HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Welcome to day 10 of the 10 Days of Easter. Today we have the joy of remembering again the miracle of Christ’s resurrection. Miracle first in His breaking the bonds of death. And miracle still today, as you and I can know His resurrection power!
If Jesus’ death was the end of the story it would be the great tragedy of a great human martyr, but all four Gospels stress that it is not. After death, after the remaining hours of Friday, Saturday and early Sunday morning, with His body lying in the tomb, He is raised. God raises Him from the dead.
If we are open to the possibility of the supernatural, we must acknowledge this marvelous event; but we must also talk about its significance. The possibility of our life after death, as Paul teaches also in 1 Corinthians 15, is directly dependent on Jesus’ resurrection. His resurrection, as it were, was the firstfruits of the general resurrection of all believers, of all of God’s people throughout human history (see especially 1 Corinthians 15:14); but also the nature of Christ’s resurrection body points forward to the nature of our resurrection body—continuity as well as discontinuity with our current bodies.
Jesus, in His various resurrection appearances, shows that He is no longer bound by the limitations of the human body. He is able to pass through locked doors; He is able to appear and to disappear, and yet at the same time He makes it clear that it is a real human body. It can be touched, it can be felt, it can eat food.
This same combination of completely redeemed and glorified and perfected humanity—the second half of what 1 Corinthians 15 (vv. 12-58) teaches—will characterize all believers’ future resurrection bodies. So while there are many things that we do not understand about this final and climactic episode in Jesus’ life and ministry, we must admit that it is the single most important element. Without the Resurrection, His death could not have been atoning. Without His death, the Resurrection would not have been a real, genuine human event.
Part of lesson 1 from the course Acts: Crucifixion, Resurrection and Proclamation by Craig L. Blomberg, PhD
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