The Cross of Christ,
Chapter 4: The Resurrection (part 2)
Number 2. The resurrection of Christ guarantees our resurrection. You know, it is important that we become very clear that every subjective experience that we Christians will experience in this world and in the world to come is based on a perfect and finished work in Jesus Christ. In other words, there is nothing that you and I will experience as Christians, whether we think in terms of the new birth, or our standing before God as justified, that brings us peace and joy and hope and assurance. Whether we think in terms of Christian living, holy living, all the blessed hope which is the resurrection from the dead and the ascending into heaven where Christ is, all of this is based on the fact that we have already received this in the holy history of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, in Christ Jesus, God has redeemed the whole human race. We were in Him by the incarnation. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that it was by His [God's] will that He put us into Christ and made Christ to be our wisdom, our righteousness, our redemption, our sanctification, our everything. Therefore, since Christ is the source of our Christian experience, His resurrection guarantees our resurrection. In other words, we shall experience the resurrection because in Christ we have already been raised from the dead. In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:6 that we are already sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
But now turn to 1 Cor. 15:12 and notice Paul's argument in this passage. In verse 12 Paul exposes a theological problem that was being experienced by the church members in Corinth. There were some in the Corinthian church who questioned the resurrection of the believers. This is how Paul puts it: "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Can you imagine believers without a hope of a resurrection? But listen to Paul's argument. He does not defend the resurrection of the believer by using the proof text method. His proof that the Christian has the hope of the resurrection is the resurrection of Christ Himself.
Look at verse 13 onwards: "But if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen then our preaching is vain and your faith also in vain." In other words, if the source of our resurrection, which is Christ, did not rise from the dead, then there is no hope for us. But if Christ rose from the dead then we have a hope. To go one step further, Paul goes on to say: "If Christ did not rise
from the dead, then our preaching is a lie, but if Christ rose from the dead then our preaching is true and the Christian has hope."
In fact, in 1 Cor. 15:19 Paul says: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men the most miserable." Why? Because the Christian hope is not in this world, it is in the world to come. And the beginning of the world to come is the resurrection of the believers.
“But now," says Paul in verse 20, "Christ is risen from the dead and has become the
first fruit [or the prototype] of those who have fallen asleep." And then in verses 21,22 he makes those tremendous statements about in Adam and in Christ. "For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead." Please notice that the word man, used twice in this verse 21, is in the singular. Who are these two men, one bringing you death and the other bringing the resurrection? The answer is found in verse 22: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive."
Now please remember the context. Here Paul is not discussing the whole human race in Christ. In other words, he is not dealing with the objective truth of the gospel. He is dealing with the subjective experience of the believer. Do Christians who have accepted the truth as it is in Christ have a hope of a resurrection? And the answer is Yes. Why? What is the guarantee of our resurrection? The resurrection of Christ. Look at verse 23: "But each one in his own order: Christ the
first fruits, afterwards those who are Christ's at His coming."
The resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection of every believer. To bring this out, listen to 1 Thess. 4:14 where Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again...." Paul is not using the word "if" as if to doubt the resurrection of Christ. What Paul is really saying is: "In view of the fact that we believe Jesus Christ died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." In verse 15 onward he goes on to explain that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living will be transformed by the twinkling of an eye from corruption to incorruption.
But the fact is that, because Jesus conquered the grave, we believers have a hope of the resurrection. Just one more text, 1 Peter 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." In other words, the resurrection of Christ is our hope. Our hope is not in this world. Our hope is in the world to come. Yes, we stand perfect in Christ today but because we have a mortal body all of us are subject to death—what the Bible calls the first death. But, to the Christian, that death is not the grim reaper, it is simply sleep and sleep means resting.
A Christian who dies is resting in Christ and when Christ comes from heaven and He makes the tremendous cry at the trump of God and says "Let the dead in Christ be raised," all the believers who have died in Christ will conquer the grave because their victory is the result of the victory of Jesus Christ who conquered the grave.
And so, Peter is saying, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who, according to His abundant mercy, has given us a hope through the resurrection of Christ."
Number 3. This brings us now to our third position, a third reason why the resurrection of Christ is important to us. The resurrection of Christ makes Christ's intercessory ministry in the heavenly sanctuary possible. When you and I accept Christ we still are sinners saved by grace. The acceptance of Christ, the new birth experience, does not change our nature one iota. We are still potentially 100 percent sinners. Therefore, as long as we are living in this world, as long as we are in this world, condemned by sin, we need a mediator, we need an Advocate, Christ the righteous. As long as we are sinners, we have a Mediator, because Jesus conquered death, went to heaven, and is now sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us.
Notice what Paul says about this wonderful gospel in Romans 8. Paul spends several chapters in Romans discussing the gospel from every conceivable angle. He begins in chapter 3, verse 21, and he ends in chapter 8 verse 30. Then, having done that, he concludes this exposition of the gospel in chapter 8, verse 31, by asking a question: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Oh, what a tremendous statement. If God is on our side, it doesn't matter who is against us.
Yes, the devil can accuse us day and night as Revelation 12:10 says, but we have an Advocate, the righteous. Look at Romans 8:34: "Who is he who condemns?" Yes, it is the devil who condemns, but listen to the good news: "It is Christ who died." Remember, He died to remove our condemnation, "And, furthermore, is also risen who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us." Jesus was raised for our justification, says Paul in Romans 4:25. In Romans 8:34 he says: "Christ who conquered the grave is now sitting at the right hand making intercession for us."
In 1 John 2:1 the apostle John says the gospel is good news but please don't allow the good news of salvation, which is a free gift to sinners, lead you to cheap grace to condone sin because the gospel does not give us license to sin. But John realizes that we are still living in a sinful world; we still have sinful natures.
Because of our inability to have learned to walk fully in the Holy Spirit, we will fall, and so he says in 1 John 2:1: "My little children, I am writing this good news to you not that you may condone sin [he uses the word sin in the present continuous tense the first time] but if anyone sins [this is in the aorist tense, the past historical tense] then we have an advocate, Christ the righteous." So the resurrection of Christ makes it possible for us to have an intercessor, Jesus Christ, at the right hand of God who is representing believers.
One more text regarding this is in Hebrews 7. Now Hebrews was written or was addressed primarily to Jewish Christians who were in danger of turning their back to Christ and returning to Judaism. The writer of Hebrews, whom I believe is Paul, is making it very clear in this wonderful epistle that Christ is the reality of everything that was foreshadowed in the Old Testament. And because He is the reality, He is better than all that was given to the Jews in the Old Testament, the old covenant.
Now look at Heb 7:24, 25 in this context: "But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He ever lives to make intercession for them." The Levitical priest in the Old Testament could not really intercede for the Jews in the true sense of the word. Why? Number one, because they themselves were sinners. You remember on the day of Atonement they could not enter the Most Holy Place without first offering a sacrifice for themselves and for their family. Jesus did not have to offer a sacrifice for Himself because He had overcome sin. He had not even sinned by a thought and, as we saw earlier, it is because of this God had the legal right to raise Him up from the dead. But Jesus Christ is a priest who has never sinned, who has conquered sin and conquered the grave.
The second difference is that the Levitical priests were limited in their intercession because they were human beings that were not only sinners but who were also mortal. That means their life span was no different from the life span of the average human being at that time. But Christ, when He rose from the dead, rose never to die. And because He is now an everlasting Savior, He is able to intercede for us from the time of His ascension right up to the time of His Second Coming. We have an Advocate; we have a Priest Who is able to save us to the uttermost not because we are good but because He is our Righteousness and He is at the right hand of God, vindicating, defending His believers.
Jesus Christ is our Advocate, our Savior, and He is able to save to the uttermost, anyone who comes to God through Him because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. In Christ, as Jesus Himself said in John 5:24, we have already passed from death to life.
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Pr Jack Sequeira
