We’ve just celebrated another Easter. As a former Adventist (which, by the way, is not a label of identity but is rather a contextual phrase explaining my reactions), I have had to relearn everything I thought I knew about the resurrection.
First, I grew up with the notion that Easter was a Christian-ized version of a pagan holiday—much as Christmas was as well. Easter, though, was much more pagan than Christmas, because Easter required Sunday observance. Worship on Sunday was the Beast’s mark, after all, and no sentiment about Jesus’ resurrection could override compromising with Rome. Oh, we might indulge in a playful Easter egg hunt and eat a chocolate bunny or two, but those aspects of Easter didn’t pretend to be Christian. It was that false religion of Sunday worship that we had to avoid.
Second, it just seemed like overkill to make such a to-do about a resurrection, even if it was Jesus’s. Yes, it was a good thing that He rose again—it meant our bodies would rise as well. Jesus’ atonement, however, wouldn’t be complete until He closed the books and placed all the sins of the saved on Satan, and our fate wouldn’t be determined until then. Who knew what would happen? When Jesus finally returned, we might discover we were resurrected for salvation, or we might discover we were resurrected to be annihilated. Either way, we’d rise again; it just wasn’t necessarily going to be good news for us. Why on earth would we honor a pagan day to celebrate something that might foreshadow our doom?
Meanwhile, as we struggled to keep the Sabbath and live like Jesus, we could hope that our sincerity would count and God would raise us for life and not death. We just had to wait and see.
But then I learned that Jesus really finished the atonement at the cross, and even more, He keeps the terms of the covenant with the Father on my behalf. What an overwhelming thought: if I believed He completed my atonement and received His blood as payment for my sin, His prefect obedience to the Father substituted for mine!
Even more, I learned what it meant to be born again. I didn’t just theoretically receive the promise of eternal life and decide to turn away from sin. No, I was now truly alive! My spirit which had been dead in sin (Eph. 1:1-3) was suddenly living, and I saw everything differently. Now the Holy Spirit was in me, confirming with my spirit that I really belonged to God and that nothing could snatch me out of His hand (Rom. 8:16-17; Jn. 10:29)!
Now the resurrection meant something new. I began to understand what Paul meant in Romans 8:11 when he said that if the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us, He would also give life to our mortal bodies—and the text can be read to understand that promise to be applicable now as well as later in our resurrections.
But there is more. 1 Corinthian 15:17-19 says that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then we are still dead in our sins, and those who have died in Christ “have perished”. In other words, the resurrection is much more than a sign that we’ll be raised one day. The resurrection actually has something to do with our not being dead in sin.
I had thought Jesus’ death was about our not being dead in sin, but here Paul is crediting our life to the resurrection, not to the death of Jesus. Moreover, in Romans 5:10 Paul says this: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
This realization was stunning. Jesus’ death and shed blood reconciled us to God, but unless He had risen from the dead, we would still be dead. In fact, Jesus’ resurrection is what actually broke the curse of the law and proves that His sacrifice was accepted. Jesus paid the required price; the curse could be overturned.
Now it made sense: Jesus’ breaking that curse and restoring life to those who believe in Him is the reason we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. It’s not a token “rising”; Jesus’ resurrection was the undoing of the curse of the law and of sin! His resurrection is what gives our spirits life so that, when we believe in Him, we pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24).
What difference does this somewhat technical theological fact make in my life? What difference does His resurrection make to my friend whose daughter has a stage four brain tumor? What difference does it make to my son and daughter-in-law who had their second child, a son, two months ago? What difference does it make to our friend whose business is tenuous and struggling to survive?
Here’s the difference it makes: because of Jesus’ resurrection, when I believed in His completed atonement for my sin, Jesus’ victory over the curse of sin was imputed to me at that moment.
My friend with the sick daughter has hope because, even if her daughter does not get well in this life, she will live even though she dies. Both my friend and her daughter will live with Jesus even after their bodies die; they have been transferred from death to life (Jn. 5:24).
My son and daughter-in-law have confidence because the Spirit of God has brought them to life as well, and His indwelling gives them His mind and His wisdom to navigate the uncharted waters of parenthood (1 Cor. 2:16).
Our friend struggling with his business has confidence, even when he cannot see how he will pay the bills next month, because he knows that His Father will provide all he needs if he seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mat. 5:25-34).
The resurrection is not an excuse to observe a false Sabbath. No! The resurrection trumps any day. We celebrate it because He lives, and we praise Him on Resurrection Sunday because, in God’s fulness of time, He rose from the grave on the first day of the week.
I am alive because He rose from the grave.
He is risen indeed!
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