What Does the Resurrection Mean?

As we approach Easter, we are faced with the question, what does the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus really mean? If you are like me, you understand, at least partially, the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross, but the resurrection might be a different story. For much of my life it was rather vague to me, and hard to get a firm grasp upon. It has always seemed like the happy ending to Jesus time on Earth, but could it mean something more? I used lines like, “death has been defeated”, when describing the resurrection, but realized somewhere along the way that I didn’t understand what this really meant.

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor 15:14, that if Christ had not been raised, than our faith is in vain. The resurrection is clearly at the centre of what God was doing to bring about the renewal of all things. Let’s explore this a little more in-depth. Let’s look at the resurrection and see what it means for us and for the world.

1. A Living Hope

“He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”(1 Peter 1:3b).

The first thing that the resurrection means is that simply – Jesus is alive. We do not follow a dead saviour, we follow a Living Lord. Because He lives, Jesus sees us, knows us, and intercedes for us in heaven (Rom 8:34).

“Christ sees us, hears us, knows us, and is acting as a Priest in heaven on behalf of His believing people. The thought of His life ought to have as great and important a place in our souls—as the thought of His death upon the cross.”J.C. Ryle

He is with us always even to the end of the age (Matt 28:20). The hope that we have in Jesus is as living as He is. Because He lives, our hope is “something substantial, something certain, something vibrant with life and power”. We do not have a pie-in-the-sky hope; we have a living, breathing hope. This Hope holds us, sustains us, and strengthens our hearts to remain steadfast. Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus is the one who will return to the world to wipe away every tear and make all things new. If He were not alive, none of this would be true. The Risen, Living Christ guides our future and the future of His world – we just follow His lead.

“A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.” Andrew Murray

2. The Crowning Proof

“We need not wonder that so much importance is attached to our Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and memorial stone of the great work of redemption, which He came to do. It is the crowning proof that He has paid the debt He undertook to pay on our behalf, won the battle He fought to deliver us from hell, and is accepted as our guarantee and our substitute by our Father in heaven.” J.C. Ryle.

The resurrection is the crowning proof that the ransom Jesus paid on the cross was accepted and was sufficient. Death resulted because of sin. Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world perfectly atoned for the evils done by mankind. Thus death has no more power over those who accept Jesus as their ransom. Death only exists because sin exists. If sin is no longer present, than death is eradicated. Jesus was the “firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18, Rev 1:5) – the first person to be no longer shackled by the punishment of sin and death. The resurrection was the real, tangible, undeniable evidence that death has no more power over the redeemed of Christ.

“The Resurrection is the great announcement of the momentous fact that Christ has finished the work He came to do.” Martin Lloyd Jones. 

3. Our New Birth

These are the basic facts of the resurrection, but it is not the whole story. Peter says we have been – “born again to a living hope through the resurrection.” What does this mean? Until we are born again – regenerated, we do not have a living hope.

“We are regenerated, born again, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, through the medium of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. Born again unto a lively hope.” Martin Lloyd Jones

As christians, we are unified with Christ. We are one with Him. What happened to Him, happened to us. Here is how the Apostle Paul puts it –

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Rom 6:1-5

“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Rom 6:9,11

This is all as a result of the resurrection. We are joined with Christ. When he died, we died. When He was raised to new life, we were raised to new life. We have already passed through what death really means and come through the other side – in Christ. That is why a believer doesn’t die, he “falls asleep” (1 Thess 4:14). Christ has already tasted death for us (Heb 2:9). We are alive in Christ and with Christ eternally. That is why His resurrection is so essential for us. If He were still dead, we would only be unified in His death. There would be no new life. But because He lives, we live forevermore.

And that “forevermore” starts now. In our new birth, we have been born into a new family – the family of God (Gal 4:5). We are “in Christ”; we are no longer “in Adam”(Rom 5:19). The legacy of sin and self-destruction, from being one of the descendants of Adam, no longer lives in us. We are born of the Spirit. Although we still sin, we are no longer slaves to sin (Rom 6:20-22). We are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), enabled by the Spirit of God to live Christ’s risen life. This is the legacy of the resurrection for us now. New birth. New life. New family.

“I died with Him, I was buried with Him, I rose with Him; I am in the new realm. It is a new life altogether.”
Martin Lloyd Jones

What Does this all Mean?

“The message of Easter morning is not merely survival, not simply that we shall go on living after we die. The Easter hope is something infinitely beyond that… The resurrection of the believer is real. It comes to the complete man-not to a spirit floating in some atmosphere–but to the complete man, body, soul and spirit, renewed and glorified, and ready to enter into his everlasting inheritance.” Martin Lloyd Jones

Long ago God made a good, perfect world, and a good and perfect man, and one day He will restore this reality. Mankind cannot restore this better reality, but God can and will, and through the ressurection we will get to enjoy this reality as complete perfected humans. This is the living hope that we have been reborn into. This is the Christian message. Jesus has conquered every foe. We have been reborn. Every evil and injustice will be eradicated. Jesus is King over all. He will renew the entire creation and rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Celebrate this present and coming reality this Easter morning. Celebrate this living hope.