The Resurrection of Christ and Salvation - The Gospel ...

Definition

as a result of our union with Christ, we share in his justification; his resurrection-accepted righteousness is reckoned as ours, imputed to us.

summary

This essay examines the relation of the resurrection of Christ to the salvation he provides. Jesus' resurrection from the dead is the ground of the believer's standing earlier than God and of the hinge of changed life.

Introduction

In employing the Nicene Creed in our worship, we confess in part in regards to the Lord Jesus Christ that he

for us and for our salvation got here down from heaven, and changed into incarnate by way of the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and changed into made man; and changed into crucified additionally for us below Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again in keeping with the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the father; and he shall come once more, with glory, to decide both the residing and the useless; whose kingdom shall haven't any end.

at the side of the leisure of the "one holy catholic and apostolic" church down throughout the centuries, we verify what has performed and continues to cozy our salvation: the loss of life, resurrection, ascension, and heavenly session of the incarnate Son, the eternal Son of God become man.

This confession prompts the question I are looking to agree with here. How above all is the resurrection "for our salvation"? What in selected is the saving efficacy, or "efficiency," of the resurrection? Or, to ask the question negatively, with out the resurrection, what would develop into of our salvation?

To the query of how Christ's loss of life is for our salvation, well-nigh each Christian will likely have a capable and heartfelt answer: he died that my sins should be would becould very well be forgiven, to bear in my area the everlasting punishment my sin deserves. Most if no longer all believers draw close in some measure the saving truth of penal substitution, of Christ's "as soon as providing up of himself a sacrifice to fulfill divine justice, and reconcile us to God" (Westminster Shorter Catechism, 25). at the same time, however, it looks reasonable to claim that in familiar Christians aren't as clear in regards to the reply to our question about the saving efficacy of the resurrection.

No Resurrection, No Salvation

it'll be instantly apparent that the death of a lifeless Christ, a Christ who continues to be dead, achieves nothing for our salvation. Paul makes that clear in 1Cor 15. If Christ hasn't been raised, then our religion is "futile" or "unnecessary," and we are "nonetheless in [our] sins" – utterly – and our condition all instructed is "most to be pitied" (vv. 17, 19). Minus the resurrection, demise continues with unabated, invincible finality, and it does in order "the wages of sin" we so justly deserve (Rom 6:23).

actually devoid of the death of Christ there is not any salvation, however then neither is there any salvation devoid of the resurrection. His resurrection, at the very least his demise, is at the coronary heart of the gospel (Rom1:three-four; 1Cor 15:three-4). The resurrection is regularly considered basically as the fantastic miracle that validates the actuality of Christianity and the gospel. but it surely is greater than such crowning facts – an awful lot extra.

Sin, Salvation, and the Resurrection

Salvation on its negative facet is salvation from sin. All too certainly the harmful consequences of sin are practically incalculable, its misery untold. at the identical time, these innumerable consequences are in fact twofold. First, sin affects our standing earlier than God; it renders us guilty, vulnerable to his simply judgment and condemnation. 2nd, it affects our situation, in that it leaves us wholly corrupt and enslaved to devil and sin because the vigour that dominates our lives. The depth of sin's effects is such that, left to ourselves, other than God's saving grace, we are nothing below "dead in … trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1, 5). Sin leaves the sinner both inexcusably responsible and helplessly enslaved.

"but where sin abounded, grace abounded a lot more" (Rom 5:20; NKJV). as the outcomes of sin, in its abounding, are either one of two basic varieties, so too, in countering and assuaging these effects, grace – manifold, superabounding in its consequences – is really twofold. Grace is both judicial or renovative, reversing either our guilt-ridden standing earlier than God or our corrupt, sin-enslaved situation. The role of the resurrection in bringing about that reversal can be considered here by means of specializing in justification and sanctification.

The Resurrection and Justification

For justification, a key textual content is Rom four:25: Jesus "was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." past in Romans, Paul has stated that Christ's demise changed into a propitiatory sacrifice, so that God might be "simply and the justifier" of believers (3:25-26). Later he says that "we have now been justified by means of his blood" (5:9). In 4:25, besides the fact that children, justification is related particularly with Christ's resurrection in distinction from his sacrificial loss of life.

How are we to keep in mind that connection? On the foundation of his lifetime of obedience, culminating in his demise because the representative sin-bearer and righteous substitute for sinners (Phil 2:8; Rom 3:25; 8:3; 2Cor 5:21), Christ's resurrection is his own justification. here is so within the experience that the motion of God in raising him from the lifeless – that enlivening act itself – vindicates him in his obedience and with no trouble demonstrates his righteousness. The resurrection, then, is a de facto assertion of his righteous standing before God. As an event, Christ's resurrection "speaks," and it does so judicially, in a legal manner.

First Timothy three:16 confirms this. There Christ is described as "manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit" (NKJV). This just about certainly has in view the Holy Spirit's motion in raising Jesus from the lifeless (Rom 8:eleven). This response via the Spirit changed into justly warranted via the righteousness manifested in Jesus' obedience "in the flesh," this is, right through his lifestyles in the world previous to the resurrection.

but the justification of Christ in his resurrection turned into not just for his personal sake, aside from us; it became additionally for us, "for our justification." Our justification flows from our union with him, by way of Spirit-labored religion, together with the different advantages of salvation manifested by using that union (Westminster bigger Catechism, sixty nine). because of our union with him, then, we share in his justification; his resurrection-accredited righteousness is reckoned as ours, imputed to us.

on the equal time, this union preserves a key difference – a gospel difference – now not to be missed. Christ's justification, in contrast to ours, does not involve the imputation to him of the righteousness of yet another. not like us, he's declared righteous on the ground of his personal lifelong, blood-purchased righteousness.

Calvin has beautifully captured this fact:

hence, that joining collectively of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts – briefly, that mystical union – are accorded by using us the maximum diploma of magnitude, in order that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him within the presents with which he has been endowed. We don't, for this reason, take into account him backyard ourselves from afar in order that his righteousness may well be imputed to us but as a result of we put on Christ and are engrafted into his physique-briefly, as a result of he deigns to make us one with him. because of this, we glory that we have fellowship of righteousness with him (Institutes of the Christian faith, three.11.10).

The Resurrection and Sanctification

How then is the resurrection elementary for our sanctification – for the renovative side of salvation, for lives fascinating to God and marked via holiness? That question will also be answered alongside a couple of lines, including the one we can observe right here.

once again, as with justification, union with Christ is essential. we're united with him in his dying and resurrection, signified and sealed to us in baptism, "so that, just as Christ became raised from the useless by way of the glory of the daddy, we too could walk in newness of existence" (Rom 6:4). here the resurrection of Christ is linked notably with the newness that marks the Christian lifestyles. That newness surely has in view Christ's lifestyles as resurrected, the resurrection existence he shares with those that are united to him.

The supply and best of this existence are extra clarified in Romans 8:eleven: "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the lifeless will additionally give lifestyles to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." What God the daddy did in raising Jesus from the useless he'll also do for believers. The controlling notion right here is the tie or unity that there is between the bodily resurrection of Christ and that of Christians.

The intrinsic nature of that solidarity is made most explicit in 1Cor 15:20, 23. There Christ is described as "the firstfruits" of the resurrection. To lengthen the metaphor as Paul absolutely intends, his resurrection and ours are the starting and the end of 1, single harvest.

Christ's resurrection is, as is frequently spoke of, the assure of ours, however we should still appreciate that here is so as a result of his resurrection is nothing lower than "the precise beginning of this popular epochal experience" (Geerhardus Vos, Pauline Eschatology, p. forty five).

As believers, we will be sure of our personal resurrection, not most effective as a result of God has decreed it and promised it (which would surely be enough for us!), however as a result of he has finished more: that decree has been realized, that promise has already been fulfilled, in history; the resurrection harvest through which believers will share bodily at the conclusion of background, when Christ returns, has already begun. It has entered background and come into sight in his resurrection.

The Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian

Romans eight:eleven, because it highlights this resurrection solidarity, brings into view the activity of the Holy Spirit. God will resurrect us bodily, as he did Jesus, during the enlivening action of the Spirit. but extra is declared right here than what may be real sooner or later. The Spirit of resurrection is the indwelling Spirit; he is already present in believers. This facets us to a basic fact concerning the Christian lifestyles: existence in the Spirit is sharing within the resurrection life of Christ.

That comes out obviously within the verses that instantly precede (vv. 9-10). four mixtures are present there: (1) "you … in the Spirit," (2) "the Spirit … in you," (3) to "belong to him [Christ]" – equivalent right here to "you … in Christ," and (four) "Christ … in you." These expressions infrequently intend to split the believer's life into 4 different sectors; together they provide a unified, typical standpoint on that life.

during this mutual indwelling, Christ and the Spirit are one. of their presence and exercise, the Spirit is "the Spirit of Christ" (v. 9). There isn't any relationship, no union with Christ, that is not on the same time fellowship with the Spirit. There isn't any work of the Spirit in our lives that isn't additionally the presence of Christ at work in us (see Eph. 3:sixteen-17).

This inseparable bond between Christ and the Spirit does not begin with our event; fairly, it rests on what's firstly true within the experience of Christ. In 1Cor 15, we are told that Christ, the final Adam, as the "firstfruits" of the resurrection harvest, grew to be the "life-giving Spirit" (v. forty five). At his resurrection, he became now not only glorified with the aid of being modified in his human nature by the enlivening vigour of the Spirit. He additionally got here right into a possession of the Spirit that was so climactic, so remarkable, so overflowing, that it is properly captured by way of calling him the "existence-giving Spirit."

note that this on no account compromises the own difference between Christ and the Spirit. The eternal, primary big difference and equality between the second and third people of the Trinity remain unchanged. however on account of who Christ, in his human nature, has become in his state of exaltation, he and the Spirit are actually one of their work of giving lifestyles. This existence is nothing lower than resurrection life within the Spirit. As we've seen, here's no longer handiest a future hope, but already a present fact for believers.

Of route, the bond between Christ and the Spirit didn't begin at the resurrection. Christ changed into conceived by way of the Spirit (Luke 1:35), and the Spirit later descended on him at his baptism by way of John (Luke 3:21-22).

The change, the momentous change, is that this: At his baptism, Christ received the Spirit as an endowment to perform the messianic assignment earlier than him, the task that sooner or later led to the go. however in his exaltation, in his resurrection leading to his ascension (Acts 2:32-33), he acquired the Spirit because the consummate reward for having accomplished that assigned kingdom task. And he does not retain this reward for "his own private use" (Calvin); the Spirit becomes the consummate present that he shares completely with his individuals at Pentecost.

So, Jesus Christ – the resurrected, life-giving Spirit – has promised us: "i'm with you all the time, to the conclusion of the age" (Matt 28:20). he's with the church to live, indwelling believers as he gives every non secular blessing and resource that we deserve to perform our church-constructing and kingdom-increasing project of discipling the nations. So, too, as the life-giving Spirit, he is current with us in a special, sacramental manner when he invitations us to commune with him at his table.

even more Than That

How, then, turned into Christ resurrected "for us and for our salvation"? I even have finished little extra right here than to begin for the reason that the answer. I have not yet taken word of what's as crucial as anything: Christ, "who died – greater than that, who became raised," intercedes for us at God's appropriate hand (Rom 8:33-34). And that intercession of Christ, resurrected and ascended, as gracious as it is infrequently gratuitous, refutes any and each cost that would call into question the justification of God's go with. additionally, it insures, with an infallible efficacy, that "they could under no circumstances fall from the state of justification" (Westminster Confession of religion, 11.5).

eventually, believe Rom 8:29. God's predestinating purpose for believers centers ultimately in their being "conformed to the picture of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn amongst many brothers." This "image" is the Son's as he is resurrected, particularly in his now-glorified human nature. he's "the firstborn among many brothers" only as he is "the firstborn from the useless" (Col 1:18).

Our privilege, splendid beyond our comprehension, is that this: we have been chosen in Christ "before the basis of the realm" (Eph 1:four) to the optimal end that we be like Christ. This conformity to his picture, already being labored in us by way of the sanctifying vigor of the Spirit (2Cor three:18; Gal 4:19), should be wholly realized when, like him, we're raised bodily.

however there's greater to this than what's top-rated for us. much more highest quality in God's predestinating purposes is what is at stake for the Son personally in our salvation, what he has invested for himself. This, as much as anything, is why from all eternity the Son willed, together with the father and the Spirit, to become incarnate, to undergo and die. He did so, so that, having been resurrected victorious over sin and death, he could have brothers like himself – brothers glorified now not as a result of anything else in themselves, however entirely because of his saving mercy. they are going to share with him during this triumph and magnify continually his personal preeminent exaltation glory. And so his "kingdom shall haven't any end."

surely there may also be no extra surest point of view on Christ's resurrection "for us and for our salvation" than this.

notice: This essay first looked in New Horizons, April, 2017, under the title, "For Us and For Our Salvation." Used right here with permission.