I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal point in human history. And it is, as Paul reminds us here, a pivotal point of the Christian message. Indeed, no one was more aware of, or insistent upon, its significance than Jesus himself. It is therefore helpful to consider what Jesus himself had to say about his own death, burial, and resurrection — and the ongoing implications of that event still today.
Jesus’ death and resurrection were not a surprise, or plan B, for Jesus. Jesus many times spoke publicly and plainly about his coming death and resurrection. So much so that the Jewish leaders in Matthew 27 referred to this claim in order to motivate Pilate to set guards at Jesus’ tomb.
More than three years before his death, Jesus told the Jewish leaders in John 2:19-22:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” … he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Later in John’s gospel, Jesus even emphasized this was his purpose in coming into the world, and that he was sovereign over the entire event: “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18).
The resurrection proves Jesus’ power to defeat sin, death, and Satan and to raise us from the dead.
Jesus again emphasizes the significance of the resurrection, as Jesus consoles Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
The resurrection proves Jesus’ power to defeat sin, death, and Satan and to raise us from the dead.
As the glorified Jesus himself points out, rather than becoming a victim of our sins, when he rose from the dead he became victor over our sins: “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).
This is why Jesus would over and again tell those he healed or performed miracles for not to publish his name yet; but then after the resurrection, he would tell all his disciples: “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” in my name. And this is why critics of Christianity have, above all else, tried to tear down the witness of the resurrection.
It is Jesus himself, then, who places tremendous emphasis on the resurrection, both before and after the event. When we call ourselves Christians we are, as much as anything else, declaring ourselves believers in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christians are, as much as anything else, declaring ourselves believers in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We honor the resurrection in baptism (Romans 6:3-4). We honor the resurrection by worshiping on Sunday, rather than on the Jewish sabbath (John 20:1; Acts 20:7; Revelation 1:10). In a sense, every Sunday is Easter Sunday, because we meet on the first day of the week to commemorate “the Lord’s Day” on which Jesus rose from the dead. And we honor the resurrection, indirectly, even in the Lord’s Supper, because “you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
In the resurrection, Jesus himself reminds us, we have the assurance that all power and authority has been given to him. We therefore ought to trust in him, rest in him, worship him, and labor faithfully for him until he returns from heaven.