A once perfect and wonderful relationship with God changed, because Adam and Eve had disobeyed the Lord and eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after being forbidden to do so. And because of that, God could no longer allow them to be in His presence. So they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. And sin, having entered the world, passed from generation to generation until it filled it up. People learned to be selfish and forget about God. People learned to sin.
Things got so bad that the Lord was sad and regretted that He had even made mankind. So He decided to destroy the world with a flood, and also to rescue 8 people with whom to start over. This of course is the story of Noah and the great Flood (Read Genesis 6 and 7).
But the world after the flood continued to pull away from God and even stopped seeking the Lord. Before God made the world, he had already decided to set a day when He would judge the world in regards to sin. But He was not willing to let us all die in our sins and abandon us. He loved His creation too much, so, He put a plan in place to save those who would come to Him.
Sin was not a problem that man himself could change. No amount of good deeds could undo the bad ones. Nor could they ascend to the level of holiness needed to stand in the presence of God. We can’t make ourselves right with God. Sin has placed a permanent blemish upon us, a stain that could not be removed by ourselves alone. (Read Romans 3:21 to 26)
Only the sacrifice of Christ is able to make us holy. Only Jesus was entirely righteous and also God. His sacrifice was part of God’s divine plan for bringing Man into His presence once again. It was a demonstration of the power and love of God.We are undeserving of God’s love because of our sin, yet He still gives us a chance to be with Him. Jesus died for the sins of the world to provide us with an opportunity to be reunited with our Maker.
Knowing then why Jesus had to die, why was it also important for Jesus to be resurrected?
To begin with, the resurrection shows us that Jesus is God the Son. (Read John 10:17 – 18).
Only the man who was also God has the power o lay down His life and then take it back up again (John 10:17-18)
Paul later explains in Colossians 2:9,“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”
And regarding his full identity, we read: “regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus was God in the flesh. He is God the Son! (Romans 1:3-4)
So the resurrection serves as God’s stamp of approval upon all that Jesus ever said about his divine nature.
The resurrection is miraculous evidence that Jesus triumphed over sin. (Read Heb. 9:26b-28). God accepted his sacrifice for sin and made him alive forever more.
The resurrection of Christ was needed to defeat the work of Satan. (Read Hebrews 2:14 and 15).
The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that we do not need to fear death. (Read Hebrews 2:14-15). When we were baptized into Jesus, our souls were joined to him on the resurrection side of life. And having been united with our resurrected Lord, He promises to raise us also from the dead.
The resurrection tells us that Jesus spoke the truth about everything he said in His word. The fact that what He said came true, in declaring that He would die and be raised on the third day (Matt. 16:21; Matt. 17:9, 22-23; Matt. 20:18-19; Matt. 26:32), means everything else He said in His word is also true. We can take Him at His word! How could someone prove himself more? By stating that he was going to come back from the dead and then actually doing it.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” If the resurrection happened “according to the Scriptures” then this should give us confidence that God’s word is true.
If there was no resurrection, then there would be no church. The church is the body of believers in Christ, believing not only in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as the foundation of Christianity but also that He was and is the Son of God and the head of the church. (Read Colossians 1:15 to 23).
If Jesus was not resurrected then our worship would also be in vain. If there was no resurrection, then not only is our faith useless and are we still in our sins, but we will not receive eternal life with God. Our lives would be emptied of their meaning and subject to the wrath of God in eternal punishment.
But instead, the resurrection means that we will be raised from the dead as well. We will appear in the presence of God and empowered to enjoy that privilege forever. But this is true if and only if we have obeyed the gospel and stayed faithful until death. (Read 1 Corinthians 15:12 to 23, 35 to 57).
In this way, we understand the importance of the resurrection and what it means for us every day. And we are especially reminded of this every Lord’s Day when we share that meal of remembrance, the Lord’s Supper.
Let us always remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, and how he is risen from the grave to bestow it’s benefits upon those who believe. We do not need to fear death for our Lord has promised us a place in heaven with our Creator!
Winnipeg MB