Christ’s resurrection gave confirmation that Jesus Christ was very God; that His sacrificial death was the sufficient substitute to satisfy God’s divine justice; that Christ’s atoning death is sufficient to save even the chief of sinners.
Anyone can claim to be the Son of God. Many people throughout the world and through the ages have made such an insidious claim. The Bible records that Jesus claimed to be God;[1] and His doing so, did not add to or take away anything from divine Majesty;[2] yet, only Jesus could prove it by His resurrection from the dead. It is written, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalms 16:10).
The resurrection presents God’s divine justice satisfied in Christ’s atoning death, as it is written, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:20).
The resurrection also presents the power behind Christ’s sacrifice to save, as it is written, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:10, 11). To commune with Christ by the fellowship of His sufferings must come by the power of His resurrection; and that power comes from the sufficiency of His atoning death upon Calvary’s tree, knowing who He is and what He has done. Anyone can claim that they came to die for sins, but only One could prove it, Jesus Christ the righteous. The crucifixion without the resurrection is fruitless; ―the resurrection without the Christ crucified is folly.[3] ….
Moreover, brethren, I declare
The gospel preach’d to you
Which you’ve receiv’d and wherein stand;
By which ye are sav’d too.
That is to say, if ye hold fast
The Word preach’d as it came
To you in pow’r and trusting faith
Unless believ’d in vain.
For I deliver’d unto you
This most important Word:
No different from the gospel truth
That also I had heard―
How for our sins that Christ had died,
In holy writ preserv’d;
And buried, rising the third day,
Recorded in God’s Word.
This excerpt was taken from the book CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED, ch.3, pgs. 20, 21, 23, “Its Proposition.”
If you have not yet done so, Christina Langella is hosting a free drawing for two copies of CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED at her blog, Heavenly Springs. Click here to read her review of the book and enter her drawing.
