Is Jesus alive? What does it mean that Jesus is alive?

When the Apostles preached the Gospel at the outset, they used the resurrection of Christ as the spear-head of the thrust which it makes at the consciences and hearts of men. ... They imprisoned them, they beat them, they cajoled and commanded them not to preach in the Name of Jesus, they threatened them, they even martyred Stephen. One thing however, and that the one conclusive thing, they did not do. They did not meet them with bold and flat denials, giving conclusive proof that Christ was not risen, and that the Apostles were tricky impostors. They did not do it, because they could not do it: it was not possible.

In the earlier days of the Soviet regime in Russia a certain "comrade" name Lunatcharsky lectured for an hour and a half in Moscow against Christianity. ... A young man in the audience, deeply moved, mounted the platform, saying he would not require so long a period as that. Standing in front of the throng, he gazed at them and then in loud tones gave the well-known Russian Easter-greeting, "Brothers and sisters, Christ IS risen." The whole audience rose as one man and thundered out the response, "He is risen indeed."

The young man turned to the lecturer and said, "I have nothing more to say."

The moment I see Jesus at the right hand of God, I see an end of sin; for I know He could not be there if sin was not fully atoned for. "He was delivered for our offences;" He stood as our Representative; He took upon Him our iniquities, and went down into the grave under the weight thereof. "But God raised Him from the dead;" and, by so doing, expressed His full approbation of the work of redemption. Hence we read, "He was raised again for our justification."

Our Lord Jesus, the greater than David, has been into death's dark valley "delivered for our offences." Many a Christian stops there, and consequently gets no further than hoping for the best. The Gospel does not stop there however. Having vanquished the foe, our great Representative has come up out of the valley "raised again for our justification." His victory is our victory. His freedom is our freedom. This is the meaning for us of His resurrection.

It is the resurrection which throws its bright beams even into the dark tomb of Christ, the tomb of the only righteous One, and the trophy of the apparent victory of the prince of this world. It is the resurrection which explains the reason of that momentary submission to the power of the devil and subjection to the necessary judgment of God.

The resurrection shone upon the world, like the rising of the sun. Faith alone beheld it, the faith of those whose eyes were opened to see the great and sure result of the combat.

The glory of redemption, of death and resurrection. He "was" or "became" dead, but now is "alive for evermore," or "living to the ages of ages." He, who is revealed as the universal Judge, has Himself tasted the judgment of death, and risen above its power into resurrection life. ... Death and hell (Hades) are the great foes of sinful mankind, the symbols of the curse under which sin has brought them. Holding the keys, He is the complete Master of both.

When John, in the island of Patmos, had fallen to the dust, as one dead, what was it that raised him up? Resurrection — the living Jesus; "I am He that lives and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." This set him on his feet. Communion with Him who had wrested life from the very grasp of death, removed his fears and infused divine strength into his soul.

Not only do we experience the blessing which is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ but we know the blesser — Jesus. This too is the fruit of His resurrection, for how could we know Him if He were not raised from among the dead? We may have known about Him, but the fact is we know Him as enshrined in our affections, the abiding proof that He is risen again.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." ... Is it also true that we can say, "Nevertheless I live; yet not I"? Has it been true of me today? Has none of the flesh been expressed, none of the old life? Can we say of our lives today, I have not lived; but Christ has lived in me? ... If He is my life, He must be expressed; and if He be not expressed, then I have reason to doubt that He is my life.

It is not simply death here, but resurrection; and the two things are linked together. ... "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." ... I am clean out of this scene altogether; I belong not to it, because I have died out of it in the death of Christ. Through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus I have been brought into a new place, a new scene, which is to characterize my life down here.