The meaning of the resurrection of Jesus
Tom Wright said "Squeeze Romans at any point, and the resurrection spills out; hold it up to the light, and you can see Easter sparkeling all the way through. If Romans had not been hailed as the great epistle of justification by faith, it might easily have come to be known as the chief letter of resurrection.
The commonly understood theme of Romans is
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
But this rests on Paul's premise which is found earlier in the letter:
ESV Romans 1:3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
So what does this mean? It has a three fold relevance:
1) Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews. And when he claimed this all who heard him understood him to mean that he would overthrow the Roman Empire and their oppressors.
The idea that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah was demolished when he was sentenced by Ceasar's courts to death, and then died the violent, shameful and very messy death that he died on golgotha.
Yet this would not cause anyone to call him the Son of God or the savior of the world. In fact, it meant he was another sham Messiah if that's all that happened.
2) The idea that a man came back from the dead was hinted at in a number of ways in the ancient world, but not exactly like Jesus did. That was completely unanticipated by even his closest associates and disciples.
Yet this would not cause anyone to call him the Son of God or savior of the world.
It just meant he overcame death somehow!
3) The fact that he had claimed to be the Messiah AND that He overcame death by the resurrection from the dead...that combination caused all his disciples to exclaim "You are the Son of God". And it was the very trigger of Paul's faith as he expresses here in Romans 1:3-5
The Old Testament prophesies the Messiah will rise from the dead!
ESV Psalm 16:10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
And it prophesies that the saints of old will be led out of their captivity on the third day! All who died before Christ's death on the cross, who were trusting God to somehow save them, these were led out of captivity by Christ on the third day!
ESV Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
ESV Ephesians 4:8 Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."
Israel led from Egypt to Promised land is a historical picture of what Christ did for us! He led us out of our slavery to sin, our slavery to the Law, our slavery to the world, and our bondage to death into the promised land of new life! Freedom to do right, slavery to the law of Love in Christ, bonded to heaven! Recipients of eternal life!!
ESV Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Their crossing the red sea signifies this. Our water baptism signifies this also....one event before the death of Christ and one event after the death of Christ...pointing towards the event that delivered us all!!
And our Kingdom Photo Identification is our water baptism. When we are baptized into water, we say that we repent of our own way and that we are trusting in Christ's completed work for all our deliverance!!
ESV Romans 6:4 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. 5 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. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
ESV Romans 6:10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
ESV 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
There are three implications from these truths.
1) We have newness of life now! We are free from sin now. We are out from the law now! We are able to love, live and breath in Christ as free and new people!
2) We have hope for the translation of our bodies at the final resurrection from the dead when we will receive the final gift of eternal life!
ESV Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
3) Our hope to see Jesus as He is should always factor into our thinking! We should hope to see Him as He is...and so we should by the hope we have in our hearts constantly put off sin from our lives and constantly purify ourselves so that we will be joyfilled at His return. We should bear in mind what Peter said!!
ESV 2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
How do we do this?
See what He did!!
See what He is coming back to do!!
Reckon yourself in what He did!!
Press on towards what He is coming back to do!!
Say "When He died, I died, when they buried Him they buried me! When He arose, I arose to live eternally!
Say, because He arose, I will arise at the end of the age!!
Consider yourself dead, buried and already raised...in regard to your sin battles! In regard to death in this life! In regard to anything that opposes the gospel.
Press on to know Jesus, for that is the final joy that we receive in all of this! We shall know Him as He is! It's for the sake of our loving friendship with Jesus that God did all of this for us! So pursue Him personally.
