“The One Thing that Changes Everything”

Monday, April 13, 2020

The resurrection of Jesus changes... everything. It is the climax to the great drama of the Bible and key to unlocking what God has been up to in the world. It was not plan B, C, or Z in God’s story, it has been plan A all along. Everything started with a good creation, where God blessed man and purposed to dwell with man forever in the garden. But God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge knew that the story would run amuck quickly and prepared beforehand to set right what had been made wrong. It is in the resurrection of Jesus that God overcomes the story of division, disobedience, depravity, and death with the story of light, of love and of life. In the resurrection the path has been paved for all to be reconciled back to God, sin has been dealt with as have the powers and forces that drive us toward disobedience and depravity. The fatal blow has been delivered to death, and it will be finally defeated in the end as we all receive resurrected bodies crafted and created by the creator to live immortal eternal with our God. Not only this but creation itself (often expressed in terms of the heaven(s) and earth) finally sees the end to corruption and decay and looks forward to its own restoration that will be analogous to that of our bodies in the new heavens and new earth. Thus the theological, relational, spiritual, personal, ecological, and eschatological (referring to what happens in the end and thus our hope) consequences of the fall are dealt with in the resurrection. The first Adam brought the story of death and darkness to the old creation, the new Adam (Jesus) introduces the story of light and life to the new creation. As has been hinted at, however, Jesus' resurrection is just the beginning. He is the firstfruits of the harvest and His resurrection anticipates a much greater harvest to come. All of this should give us great hope about our future, great consolation about past and great purpose for our present. Here are three practical takeaways of all of this for our present: 

1. Our future hope of the glory to come should cause us to reinterpret our present suffering. Rom. 8:18 and 2 Cor. 4:17 both look at the present suffering in light of the future hope, 2 Cor. 5 goes on to describe this hope as being clothed with a more permanent building versus the tent (body) that we currently have. Whatever pain, shame, affliction, etc. we face in this body is light and infinitesimal when seen side by side with our hope for a future resurrected body. We may groan now, but it will all be worth it in the end.
2. This leads to the second point. What we do in our body now matters and affects our future hope. Part of the significance of the resurrection is that Jesus is able to sit as judge over all things and this we will stand before Him in judgment for what we have done in our current body (2 Cor. 5:10). While this might seem daunting, judgment has always been something that God’s people should hasten because it means that He is setting right what is wrong in the world and vindicating His people. It is interesting that those who are pictured as currently dwelling before God in heaven in a disembodied state are discontent (Rev. 6:9-11). Isn’t this what Christians are supposed to look forward to? Our spirits floating before the throne/altar of God for eternity? This is the popular view of Heaven/the afterlife, but even in context, it is seen to incomplete, inadequate, not final. What’s left out of this picture and thus what is longed for by these individuals in Rev. 6 is vindication and victory, judgment, and justice. This is what the resurrection of Jesus promises and the resurrection of everyone provides, the righteous to the resurrection of life and the wicked to eternal torment. The other side of all of this is that because what we do in the body matters and judgment is coming is that our labor is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58) our good works that we have done in the body will be recognized and not burned up (1 Cor. 3:12-15) and we will receive commendation/reward from God (1 Cor. 4:5). What we do here matters and so we make it our aim to do good and please God always. 
3. Finally, Jesus’ resurrection means that the forces which once had power over us, have that authority no longer (Eph. 2:1-6). Paul prayed that the Ephesians might recognize that the power at work in them is the same power by which Jesus overcame the grave and no presides over the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:19-21). Indeed through this power, we are able to gain victory over these forces (Eph. 6:10-18). Rev. 12:1-17 gives us a beautifully composed mental image of this victory. Jesus has been raised, Satan has been cast down, and the saints are victorious even in death, precisely because death is not the end. 

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