Resurrection Sunday

We bless God for this season, because it allows the Body of Christ to remember one of the most crucial events to their entire belief, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This resurrection is what became the cornerstone of the Christian faith, for without Christ rising from the dead, we have no faith! Apostle Paul addressed a sect within the Corinth church that attempted to question and deny the possibility of resurrection, saying, ‘Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty’ (1 Corinthians 15:12-14). Many people can claim to have the same powers as Jesus, they can claim to have been born of virgins and many other indicating factors; but the one factor that separates the true God from the soothsayers is the ability to defeat death and rise from the grave. After the burial of Jesus, his mockers said to Pilate, ‘“Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise’ (Matthew 27:63), they knew that should by any chance Jesus indeed rise from the dead, it would conclude His argument for Lordship once and forevermore. So they fought for His grave to be sealed so there can be no chance of any rumors to the effect of His resurrection. Pilate also aided their desperation by arming the grave of the Lord with rotating Roman guards, all done to ensure that there is no slip up, but they instead, set up the greatest witness for the resurrection of Jesus. It was the very same Roman soldiers who then testified to the rising, showing the shortsightedness of Satan and the continual working together for good of all things that pertain to the children of God.

One thing that is critical for us to understand, is that no one stole Jesus’ life or did something against Him that He could not help but merely fell victim to. By His mouth, He said, ‘Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again (John 10:17-18). This is evident in every other situation where the Jews had attempted to kill Jesus before He handed His life over; countless times we see the Lord evade His suitors supernaturally, leaving them for fools and disappearing from their midst (Luke 4:28-30; John 7:30; John 8:20). Jesus was the one who gave His life away after taking on the sin of the world, bearing our grief and shame and taking the punishment for all our inequity (2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 52:10-15; Isaiah 53:1-6). And because He died, we who identify and believe in Him, died together with Him and rose up again to a new life with Him on the third day – to the amazement and horror of Satan, who had no insight to the wisdom of God that was revealed by the resurrection of Christ. 

When laying down His life on the cross, the scriptures tell that ‘...when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last (Luke 23:46). This completes the cycle seen at the birth of Adam, where we read that ‘... the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being’ (Genesis 2:7); so when Jesus breathed out His last breath, that marked the end of the first Adam, to be then followed by the second Adam at the resurrection. Explaining the mystery of the conversion from the first to the second Adam, Apostle Paul uses the illustration of a seed to explain how Jesus died with a physical body, and rose with a spiritual body through transfiguration (1 Corinthians 15:35-58). We read, ‘So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit’ (v. 42-45). The apostle explains how we too can expect the same when we die; at conversion our spirits were translated, and as we carry out the remainder of our days our souls are being continually transformed, and our bodies will be transfigured at the resurrection – and we can safely conclude that ‘… as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man’ (v.49). 

It is at this point, where we shall see our victory over death as illustrated in the scriptures, ‘So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”’ (v. 54-55). Is this not glorious? We have been given such an assured victory through the resurrection of Christ, that while there is much to reap in this life, we await an overwhelming revelation of glory in the life to come! This is why the apostle concluded his argument by this exhortation: ‘Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord’ (v.58). Be encouraged brethren, our LORD has much in store for them who love Him and them who are called according to His purpose.

Prayer

Father, we thank You for the reminder of the significance of the cross, a reminder of its bearing in our faith, and everything we gained when Christ gave up His own life for ours. We pray LORD, that we may continually know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, that by any means,  we all attain the second resurrection from the dead. In the name of Jesus, AMEN.