There are 23 references to \u2018resurrection\u2019 or \u2018raised\u2019 in Acts, and only 3 references to \u2018crucified\u2019 (all of them \u2018you crucified\u2019) and none to the cross. I have long maintained that the balance between preaching the cross and the resurrection is woefully out of balance in most churches today. For many Christians, the resurrection means little more than \u2018The resurrection proves that Jesus is who he said he is\u2019. This is a message subtly reinforced by the lack of preaching on the resurrection. In many churches all you get is the annual interruption to the church\u2019s preaching programme, in the form of just one sermon on the resurrection on Easter Day. The Anglican lectionary specifies a seven week Easter period. Oh how I wish our churches would give the resurrection at least seven weeks each year! The statistics above say something we need to listen to about the preaching priorities of the early apostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the foregoing in mind, I thought I would try to detail as much as I can the consequence of the resurrection. I think I was more excited by Easter this year (2021) than I have ever been. This is possible due to a book I read recently (\u2018All Things New: Heaven, Earth and the Restoration of Everything you Love\u2019 by John Eldredge) and one I am reading now (\u2018The Moral Vision of the New Testament\u2019 by Richard Hays). However it was Tom (N.T.) Wright\u2019s book \u2018Surprised by Hope\u2019 which I read in 2008 which was the nearest thing to Paul\u2019s blinding light on the road to Damascus that I expect to experience this side of eternity that really opened my eyes to the real significance of the resurrection. So here are the consequences of the resurrection as I understand them. I may have left some things out, and would be glad to to be corrected and further illuminated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resurrection facilitates the forgiveness of sins, and freedom from condemnation (There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Rom 8:1-2; And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. Col. 2:15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the resurrection, death has been defeated. (I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. John 11:25-26) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the resurrection New Creation has been launched. I think this is the meaning of Jesus\u2019s cry from the cross \u2018it is finished\u2019 (John 19:30). In Genesis 2:1-2, we read: \u2018Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done\u2019. Tom Wright in \u2018The Day the Revolution Began\u2019 makes the point that this is the completion of Jesus’s vocation in parallel with the completion of creation itself in Genesis 2:2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s Kingdom has been launched on earth as in heaven, generating a new state of affairs in which the power of evil has been defeated, the new creation has been decisively launched, and Jesus’s followers have been commissioned and equipped to put that victory and that inaugurated new world into practice.’ Quoted from Tom Wright\u2019s book \u2018Surprised by Hope\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The powers of evil have been defeated.(For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Eph 6:11-12; He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Col. 2:15). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are destined for eternal life, with new, healthy bodies, never to die again (1 Corinthians 15). The risen Jesus is the firstfruits. Just as we can look at the firstfruits of a harvest to see a picture of what will follow, so the risen Jesus enables us to understand how we shall one day be. As the hymn \u2018Light\u2019s Abode: Celestial Salem\u2019 puts it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018O how glorious and resplendent,
fragile body, shalt thou be,
when endued with so much beauty,
full of health and strong and free,
full of vigour, full of pleasure
that shall last eternally.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the resurrection, we are given and expected to use power to defeat sin. (We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4) I think Romans 6 is one of the great neglected chapters of the Bible. In this chapter, Paul hammers home repeatedly that through the power of the resurrection, available to us right now, we have the power to walk in newness of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resurrection is the source of our hope, and is the message we should be prepared to give if our manner of life results in us being asked. (but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 3:15). If I understand this correctly, our witness should be to the resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result of the resurrection, the church is created: \u2018the church is not only the recipient of revelation (Ephesians 1:9) but also the singular medium of revelation to the whole creation, including the cosmic powers that still oppose God\u2019s purposes (Ephesians 3:10, 6:10\u201320). (Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p62). Read that short quote again. Do you know of a church anywhere carrying out this mission? You can read how the early church (for the first 300 years) carried out this mission in Rodney Stark\u2019s book \u2018The Rise of Christianity\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result of the resurrection, God has given gifts to everyone who he has called (see the various gifts passages in the epistles, such as 1 Corinthians 12): \u2018ministry is conceived as the work of the entire community, not of a specially designated class of spiritually gifted persons. The interplay of gifts in the church is designed to bring the community as a whole to full maturity, so that the church might ultimately stand unambiguously as \u201cthe body of Christ\u201d, the complete embodiment of Christ in the world. The imagery of growth suggests that this visionary goal is not to be understood as a future instantaneous transformation (i.e., at the resurrection of the dead) but as the end result of a process already underway in the community.\u2019 (Hays p63)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The consequences of the resurrection extend to the whole creation. It is about far, far more than saved souls going to heaven (indeed it is NOT about saved souls going to heaven). The animal kingdom will be transformed on the last day, and quite possibly the inanimate kingdom \u2014 \u2018Let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.\u2019 (Psalm 96:12-13); \u2018The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.\u2019 (Isaiah 55:12); \u2018For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.\u2019 (Romans 8:18-23)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to the resurrection, there will be a final judgement, one in which God\u2019s people will participate. Everyone who thinks they got away with it will find out that they didn\u2019t. Final judgement is something to look forward to. Peter, speaking to the Roman Centurion Cornelius said \u2018And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.\u2019 (Acts 10:42). Paul, speaking to the Areopagus said \u2018The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. (Acts 17:30-31). Judgement is good news! Those who are making themselves wealthy and fat by exploiting others will not get away with it. Those who have inflicted great injustices, perhaps even on you, will not get away with it. We can confidently leave revenge to God. \u2018Throughout the Bible, God\u2019s coming judgement is a good thing, something to be celebrated, longed for, yearned over\u2019. (Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Famous theologian Miroslav Volf, a Croatian, said that as a young evangelical he used to look down on Old Testament cries for justice against the brutal actions \u2014 of both individual and nations \u2014 until his people, Croatians, were terribly brutalised during the Croatian war for Independence, where up to 14,000 Croatians were killed. He said only the expectation of the Day that God would repay made it possible to let it go and not repay evil for evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the resurrection, when Christ comes again \u2018all things will be made new\u2019. Matthew 19:28 says \u2018in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.\u2019 The Greek word paliggenesia used in Matthew 19:28 is translated \u2018in the new world\u2019 in the ESV, but more accurately \u2018when all is made new\u2019 in the Jerusalem Bible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to the resurrection, our daily work has eternal significance. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, at the conclusion of the great chapter on the resurrection of the body, Paul writes \u2018Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.\u2019 We are inclined to think that the expression \u2018in the Lord\u2019 refers only to \u2018church work\u2019, but Paul knew of no such concept. All the work of Christians (paid, volunteer, in the home etc.) is done \u2018in the Lord\u2019, just as we are \u2018in Christ\u2019 all the time, not just when we are doing \u2018church work\u2019. Thus Paul is saying our work has eternal significance. Francis Schaeffer once wrote: \u2018Contrary to what people say \u2014 that you can\u2019t take anything with you \u2014 yes, you do take your work with you. It\u2019s a biblical teaching, that what you do matters and will continue on into eternity \u2014 building houses, walls, and hiking paths and the whole of human existence. You live with energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom Wright in \u2018Surprised by Hope\u2019 writes \u2018What you do with your body in the present \u2014 by painting, preaching, singing sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbour as yourself \u2014 will last into God\u2019s future\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Miroslav Volf writes: \u2018the noble products of human ingenuity will be cleansed from impurity, perfected and transfigured, to become part of God\u2019s new creation.\u2019 It is easy to see the profound effect this view could have on our daily work. The belief that one\u2019s work can have eternal significance in its contribution to humankind and God’s creation is transformative. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are 23 references to \u2018resurrection\u2019 or \u2018raised\u2019 in Acts, and only 3 references to \u2018crucified\u2019 (all of them \u2018you crucified\u2019) and none to the cross. I have long maintained that the balance between preaching the cross and the resurrection is woefully out of balance in most churches today. For many Christians, the resurrection means … <\/p>\n