Continuing to Celebrate the Resurrection

The death of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross was agonizing and drawn-out torture, ending with a final cry of anguish as a Roman spear pierced his side and his heart. Because he had accepted without argument the false accusations, the hatred and rage and vicious spite from the religious leaders of his own people, and the unjustifiable, cruel barbarism of the Romans in his beating and crucifixion, Jesus took on himself, in symbol, the wickedness and darkness of Jew and Gentile alike, thus the sins of all humanity. When he died, those sins and their penalty and result — death — went with him to the grave.

But of course, Jesus didn’t stay dead! We need to keep fresh in our minds that both his death, and his rising from the tomb, are enormous gifts of grace to all humans — the same ‘all’ who symbolically condemned him. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15, which we often call “the resurrection chapter” these words of hope: “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said...20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

You and I had no input on Adam’s sin, which occurred thousands of years ago, yet we inherited Adam’s world and culture and death that goes with it. In the same way, we had no input on Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for us, yet it has affected us in the same universal way: in Christ comes the raising of the dead to new life, a life like his wonderful Spirit-driven life: "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (v. 49). Jesus Christ was and is the perfect and complete ‘replacement’ (or “Recapitulation” as it is called in formal theology), of Adam, for us and our salvation. When we say “yes” to God’s “YES” to us, we receive that gift of salvation to ourselves.

But salvation is not just ‘where you go when you die.’ This new life begins immediately: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). What does that new birth, and living hope, look like and how are we helped to live? We’ll be continuing to explore that in next week’s post, and the next several weeks. Don’t miss it!