by Pastor Patrick Cho
It was such an encouragement seeing so many this past weekend come together for our Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday services. What an amazing time to think upon the cross and reflect on the grace of God to save! The significance to the believer of the resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot be overstated. Here are just some ways the Jesus’ rising from the dead proved to be infinitely important and absolutely vital to the Christian faith.
1. The resurrection of Jesus was perhaps the single greatest demonstration of His deity to man.
Jesus spoke of His divine authority in John 10:18. By His authority He laid down His life for sinners and by His authority He took it up again. In history, more than a few people have claimed they would find a way to return from the dead. Man probably has been seeking to cheat death since death entered into the world. Jesus proved His divinity not only by paying for the sins of God’s people (past, present, and future) in a single immeasurably powerful act, but also by demonstrating His authority over sin and the grave by coming back from the dead.
2. Jesus’ resurrection was God’s validation of His work on the cross to save sinners.
One way that the resurrection validated Jesus’ work was that if He was an imposter and a fraud, God would not have raised Him from the dead. Only God has both the power and authority to raise someone from the dead. Here was someone who came claiming to be the Son of God. He spoke about many prophecies that were fulfilled in Him. He even taught that in Him God’s people would find the fulfillment of the Law! All God had to do to completely silence these outrageous claims was to keep Jesus in the tomb. But Jesus rose again, which was in a sense God’s way of saying, “He is who He says He is, and He accomplished what He said He would accomplish.”
Another way Jesus’ resurrection was God’s validation of His work on the cross was through the fulfillment of prophecy. The OT writers wrote about how the Christ would suffer and be raised again. This is probably nowhere clearer than in Isaiah 53:10-11, “. . . He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days . . . Out of the anguish of His soul, He shall see and be satisfied.” All this is written after God’s servant is crushed by the Lord and offered as a guilt offering. The OT prophets foretold that the Messiah would come back from the dead, and Jesus rose again in fulfillment of those prophecies.
3. Jesus’ resurrection secured the believer’s hope for future grace.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Jesus rose from the dead as a firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15:20-23). In other words, if Jesus rose from the dead, it is certain that His people will follow. The great foundation to our hope as believers is that Jesus is not lying in some tomb in Israel. In fact, Paul concedes that if there is no resurrection, all Christians have no reason to hope and are of all men most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19). Those who seek to completely destroy the Christian faith need only prove that Jesus did not rise from the dead. This is how much the Christian faith and hope rest on the resurrection. We live in the knowledge that this life is not the end. This world is not our home because we have been made citizens of a heavenly kingdom. We are aliens and sojourners in this life. There is a glorious inheritance awaiting us when Jesus comes again and is fully revealed to us. All this hope rests on His resurrection.
There are many more reasons the resurrection is significant for the believer, but these are the ones we focused on this past weekend. May the hope you have in Christ motivate you to live holy lives for His glory. Let’s seek to put aside sin and any encumbrances and run undistracted towards Him. And may our understanding that Jesus not only rose from the dead but is also coming again compel us to take risks for the faith because there is more to life than what we see here. As believers in the risen Lord, let us preach the gospel of His resurrection with greater faithfulness in light of these reflections from God’s truth.