I Corinthians 15:17
Ever since the Reformation, the overriding emphasis of Christian teaching has been to make clear that the death of Christ on the Cross is a substitutionary, expiatory sacrifice that reconciles God to the sinners that He had chosen to save, and that death propitiates God's judicial wrath against all the Elect. In short, the sacrifice of Christ is virtually synonymous with the atonement that characterizes the Christian Gospel.
This concentration on the death of Christ is necessary, of course. But as a consequence, the saving significance of His resurrection has been largely overlooked. All too often, the latter has been regarded mainly as a stimulus and support for the Christian faith, which it surely is, and, in terms of its apologetic value, as the crowning evidence for Christ's deity.
When measured against the teachings of the New Testament, however, this doctrinal oversight proves to be highly impoverishing. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Christ's resurrection, as well as His death, is essential for the atonement of our sins and the accomplishment of our salvation. In I Corinthians 15:17, for instance, God flatly declares: "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."
The resurrection theology
The theology governing much of the Bible's teaching on the Lord's resurrection is well capsulized in I Corinthians 15:20-23:
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
That Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept more than indicates the priority or even preeminence of the Lord's resurrection. It conveys the idea of unity in the harvesting of the Lord Jesus and the body of believers. Because Christ is the firstfruits, His resurrection is the guarantee of the gathering of all believers at His return. The two resurrections, though separated in time, are not so much separate events as two episodes of the same event, the beginning and end of the one and same harvest.
Eschatological event. Hence, Christ being the firstfruits of the resurrection harvest highlights what He and believers have in common, not the difference between them in timing. We read in Ephesians 2:5,6: "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Theoretically, you see, we have already been raised.
The resurrection-harvest, then, is eschatological. Christ's resurrection is not an isolated past event. Though it occurred in the past, it belongs to the future consummation of God's salvation plan, when all believers are given a resurrected body.
Put another way, there is an unbreakable bond or unity existing between Christ and His followers in the experience of resurrection. For the believer, this bond has two components: one takes place at the moment of conversion, and the other at Christ's return. This is implicit in II Corinthians 4:16:
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Our outward man is our body that is yet to be raised, but at the core of our being is our "inward man", or our soul, and it has already been raised.
The resurrection implications
Implied in this line of understanding are two major, yet interrelated strands, one concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other, the body of believers.
Respecting Christ, perhaps most striking is the new working relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit that is captured in I Corinthians 15:45:
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
The term last Adam refers to the Lord Jesus Christ especially as the Son of Man. Remember, the principal topic of I Corinthians 15 is Christ's resurrection. Verse 45 is thus emphasizing that it was because of His resurrection that Christ as a human being was "made a quickening (or life-giving) spirit".
What we learn here, then, is that there was a climactic transformation of Christ by the Spirit when He rose again from the dead. As Romans 1:4 puts it, He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Having become the Son of God with power, He now has a glorified human nature.
The resurrection-transformation of Christ by the Spirit also results in a climactic intimacy between these two persons of the Godhead, an intimacy that surpasses what previously existed. Before the Cross, to be sure, Christ and the Spirit were at work together among God's people. But now, dating from His resurrection and ascension and the down pouring thereafter of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, their joint action is given its stable and consummate basis in the history of redemption.
Justification. The second strand of this understanding about Christ's resurrection relates to the believers. In the language of Romans 8:29, the resurrection makes Christ the image to which those whom God foreknew are predestinated to be conformed, so that He, the Son, might be the "firstborn among many brethren". In other words, the exalted Christ is that image into which Christians are even now in the process of being transformed and which they will bear bodily in their future resurrection at His return.
Moreover, Romans 4:25 declares that Christ "was raised again for our justification". The resurrection vindicates Jesus in His perfect obedience unto death. It reveals that He embodies the perfect righteousness that avails before God. In that sense, His resurrection is His justification (though He was laden with our iniquities), and so, by imputation through union with Him by faith, our justification. Without the resurrection, there would be no justification of the ungodly; hence, as we saw earlier, our faith would be futile and we would still be in our sins.
The resurrection effects
The new relationship between the exalted Christ and the Holy Spirit means that the presence of the Spirit with believers is the very presence of Christ with them. Notice the way God renders synonymous the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ and Christ Himself in Romans 8:9,10:
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Having been justified by the resurrection of Christ, Christians will never be more resurrected than they already are at the core of their being, "the inward man". But having been given the Spirit, they can also count assuredly on their outward man being resurrected on the Last Day. God says in Ephesians 1:13,14: "Éye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."
Sanctification. There's another common misconception about the work of the Holy Spirit in the wake of Christ's resurrection. Many tend to view justification as that which God did once for all when He saved us, but to regard sanctification as something we perform out of gratitude. Result: They are discouraged to find themselves failing to live as obediently as they would like to.
We must guard against all notions of sinless perfection in this life, never forgetting that even the holiest believer on earth has only a small beginning. But that beginning, however small, is an eschatological beginning because it stands under the promise that we find in Philippians 1:6:
he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Thus, sanctification, no less than justification, is the work of the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit. First of all, we are sanctified inwardly by Christ's death at the moment of salvation. Hebrews 10:9,10 states:
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
But as we live out our Christian life, the Holy Spirit in us works to make our outward self more and more Christ-like. As we have seen earlier, that the Holy Spirit is indwelling us is the result of Christ's death and resurrection.
On the eve of the Cross, Jesus told the disciples, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). His going away involved His resurrection as well as His crucifixion, because at the start of His discourse that evening, He said:
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (14:2,3).
So, you see, it is Christ's resurrection that has made it possible for God to send His Spirit to indwell us and it is the Holy Spirit that is molding us into the glorified image of Christ. We today really need to give more adequate attention to the present work of the Holy Spirit.
The charismatic movement
But it might now be asked: Hasn't the resurgent Pentecostal spirituality of recent decades seen and, in large measure, recaptured the eschatological aspect of the Spirit's working?
Here, just one brief observation to this large question will have to suffice. Spiritual gifts are undoubtedly important for the health of the church that Christ has been building. But, a current widespread misperception notwithstanding, the Bible does not teach that such gifts, especially miraculous gifts like dreams and visions, tongues, and healing, belong to realized eschatology.
For instance, God states in I Corinthians 13:8-12:
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The main thrust of that passage is that tongues and even prophecy are temporal. They would "cease" and "vanish away" as the church that Christ is building grows from childhood into maturity. Now, that cannot possibly be said of that which is eschatological. Such realities persist into eternity.
All told, the Bible makes a categorical distinction between the Gift (singular) and the gifts (plural) of the Spirit, and between the eschatological Gift, which is Christ, the indwelling, life-giving Spirit Himself, in which all believers share, and those sub-eschatological gifts, none of which is intended for or received by every believer.
The truly enduring work of the Spirit is the resurrection-renewal already experienced by every believer. And that renewal manifests itself in what is called the "fruit of the Spirit", which encompasses love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal. 5:22,23) and which believers progressively yield in this life.
Such fruit, however imperfectly displayed for the present, is eschatological at its core. When Christ returns, we shall be perfect as He is perfect for we shall be like Him as we see Him as He is.
Summary. To summarize, the bodily resurrection of the Lord is not just a powerful proof of His divine nature in having successfully atoned for our sins. Equally important is the powerful transformation it effected in Christ in His human nature. It is because of that transformation that (1) the Lord Jesus now has the authority to save all those He came to save, (2) He has a glorified human nature into which image we are now being molded, and (3) He has given us His Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing our bodily resurrection on the last day.
May we therefore ponder these important truths about our Lord's resurrection not only around Easter time, but everyday as we enjoy all the blessings of having become saved by God's mercy and grace.