WHAT DOES RESURRECTION DO?
“What Does Resurrection Do?”
If there was specifically one way for Christians to validate Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, what would that one thing be? Sure, it is easy to see the number of prophecies that Christ fulfilled, consider the works that He has done, and notice the consistency of His teachings. However, one thing stands above it all: the resurrection. Christ atoning for our sins did not just stop at the cross, but He pressed on to conquer the grave by raising from the dead so that we don’t have to fear it anymore. This idea of complete control over death is exactly the thing we can look to if we want to understand the level of sovereignty that God has in our lives and over everything that comes after this life is over. That begs the question, though: what all does resurrection do? What are some things that we have as Christians that we wouldn’t have without the resurrection? The main things that the resurrection does in the life of a Christian is saving our souls and overcoming the world, making it an integral part to Christianity as a whole.
The resurrection wasn’t simply a “cherry on top” to the sacrifice that Christ made for the world. Of course, the atonement was directly paid through His death. However, without the resurrection, there would be no power and therefore no hope in Christ’s forgiveness of our sins. According to 1 Corinthians 15:14-17, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty… And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” Christ overcoming the grave isn’t just a display of power or a way that Christ administered authority, but it is the thing which validates baptism, which is our way into Christ. In verse 29 in the same chapter, “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?” As Christians, if we are looking for salvation, there cannot be salvation without the resurrection, and to say that His death alone was the saving factor of the life of Christ on earth is to miss the point as to why Christ came in the first place.
Furthermore, the resurrection also overcame the world and the death that resides within it. Christ didn’t just come to pay a price with His life, but He came so that His life could reign over death so a sinner deserving death could be transformed and find eternal life. According to Romans 6:6-9, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should not longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.” Christ overcoming the world through the resurrection reaches into our lives and frees us of the chains of the bondage of sin. Christ allows for a transformation, and we can abide in the hope that He has something more for us than only that which He has given us on this side of eternity. It says in 2 Timothy 1:10, “…Jesus Christ…has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Christ didn’t just delay death or nullify its sting, but He completely abolished and overcame it so that our chance to attain salvation could not be taken from us. With Christ as the leader of our lives, we can have comfort in the security of His ability to save, and we can look forward to our eternal life with Him thanks to His resurrection from the dead.
~Caden Conley