Chapter 27: His Resurrection

On the third day, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This is the hinge on which the Christian faith turns; without it, as Paul says, our preaching is empty and our faith is vain (1 Corinthians 15:14). But it is not empty, and it is not vain—for He is risen indeed. It had been prophesied a thousand years before that God’s Holy One would not be left in the grave nor see decay:

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption (Psalm 16:10).

He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption (Acts 2:31).

David wrote those words of himself, yet David died and his tomb was well known; so Peter explains that David spoke as a prophet, of the Christ who would come from his line—the One whose body would not decay because death could not hold Him.

The Empty Tomb

On the first day of the week, the women came to the tomb—and found it empty, the stone rolled away, and an angel with news that would change the world:

• “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:5–6).

• “Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6).

• “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10).

• “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18).

“He is not here: for he is risen.” Four words that overturned the empire of death. The tomb, sealed and guarded, could not hold the Lord of life. And the empty tomb was no rumor; He appeared alive to Mary, to the women, to Peter, to the two on the Emmaus road, to the eleven, and on one occasion to more than five hundred at once (1 Corinthians 15:5–6). The resurrection of Jesus is the best-attested fact of the ancient world, sealed by the transformed lives of those who had everything to lose and nothing earthly to gain by proclaiming it.²⁹⁰

The Saints Raised

We saw in the previous chapter that when Jesus rose, the tombs of certain saints were opened, and after His resurrection they came out and appeared in Jerusalem:

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many (Matthew 27:52–53).

When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Ephesians 4:8).

Because Christ is the firstfruits, His rising guarantees the rising of all who belong to Him. His resurrection is not an isolated marvel but the first sheaf of a great harvest—the promise and pledge that death will one day give back all of God’s people. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). What happened to the Head will happen to the body.

From Separation to Reconciliation

Now we can gather up the great theme of this entire book. Far back in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, a separation took place: man was cut off from God by sin, and the whole long story of the Old Testament was the story of a God reaching across that distance—revealing Himself from afar, in patterns and promises and appearances. But through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the distance is closed; man is reconciled to God. Glory to the Most High, for His word and His promises are true! Hear how the New Testament sings of this reconciliation:

All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them (2 Corinthians 5:18–19).

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself… And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight (Colossians 1:19–22).

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life (Romans 5:10).

Reconciled—when we were enemies. Reconciled—not counting our trespasses against us. Reconciled—by the blood of His cross. And more scriptures ring the same bell: “thAt he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:16); “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7); “for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:21).

This was the very heart of Jesus’ mission. Separated from their Creator by sin, men and women needed a way back into right relationship with God—and Jesus made that way, through His Word, His suffering, His death on the cross, and His triumphant resurrection. By His death He paid the penalty for our sin, bearing the punishment we deserved; by His resurrection He proved His victory over sin and death, and threw open the door for all who believe to be forgiven and adopted as children of God.

This means that through faith in Jesus, we may now approach God not as a distant, unapproachable Judge, but as a loving Heavenly Father with whom we can have intimate fellowship (Romans 5:11; Galatians 4:5–7). The barrier of sin—the barrier this whole book has traced from the second day of creation, through the veil of the temple, to the cross—has been taken away. When Jesus died, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51): God Himself tore open the curtain that had kept sinners out, and the way into His presence stood open at last. We may now enjoy the fullness of relationship with our Creator. We are reconciled. We are home.²⁹³

We are now reconciled back to God. This is the heart of the gospel, and the answer to the question with which this whole book began: who is this Jesus Christ? He is the God who would not leave us in our exile—who came the whole distance Himself, and by His own blood brought us home.