Christology 2 Lesson 6

Resurrection and Ascension

What was Christ’s resurrection body like?

What is its significance for us?

What happened to Christ when he ascended into heaven?

What is meant by the states of Jesus Christ?

A. Resurrection

1. New Testament Evidence

The Gospels

Acts

Epistles - depend entirely on the assumption that Jesus is a living, reigning Savior who is not the exalted head of the church, who is to be trusted, worshiped, and adored, and who will some day return in power and great glory to reign as King over all the earth.

Revelation - presents this same resurrected and ascended Lord.

The entire NT bears witness to the resurrection of Christ.

2. The Nature of Christ’s Resurrection

Jesus resurrection was no like Lazarus - he came back from the dead with a new body. He had a physical body.

Luke 24:39 ESV

See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

3. Both the Father and the Son participated in the Resurrection

Acts 2:24 ESV

God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Romans 6:4 ESV

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.

1 Corinthians 6:14 ESV

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Ephesians 1:20 ESV

that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Jesus also participated:

John 10:17–18 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

John 11:25 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

Hebrews 7:16 ESV

who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

4. Doctrinal Significance of the Resurrection

a. Christ’s Resurrection insures our regeneration

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Ephesians 2:5–6 ESV

even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 1:19–20 ESV

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

This new resurrection power in us includes power to gain more and more victory over remaining sin in our lives:

Romans 6:14 ESV

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

This means also power for serving God:

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

b. Christ’s Resurrection Insures our Justification

Romans 4:25 ESV

who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

When Christ was raised from the dead, it was God’s declaration of approval of Christ’s work of redemption.

God’s approval of Christ is our approval as well, those who follow him in His resurrection.

c. Christ’s Resurrection insures that we will receive perfect resurrection bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:14 ESV

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

2 Corinthians 4:14 ESV

knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

1 Corinthians 15:12–58 ESV

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

5. Ethical Significance of the Resurrection

Paul also sees that the resurrection has application to our obedience to God in this life.

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

It is because Christ was raised from the dead, and we too shall be raised from the dead, that we should continue steadfastly in the Lord’s word.

This is because everything we do to bring people in to the kingdom and build them up will indeed have eternla significance, because we shall all be raised on the day when Christ returns, and we shall live with him forever.

Paul also encourages us , when we think about our resurrection, to focus on our future heavenly reward as our goal.

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

The third ethical application of the resurrection is the obligation to stop yielding to sin on our lives.

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

He goes on to say,

Romans 6:12–13 ESV

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Paul uses the fact of the resurrection to say that we do not have to sin any longer.