The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith and without the resurrection there can be no Christianity. It is significant because when Jesus rose from the dead, He proved that He was exactly who He claimed to be, the Son of God, and had accomplished what He came to accomplish on earth. A receipt is given as proof of payment and Jesus’ resurrection is the receipt that full payment was made for sin on the cross through His suffering and death. His resurrection is the guarantee for our resurrection. It is our only hope of eternal salvation, and our only hope of being with God in glory forever. Christ’s victory over death is also our victory over death. The resurrection confirms that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. Before His resurrection, Christ had appeared before two human courts, the religious court of the Jewish Council and the secular court of the Roman Governor. Both these courts rejected His claim to be the Son of God and condemned Him to death. God reversed the decisions of the Jewish council and the Roman Governor and publicly declared Jesus Christ to be the Messiah by His resurrection. His resurrection confirms that His sacrifice purchased our forgiveness and redemption and that there is salvation to every repentant sinner who puts his faith in Christ. “He was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification” Romans 4:25. God is just and Jesus Christ, without a sin nature, met God’s demand for justice on our behalf. He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with His righteousness and claim a right standing with God that gives us access to God’s presence.
The message of Scripture has always been one of a resurrection hope. It is a message that death is not the end of life. A grain of wheat cannot bear fruit unless it is first planted in the ground. It seemingly dies, germinates and grows out of the ground to bear fruit. Jesus used this example to teach that His ministry of reconciliation between God and man could only come as a result of His own atoning death and resurrection. If He were to stop short of death on the cross, no fruit could come forth out of His ministry. It is only through His death, burial and resurrection that there would come forth the fruit of a great harvest of sinners, justified and reconciled to God. We are all sinners in need of a Saviour. God has accepted the price Jesus Christ paid for our sin. It is finished, God’s justice has been met, and all we need to do for God’s forgiveness is to believe that Christ has paid the price for sin in full.
We can only understand the meaning of the resurrection when we accept the truth of the resurrection, which is really overwhelming. For the Gospel writers the empty tomb confirms the reality of the resurrection. Then there was the witness of angels. An angel announces to the women who first visited the burial site that He had risen from the dead and that they should tell his disciples that He was going ahead of them into Galilee where they would see him. There was also the witness of men as Christ appeared to many eye-witnesses: the women, the Emmaus travellers, Peter, James and John, the rest of the Twelve, then a group of 500 believers, and finally the Apostle Paul.
The people who question the resurrection really are questioning the power of God. They cannot believe that God can raise someone from the dead. But if God can create all things and sustain them, why is it so hard to believe that God can raise someone from the dead. The evidence of the resurrection is so crucial to Christianity that an angel made sure that the evidence was not tampered with. When the angel rolled the stone away it was not so that Jesus could get out of the tomb, He had a glorified body, but to let the women in. God wanted eyewitnesses to the empty tomb because the resurrection of Christ guarantees the resurrection of every saint. The angel by rolling back the stone and breaking the seal of the Roman Emperor in the presence of the Roman soldiers, was making a clear statement, a statement that there is no power higher and greater than God’s power. There is only one response to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that is to believe that He is the Messiah and the only One who can save us from sin and death.
The resurrection of Christ empowers a person to lead a new life. His resurrection dealt with our old rebellious nature to enable us lead a new, happy and blessed life. It empowers us not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. Our new nature will delight in the law of the LORD, so that we become like trees planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and even its leaves will not wither so that we can prosper and enjoy God’s blessings. The new life gives us a new focus, a life that is focused on Christ. Without the new life we will continue to misdirect our focus on ourselves and on our disappointments and problems instead of Christ and fail to recognise Christ no matter how close He is to us. Our disappointments and shattered hopes have a way of blinding us and keeping us from the truth of the Scriptures and rather make us doubt the Word of God. The new life leads to a spiritual walk. It is a new walk in the right direction without fear but with full trust in Christ to fulfil all His promises.
It is very easy to walk away in the wrong direction when our focus is not on Christ. All of us have gone through times of disappointments and problems and some of us may be going through them at this time. There have been times when we have prayed and prayed and received no help. There have been times when we have prayed and the problems have only worsened, when we have prayed for healing and gotten worse, when we have prayed for financial solutions and got deeper into debt. There have been times when we have lost all hope. This however does not mean that God has left us. It is rather an indication that we have lost our focus, our vision, our understanding, our faith, and our hope. In such situations, we should change our focus and focus on Christ who has promised never to abandon us. Christ will not go where He is not welcomed. If we want to keep pushing God out of our life, if we continue to ignore His Word, if we continue to take His grace for granted, then what gives us the right to expect him to “be there” for us? God presence can always be felt where He is welcome.
We have been united with Christ not only in His death but also in His resurrection “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection”. (Romans 6:5) The one who trusts in the finished work of Christ for his salvation is raised from the state of spiritual death into that of spiritual life. This is the actual experience of everyone who places his faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord. In the words of Scripture “as He is so also are we in this world”. (1 John 4:17) The lives of those who saw the resurrected Christ changed. They were totally committed to Him and ready to give up everything for His sake even when it meant suffering and death. They were assured of His blessings. Do we understand the meaning of His resurrection yet continue to deny Him and miss out on His blessings? Those who saw the proofs of Christ’s resurrection believed in Him and were transformed to enjoy God’s blessings and lead a happy life. Let our transformation today be a witness to the world to the praise and glory of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!
