The Resurrection changes everything
Human history ended. Philosophies and myths died in the holy sepulchre. The world died in the night. A new creation emerged. Jesus walked again in the cool morning of the resurrection.
In the darkness of pain, suffering and death, in the darkness of the tomb, it is ok with me. Because of the resurrection. Christ redeemed the world, physical and spiritual. Desolation is gone. Christ lives.
At Calvary everyone understood that dead people do not rise again. God’s people knew a savior would come, sooner or later. “Sometime before dawn a spike-torn hand twitched. A blood-crusted eyelid opened. The breath of God came blowing into that cave, and a new creation flashed into reality” (Russel Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of the Cross).
When Jesus rose from the dead the disciples knew. This was it! The old world had ended, and a new creation started. The old things had passed away. The Resurrection, like a trailer for a movie, shows us what end times will be like.
Death is defeated! The universe is restored. The Holy Spirit is loosed upon us in abundance. Three thousand are baptised in one day – picture the logistics of this event.
Dr. Matthew Harmon tells of ten changes that happened with Jesus’ Resurrection. First, a new creation and a new earth began that day. God put flesh and skin on dry bones, raising people from their graves, and breathing his Spirit into them. Many of the Saints who slept arose from their graves and were seen in Jerusalem.
Second, scripture was fulfilled as a King from David’s line rose from the dead to rule over creation. Third, Jesus is established as the judge for the end times who will execute perfect justice.
Fourth, as all tasted death through Adam’s fall, when Jesus Christ, the last Adam, rose from the dead, a new creation began to flow into this world. Jesus obeyed where Adam had failed, so death had no rightful claim over Jesus as the last Adam. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
Fifth, Jesus’ resurrection accomplishes our spiritual birth and spiritual resurrection from the dead. Jesus made us alive in Christ because he rose from the dead turning our spiritual death into spiritual life. He made us alive and seated us with him in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:4-6).
Sixth, Jesus’ resurrection accomplishes our justification. Romans 4:25 tells us that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for us. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we who are joined to him by faith are justified.
Seventh, Jesus’ resurrection enables him to give the Holy Spirit to his people. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever” (John 14:16). Eighth, Jesus’s resurrection frees us from our slavery to sin, death, and the devil. Everyone who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith has died, been buried, and raised with Christ. (Romans 6:1-11).
Ninth, Jesus’s resurrection ensures us that we too will one day have resurrection bodies. “He will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). And tenth, Jesus’s resurrection guarantees that God will one day transform all of creation.
Revelations 21:3-4 tells us every stain of the fall and the curse will be gone from creation, every tear wiped away, no more death, no more weeping. And that is why every Sunday is a resurrection Sunday and the power of God’s Spirit lives in us!
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