Why does it matter that Jesus rose from the dead?

Let us notice a little exactly the expressions here: for we may be assured that they are themselves exact, as always in Scripture. "Jesus died;" His saints but "fall asleep." With Him indeed it was death, and in all its reality and severity as the judgment upon sin, — the sign and type of a deeper judgment. With them it is but "sleep," — rest and refreshment, from which they rise to a day that knows no ending and suffers no decline, — a rest too, but in the full activity of life, where life is never dormant, but the joy of the Lord is strength indeed.

For, if Jesus died, He rose again; and this is what gives His death itself its full power in blessing for our souls. Thus the apostle puts the two together, as the full argument of faith as to its portion from God. It is God who raised up Jesus again. He has answered the cry, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" by putting the Sufferer where all the meaning of His death can now come out. Righteousness sorrowing gave Him up to die; but righteousness joyfully raises Him from the dead. Had He suffered on His own account, He could not have come out of it; His coming out is the testimony of personal righteousness in Himself, and thus of a work done for others, and of its acceptance also in their behalf. He rises their Representative, even as He died their Substitute; and the honors so acquired He, whose wealth could not be increased, acquired as treasure that He could pour out upon them. Thus His resurrection is full argument for their own; and if God bring Him again into the world, they too shall come with Him; God shall bring them with Him. In the day of His manifestation all must do Him honor: so He comes in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels; and how shall the dominion of death which He has broken keep from Him those who show the value of the work which has set it aside?

An aggressive work, however, went on at the same time. "With great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (33). To His resurrection the earnest attention of those outside was especially called. It was one of the great subjects of early apostolic preaching ( 1:22 , 2:24 -32, 3:15 , 4:2-10, 5:30 ). Much hangs on it. If the Lord is risen, it is because God has raised Him from the dead, and has thus openly espoused His cause. He is risen, not like Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and others, to return to corruption, but never again to die (Acts 13:34 ). Death has no more dominion over Him (Rom.6:9). He is alive, then, for ever - the living One (Rev.1:18). Moreover, He was raised, because it was not possible that He should be holden of death (Acts 2:24 ). For He was holy and righteous, and His resurrection proclaims that. Decisive proof then of what He was, His resurrection also bears on the future of all who die. For He is become the first-fruits of them that are asleep, and the witness and pledge that all will be made alive (1 Cor.15:20). This truth bears, too, on the fact of a coming judgment, the certainty of which is thereby placed beyond contradiction, the day being appointed, and the risen One being marked out as the future Judge (Acts 17:31). All therefore are concerned in consequences which flow from it. Saints, too, have a special interest in it, because it demonstrates God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, and assures them that He, delivered for their offences, was raised for their justification (Rom.4:25).

To preach, then, the resurrection of Christ was to convict the Jews of sin in putting Him to death, and to announce the defeat by God of all their plans, stripping off at the same time that cloak of religious zeal in which they had endeavoured to enwrap their conduct. It left them without excuse, whilst it pointed to the ground on which forgiveness of sins was preached - viz., God's acceptance of the sacrifice. "With great power," therefore, we read, "gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all" - i.e., the Christian community.

The Resurrection. — An aggressive work, however, went on at the same time. "With great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (33). To His resurrection the earnest attention of those outside was especially called. It was one of the great subjects of early apostolic preaching (Acts 1:22, 2:24-32, 3:15, 4:2-10, 5:30). Much hangs on it. If the Lord is risen, it is because God has raised Him from the dead, and has thus openly espoused His cause. He is risen, not like Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and others, to return to corruption, but never again to die (Acts 13:34). Death has no more dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). He is alive, then, for ever — the living One (Rev. 1:18). Moreover, He was raised, because it was not possible that He should be holden of death (Acts 2:24). For He was holy and righteous, and His resurrection proclaims that. Decisive proof then of what He was, His resurrection also bears on the future of all who die. For He is become the first-fruits of them that are asleep, and the witness and pledge that all will be made alive (1 Cor. 15:20-22). This truth bears, too, on the fact of a coming judgment, the certainty of which is thereby placed beyond contradiction, the day being appointed, and the risen One being marked out as the future Judge (Acts 17:31). All therefore are concerned in consequences which flow from it. Saints, too, have a special interest in it, because it demonstrates God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, and assures all of them that He, delivered for their offences, was raised for their justification (Rom. 4:25).

To preach, then, the resurrection of Christ was to convict the Jews of sin in putting Him to death, and to announce the defeat by God of all their plans, stripping off at the same time that cloak of religious zeal in which they had endeavoured to enwrap their conduct. It left them without excuse, whilst it pointed to the ground on which forgiveness of sins was preached — viz., God's acceptance of the sacrifice. "With great power," therefore, we read, "gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all" — i.e., the Christian community.

Of our blessings, Christ's resurrection is the foundation. Resurrection,which each seed sown in the earth and rising up in new life, and which each waking spring teaches, is the very essence of the gospel of God. Our dull hearts too often travel no further than the benefits of Christ's death; we reach the cross and there sit down. Sometimes the sluggish spirit, having found forgiveness by the blood of Jesus, returns to earthly things, resting in forgiveness, not rising above the circumstances around us in the vigour of resurrection-life. The believer is, indeed, a forgiven man, but he is also delivered from the power of Satan, and the world, and death, and himself, in the resurrection of Christ. The blood of the sacrifice has cleansed away his guilt, but he is not only cleansed, he is risen with Christ. He lives already in the life of the eternal spring.

Resurrection is the guarantee of our blessings for “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:17) If Christ be not raised, the christian's hope in God is utterly vain. But by Christ's resurrection we are established in a standing of absolute liberty before God — a standing upon the other side of death, the bright side, where Christ is. He is the “Resurrection and the Life;” first the resurrection, then the life. He first overcomes death, and then gives life to them for whom He died. After having borne the judgment and death due to their sins, He imparts, to man dead in sins, eternal life in the power of His resurrection. Death precedes judgment, “After death the judgment,” and from death the sinner cannot escape. The Lord has destroyed the power of death, and has taken us out of our state of death in trespasses and sins, and has given us a life which is beyond death and free from judgment.

That Christ presented Himself alive after He had suffered was the great fact established 'by many proofs' (ver. 3), and so it is the subject-matter of testimony throughout the Book, as it is the foundation truth of the gospel. The God of grace is the God of resurrection in Christ Who suffered for sins once, Just for unjust. The apostles are false witnesses of God if He did not raise Him up, and He raised Him not up if no dead are raised; and if He has not been raised, our faith is in vain: we are yet in our sins. But He has been raised from the dead, as surely as God is true and His word faithful; His grace and power are alike manifested not more in His chosen witnesses, than in the transforming effects of His testimony on others who believe, once sons of disobedience and children of wrath, His enemies. The charge was to the apostles from Him risen.

Three things come before us in our consideration of this theme: the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of believers, and the resurrection of unbelievers. If Christ's resurrection is fable and not fact, then is Christianity a hollow farce. Preaching and faith are alike vain. Believers, instead of being saved, are yet in their sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. So the Apostle argues in 1 Cor. 15. Thank God, no such uncertainty exists. Christ's resurrection is one of the best attested facts in the history of this world. The precautions taken by the authorities of that day, the stern regulations concerning sleeping soldiers, the unbelief of the disciples, the large number of those who interviewed the Saviour subsequently, all combine to prove that no pious fraud was perpetrated, but that God really raised His beloved Son from amongst the dead. The fact itself is of immense import. It was God's public vindication of the claims and character of the crucified One, it signified His acceptance of His atoning work, and it involved the complete justification of every sinner who believes in His name.

It is impossible to read the Acts of the Apostles without seeing that the resurrection of Christ was the all but unvarying testimony presented to souls, Jews or Gentiles: not merely that He died for our sins, but that God has raised Him from the dead. To say that there is no resurrection of dead men is evidently to set that aside. (Ver. 12.) It is the introduction of Christ which brings every reasoning of man in divine things to the test. The universal message, the gospel to every creature, is that the Saviour is raised from the dead after suffering for sin. The denial of the resurrection denies not merely the future hope of the saints, but the standing fact of Christ, the mainspring of God's good news. For it is plain that, if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, what becomes of the apostolic preaching? what of the faith of saints in Corinth, and everywhere else? (Vers. 13, 14.) He had told them before that there is salvation by the gospel for such as held fast the truth preached, unless they believed heedlessly, or at random (εἴκη, ver. 2), in which case they would be as ready to give up as to receive. Now he goes farther, and, instead of speaking of their subjective state as a light reception of the truth, he points out that, if Christ has not been raised, as the gospel declares, the preaching of the apostles was objectively as empty (κενόν) as the faith of the saints. But there is something more precise still: "and we are also found false witnesses of God, because we witnessed concerning God that he raised the Christ, whom he raised not, if indeed no dead are raised." (Ver. 15.)

The resurrection of Christ is thus vital and fundamental. It is no accessory privilege, nor proof ex abundanti, which can be lopped off, leaving the stock of divine grace unimpaired. If it is not true, the foundations are gone, the gospel is worthless, God Himself misrepresented, and the witnesses impostors. The immense fact of resurrection was one which Christ not only predicted over and over again, but on it staked the truth of His mission and Sonship. It is the manifestation of that power of deliverance from death and judgment which is the present joy of the Christian, as it is the brightest witness to the efficacy of atonement, and the pledge of glory with Christ at His coming again. Hence too, if it be not true, the chosen witnesses are convicted of falsehood, because their testimony belies God in attributing to Him the raising of the Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact no dead are raised.

It will be seen how persistently the apostle binds together the resurrection of Christ and of the dead. This is no accident, but the fruit of God's grace and wisdom, who would associate every hope and ground of confidence for His own with Christ; as indeed the Christian is truly united to Him, and knows it. "For if no dead are raised, neither has Christ been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, vain [is] your faith; ye are yet in your sins; then those also that fell asleep in Christ perished." (Vers. 16-18.) Again, he argues that, if no dead are raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if He has not, vain (ματαία) is their faith, in the sense of being without purpose, and without effect; or, as the next clause teaches, "ye are yet in your sins." The consequence is, of course, no less serious for the believers already passed away: "then also those that fell asleep in Christ perished." Inferences so shocking as to saints that are gone, as well as for their own souls, yet flowing legitimately from any principle, are no slight evidence of its falsity. But if the conclusions were so inadmissible, who could accept the premisses which make them not only just but inevitable?

As we have seen, the error of the disciples was from ignorance of the Scriptures, as to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Their hearts were true and fervent, but they were sad, and looking in the wrong direction for comfort, because they knew not the Scripture "that He must rise again from the dead." They knew not that "it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from [among] the dead the third day." The consequence was that they were looking into the sepulchre, and were sadly disappointed because they found not the body of the Lord Jesus, instead of rejoicing in the reality of His mighty victory. They knew not that it was absolutely necessary that He must rise again from the dead. Had His body remained in the sepulchre, what assurance could we have had of His having redeemed us? Nay, more, had He been holden of death, we should have had no .Saviour, and no salvation. The resurrection of Christ is, therefore, the fundamental truth of the gospel. To take away the truth of the Lord's resurrection is to remove all hope — to leave the soul without hope. Hence we find Peter, after his disappointment at the sepulchre, blessing God for having "begotten us again unto a lively [or living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from [among] the dead." (1 Peter 1:3.)

To the believer, beloved friends, "resurrection" is one of the brightest words in Scripture. You know the Lord Jesus declared himself to be "the resurrection and the life;" and such a blessed reality was it, that death could not reign in His presence. Search the Scriptures, and you will find that death never showed itself where the Son of God was. So emphatically was He "the resurrection and the life," that whether it were a little girl of twelve years in a house, a young man on a bier on the way to the place of graves, or one who was dead and stinking in the grave, it mattered not who it was or where it was, at the word of Jesus they lived again. And so important did the apostle Paul think the truth of the resurrection of the body, that his heart was on fire when he said, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." When certain persons at Corinth attacked this grand fundamental truth of the gospel, we find him at once grappling with it in the most decided and peremptory manner. He declares that if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not raised; but that as Christ is risen (this one Man who was dead and buried in the sepulchre), He is risen as the firstfruits of others that were to follow. And so weighty did he feel this foundation truth of Scripture to be, that he asserts that there is no salvation, that we are yet in our sins, that all who have fallen asleep in Christ are perished, if Christ be not raised from the dead. He also sternly insists upon it as the truth of the living God, that "as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." Beloved friends, the resurrection of Christ from the dead is like the brightest and most glorious light rising upon the dark shades of Golgotha and the sepulchre wherein Jesus lay. It sheds its rays forward and backward. Backwardly this divine light reveals the perfect satisfaction that God Himself found in the sacrificial work of Him who bare our sins in His own body on the tree; of Him from whom God had to hide His face because our sin was upon Him, so that He cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It tells us of Him who on the third day was raised from the dead, — God accounting it a righteous thing to loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it; it tells us of the man Christ Jesus who had been dead, that He is alive again, and that for evermore. And, beloved friends, in connection with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, He is invested by right with all power in heaven and in earth: He is Lord over the dead and over the living. "To this end," says the apostle in the fourteenth of Romans, "Christ both died and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." So that the Lord Jesus Christ, now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, has the right to unlock the grave, as well as the power to raise every inhabitant out of it. And part of the work, at least, before the blessed Lord is this, to spoil death and empty every grave, and then to cast death and lades into the lake of fire; so that death will be subdued: for the testimony of both Old and New Testament Scriptures is, that "He shall swallow up death in victory." I lay these thoughts before you, beloved friends, at the very outset tonight, before we consider what the Scriptures teach about the first and last resurrections.

The fact of Christ's resurrection has also an important bearing upon the blessing of believers. (1) It is the assurance of our justification. He "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). In His perfect clearance from all charge of sin we perceive our own. None dare lay anything to the charge of God's elect, for God has justified them. (2) It is our moral severance from all things here. Those who have been baptised to Christ Jesus have been baptised to His death (Rom. 6:3). In His death we read our own, God having accepted the death of Christ as on our behalf. His resurrection opens to us a new world of heavenly blessing which should henceforward possess and absorb the soul (Col. 3:1-3). Such immense weight did the apostle attach to this that he burst forth in Phil. 3:10 in holy yearning "that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection." Finally, the resurrection of Christ is the earnest of resurrection from among the dead for all who believe in His name. "Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming" (1 Cor. 15:23). What God has done for His Son, He will presently do for all His saints. It is impossible that God should involve them in the resurrection of judgement at the epoch of the dissolution of all things; He has purposed for them a resurrection identical in character with that of His Son. This will take place in the moment of His descent into the air according to 1 Thess. 4:15-18. Then every sleeping saint will be raised, and every living believer will be changed, that all may enter in one complete company into the eternal blessedness of the Father's house on high.