The Undiscussed Meaning of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Introduction

Resurrection Sunday is the most crowded Sunday for any church. However, I want to challenge you this year by asking a series of important questions. What makes this resurrection Sunday any different from other resurrection Sundays of the past? For many of us, this may be upwards our 40th resurrection Sunday, and with each passing Easter, we risk this day becoming less significant than the previous ones.

You and I can reasonably predict that the crowd that will fill churches this Sunday will return back to their normal attendance schedule the very next Sunday. Many people who will run to church this Sunday won’t be back next Sunday. And for many, this Sunday will be the last Sunday they will be seen at any church until the next Christian holiday.

Could it be that we, as a society, have not recognized or understood the magnitude of Easter, which is why we treat it more like a holiday than an intentional activity of what is already importantly practiced outside of this day?

What is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection?

What does it mean?

What did it mean back then?

And what does it mean today?

These are the questions we must ask and continually answer throughout the year.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith for two reasons:

The resurrection is the historical and infallible evidence that our faith is rooted in an event that actually happened. The resurrection is Christianity’s proof that Jesus is worth following because of Scripture’s clear claim that the Messiah would suffer on behalf of His people.

Sir Edward Clarke a British politician and lawyer once wrote, “As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first Easter Day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. Inference follows on evidence, and a truthful witness is always artless and disdains effect. The Gospel evidence for the Resurrection is of this class, and as a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.” Stott, J. (2018). The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott (M. Meynell, Ed.). Lexham Press.

By referring to the evidence of the resurrection as “conclusive,” Clarke is stating there’s no other evidence that could prove the existing evidence of Jesus’s resurrection to be false. The evidence of Jesus’s resurrection cannot be contradicted.

The resurrection has practical and current-day ramifications that impact our lives in a variety of ways.

As David Jeremiah once said, “not only does Christ’s resurrection affect our past and present, it’s the guarantee of our future.”

When we understand the meaning of Jesus’s resurrection, we discover just how much His defeat over death and the grave impacts our current circumstances.

Views on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

There are a number of views concerning the meaning of Jesus’s resurrection. One of the misunderstanding that we have in the modern world is that everyone believed the same thing about the resurrection. Another misconception is that the resurrection was somehow completely defined in the Old Testament. The truth is, everyone’s understanding of the resurrection was evolving as history played out.

Yet, one thing is for sure—the core of the doctrine of the resurrection is found in the first pages of Scripture. In Genesis 22, Abraham is called to sacrifice his son, Isaac. However, Hebrews 11:19 tells us how Abraham was so willing to commit such an act with his son. The writer tells us, Abraham was confident that God would raise Isaac from the dead if he was offered as a sacrifice. And be clear, this was not some spiritual or symbolic resurrection Abraham believed. Rather it was the bodily resurrection from the death caused by the offering of sacrifice. With Abraham’s faith as an example, we find that the idea of resurrection is born.

Nevertheless, the doctrine of resurrection and its meaning evolved as time progressed. There was the Jewish idea, the Second-Temple ideas, Jesus’s depictions, and then the 7 Pauline views.

Jewish Idea of Resurrection

The Old Testament does not speak of an individual resurrection as much as it does a corporate one. One example among many is Ezekiel 37, where God promises Israel she will be resurrected from the death of exile back into the life of right relationship with the Father. Through this example, we see that the death that the Old Testament is concerned with is that which is connected to Israel’s covenant status with Yahweh. So from where did the idea of individual and bodily resurrection come?

Second-Temple Judaism

There were several ideas of resurrection by the Second-Temple period, which developed as a result of Israel’s extended exile.

Sadducees- no resurrection, we all participate in an eternal sleep.

Pharisees- a resurrection and eternal reward for Israel in the age to come

Hellenistic Jews- immortality without or without bodily resurrection

Other- physical resurrection with restoration of bodily limbs/ body parts

Jesus’s View

Jesus accepted the common understanding of resurrection as developed during the Second-Temple period. He seemingly agreed most with the Pharisees of His day who expected some sort of return to life in the age to come. He taught a resurrection of both the living and the dead as a matter of afterlife (John 5:28-29, c.f. Acts 24:15). So then, the resurrection began to move away from the corporate and national resurrection of Israel to a personal, individual resurrection of those who believed in the Messiah.

John 5:28–29 CSB

28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.

Jesus also taught that those who die will be like the angels (Matthew 22:23-33, Mark 12:18-27, Luke 20:27-38). This speaks to the idea that resurrection is concerned with the afterlife and there is an existence beyond the current world that can be inhabited and engaged.

Paul’s View

Yet, Paul provides the most definition to the idea of the resurrection, which is most appropriate considering his ministry to the Gentiles. There would have been a variety of thoughts and ideas about the afterlife. Paul was eager to clarify any misunderstanding while developing a Christ-centric understanding of resurrection. The following is what may be called the Seven Pauline Views of Resurrection:

Transformation- The idea that we will all be changed; we will be different.

Philippians 3:21 “21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “51 Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.”

Incorruption- The inability to breakdown or decay.

1 Corinthians 15:42-49, 53 “42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; 43 sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; 44 sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” “53 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality.”

Immortality- The state of never dying.

1 Corinthians 15:53-54 “53 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. 54 When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Exaltation- The bestowing of honor.

Philippians 2:9-11 “9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Ephesians 1:19-23 “19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. 20 He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens— 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”

Colossians 3:1 “1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Glorification- To bestow glory/ praise

Romans 8:11-17 “11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies [plural in Greek] to life through his Spirit who lives in you. 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

2 Corinthians 4:10-17 “10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak. 14 For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you. 15 Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.”

Conformity into the image of Christ

1 Corinthians 15:49 “49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

When someone asks about the resurrection we can only give them the right understanding of the meaning of Jesus’s resurrection by responding, “all of them.” That is, the resurrection of Jesus does not simply bring us one thing. Rather, it brings us multiple things, because its impact is broad and all-encompassing.

Yet, there’s one aspect most of our explanations of Jesus’s resurrection tend to forget.

The Undiscussed Meaning of Resurrection: John 2:19

In John’s gospel, he sees the resurrection as one among a number of possible things. We have already proven that the resurrection is not a definition of one simple thing. Rather, it is a definition of several things that requires our attention to those minor details. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave means a number of things.

While we have already considered the more well-known ideas, we must not forget one more thing among the others. John 2 helps us remember such an important matter.

Many of the gospel writers have mentioned Jesus’s cleansing of the temple towards the end of His earthly ministry. However, John’s gospel includes a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry and includes a detail that is not mentioned in any of the other gospel accounts: the correlation between the resurrection of Jesus and the temple worship system.

In John 2, Jesus is obviously disturbed by the activity that is convening inside the temple. So, he drives out the moneychangers and sellers and restores order. However, Jesus has a premise for these actions taken. The premise is found in Mark 11:17 and Isaiah 56:7. Jesus’s clearly understood that the temple was supposed to be a house [literally household] of prayer for all people. Yet, they have made it a den of thieves or house of commerce (Jeremiah 7:11). (WOW!)

Jesus was abundantly clear that the temple was being misused. He felt that the meaning of the temple had been lost. Furthermore, at least for the moment, He thought it was necessary to lead some sort of reform towards its improvement.

However, Jesus ultimately saw the day when the temple would not be the place of worship for ethnic Israel. He said in John 4:23, “23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.”

When Jesus is asked by what authority can He act this way towards the temple, He responds with John 2:19 “19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.””

Essentially, the resurrection is Jesus’s confirmation that He has a right to restore the true order of worship. He can do with the temple what He desires, and Jesus essentially does that by becoming the temple that we worship the Father from.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, the resurrection is about renewing the true mode of worship. If we are to participate in the true form of worship established by Jesus’s resurrection, we must know what it is. Worship is (see Isaiah 56:1, 2, 3, 6-8):

the rendering of justice

the commitment towards holiness

the working towards unity [repeat for emphasis]

Essentially, through His resurrection, Jesus changed worship in the following ways:

Worship is no longer restricted to a building

Worship is no longer done through ritual

Worship is no longer restricted to a people group

Rather, worship is:

An act for all people,

At all times,

and in spirit and truth

We are able to worship God in freedom, because Jesus rose from the dead. He restored our right to approach the Father, and He gave us a new way to be accepted without the works of the flesh. Our worship is now acceptable to the Father, because of the way that has been created through Jesus Christ.

And since Jesus has confirmed His right over the temple, He reserved the right to do whatsoever He desired to do with it. The Bible tells us He elected to destroy it, so no one would be tempted to follow the traditions of that system over the system created by His blood and resurrection. By His blood, Jesus destroyed the Old Testament system of worship, which required bulls and goats. He created a new way that grants us the permission to come to the Father because of His blood.

Now, what if He had not gotten up? Then, His death would have been no good! He would have simply died like the rest of those noblemen in Scripture. For, such noblemen died to their own praise, but none, in their praise, could do anything for those who mourned their departure.

Yet, this man, Jesus Christ, not only died. But He prophesied His resurrection and fulfilled what He had promised. He proved once and for all, all authority is in His hand. And with this authority, He has created a way for us to approach the Father.

I want to boldly declare that since Jesus has risen, He is the place from which we worship the Father. We don’t worship simply in the buildings of man. We worship from the foundation of Christ. We worship with our identities rooted in Christ.