Christianity and the Resurrection
by Bruce Hines
Have you ever heard your bible professor, pastor or bible teacher say
that Christianity of the New Testament is a religion of resurrection?
This thought process reflects not only the Gospels but the early
church believed that Jesus had risen from the dead; they believed that
Jesus himself believed he would rise from the dead. The Gospels point
out very early that Jesus was conscious that death awaited him and
they suggest more than this—that somehow his death and resurrection is
the goal of his mission.
Mark 10:45 states, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (NAS). This
pictures the lives of the many as being forfeited because of sin and
Jesus claims to be able to redeem them by giving his own life. Put
simply, Jesus’ mission was to serve—ultimately by giving his life in
order to save sinful humanity. His life wasn’t “taken”; he “gave” it,
offered it up as a sacrifice for people’s sins. A ransom was the price
paid to release a slave from bondage. Jesus paid a ransom for us, and
the demanded price was his life. The Greek word translated “for”
(anti) includes the idea of substitution. Jesus took our place; he
died the death we deserved. Peter later wrote that the payment was not
in silver or gold, but “the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter
1:18-19). That payment freed us from our slavery to sin.
Mark 8:31 says, “And He (Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the
chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days
rise again (NAS).” Upon Peter’s revelation and the revealing of whom
Jesus really was, Jesus begins to teach the disciples that he first
had to suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise again. But one day he
would return in great glory to set up his eternal kingdom. Looking a
little deeper at this passage we see that time and eternity are
represented as two different realities of existence. I could put it
this way, the kingdom of God is now, but its full reality will come at
the end of this age.
John 12:24 says (NAS), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies,
it bears much fruit.” Here, in the metaphor, Jesus is made to predict
his own death, but beyond death is a new emergence into life to bear
much fruit. This pictures beautifully the necessary sacrifice of
Jesus. Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground—where it
actually dies—it will not become a blade of wheat producing many more
grains and then the buried grain would eventually bring forth much
fruit.
Without the substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross, Jesus’
crucifixion, death and shedding of his blood, there would be no ransom
or payment for sin and freedom from the kingdom of evil. Without the
resurrection, there would be no glorification and the release of
Kingdom blessing. We are called to give Jesus everything, even if it
costs us our life as it did him.
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