The Power of His Resurrection

It has become fashionable in some circles to propose an even-handed, levelheaded, non-extreme interpretation of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Something a bit less dramatic (and a bit more manageable) than the Victorious Lord of Life crashing out of his sealed tomb. If this is the Lord at the center of our faith, after all, everything is turned on its head. This kind of Lord is capable of anything.

The fashion runs something like this: “Levelheaded people must interpret Easter in a levelheaded way. The disciples must have imagined the Lord to be with them again after his death – like you might call to mind an image of your great-granddad, if you concentrate a little. Levelheaded people won’t be distracted by scary allusions to ‘crashing out of tombs,’ and the like. This is the way they keep their lives levelheaded.”

But there is nothing “levelheaded” about the events of Easter morning. Everything is turned on its head since that spectacular morning.

“God has raised Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it,” the Book of Acts reports (Acts 2:32, NIV). “Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures said he would,” Paul explains; “he was buried and rose again on the third day, again as the Scriptures foretold” (Ro 15:3,4, Phillips). “We saw it, we heard it,” John announces, “and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us…” (1 Jn 1:3, MSG).

“Already by the time of Paul, our earliest written records, the resurrection of Jesus is not just a single detached article of faith. It is woven into the very structure of Christian life and thought,” explains New Testament scholar N.T. Wright.?[1] “He who would preach the Gospel must go directly to preaching the resurrection of Christ,” said Martin Luther, “for this is the chief part of our faith.”?[2]

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means that he is the Lord of All Things: even of death itself. He will not be bound by human boundary. Sin and death cannot undo him; Jesus undoes them (Ac 2:24; Col 2:15, etc.).

The Resurrection means that nothing, ever, can separate the believer from the love of God in Jesus Christ (Ro 8:35ff.). Hope survives (1 Pe 1:3). Life awaits the redeemed (Phil 3:14). Nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 8:39).

The Resurrection means that the great sacrifice of Calvary is unambiguously complete: “our Lord Jesus Christ… was delivered to death for our sins and raised again to secure our justification” (Ro 4:25, Phillips). By the blood of the cross and the shattered tomb, we are made a new creation. Death itself is finally and forever destroyed (cf. 1 Cor 15:26).

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means mission, too. “He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them” (2 Cor 5:15). “We have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Ro 6:4).

The New Testament describes a resurrection life that awaits us at the end of time – and invites us to participate today. N.T. Wright puts it this way: “Christians are called to work together with God to implement what was launched at Easter and so to anticipate the new world God will make eventually.”?[3] Nothing “levelheaded” here! The untamed message of Jesus’ resurrection sweeps us into Jesus’ mission, if we receive the message in faith. “Easter is not the celebration of a past event. The alleluia is not for what was; Easter proclaims a beginning which has already decided the remotest future. The Resurrection means that the beginning of glory has already started.”?[4]

In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul confesses, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…” (Phil. 3:10). I can identify. “Faith knows the power that [Christ’s] coming back to life gives…” (GW). I want to know it, too.

This is the power that transforms lives, stands at the heart of our faith, seals our life-with-God, and enables our service. The resurrection of Jesus puts everything else into perspective. He cannot remain a simple historical curiosity, since that spectacular morning. He is our ever-living Lord.