Risen
On Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, Christians around the world gather to remember and celebrate the central truth claim of our faith, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
The bodily resurrection of Christ is one of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith because without it there is no hope for the eternal life of the believer. To deny that Jesus rose from the dead would be akin to denying Christianity as a whole. The apostle Paul understood this as he wrote, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile [and] you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor 15:17).
However, Paul goes on to say that Christ has been raised from the dead (1 Cor 15:20), and it is through Jesus’ resurrection that God the Father vindicated the work of the Son. Christ’s atoning death on the cross meant that sin was paid in full, and that the wrath of God was satisfied. When Jesus, shortly before he drew his last breath, said, “It is finished,” he meant that the work of his substitutionary death on the cross was accomplished. But the cross alone was not enough for salvation. It must be considered in light of the resurrection because together, the cross and the resurrection, accomplish justification and salvation for all believers. Again, Paul reaffirms this in saying that those who confess with their lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead are saved (Romans 10:9).
Christ’s resurrection is central to the salvation of every Christian because it is the act that enables sinners to experience eternal life. Believers are united with Christ in both His death and resurrection so that through Him we might also walk in newness of life, as Paul again states, “having been buried with him in baptism, in which [we] were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12).
The apostle further provides believers with practical advice in Colossians 3:1, where he writes, “if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Here Paul connects the doctrinal reality of Christ’s resurrection to the everyday lives of believers, urging them to forsake worldly idols and pursue things of eternal value. As Christians, we are united with Christ and have been raised with Him. If we identify with Christ, in His death and resurrection, then let us consider how we can live our lives in accordance with the truth that we are dead to sin but alive in Christ (Rom 6:11).
As we consider these truths, may you, and Christians everywhere, rejoice not only in the fact that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, but also that God raised Him from the dead, according to the Scriptures.
Christ is risen, He is risen indeed.