2013 Resurrection Sunday - Why Must Jesus Have Been Raised From the Dead? March 31, 2013

Every year at this time we get a spate of movies that have a biblical event as the theme but we also get a number of articles that show up in various popular magazines, usually talking about what the so-called scholars say, about the resurrection of Christ. Usually these are somewhat couched in some sort of a positive vein, trying to seem that there is something positive they are saying about it, but embedded within these articles are a number of sceptical statements by so-called scholars, all affected by modernism and postmodernism, who basically deny the historicity of the resurrection. Some will try to deny the historicity of the crucifixion of Christ, and there are always a few who question if Jesus ever existed.

However, we need to know that there are numerous scholars from all manner of walks of life, are liberal scholars, and even a few Jewish rabbis who have admitted that Jesus Christ rose from the dead—not talking about the messianic Rabbis but Jewish rabbis who do not accept the messianic claims of Jesus. They have had the objectivity to recognize that based on the evidence that we have, most of which is biblical. But that doesn’t mean that it is tainted, it just means that in their view they are considering it a valid source, which is unusual. Usually in scholarship they say we can’t trust the Bible at all so we’ll just leave it out. That gives us confidence to know that there is evidence, and the evidence in the Scripture is consistent and it validates what Christians have believed from the very first day of resurrection when Jesus rose from the dead. This is incorporated as part of the New Testament epistles, as well as in many of the early non-canonical writings that we have. These were late first century writings that confirmed that the universal belief of Christians was that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and then rose on the third day. So the historical evidence in overwhelming.

However, there are always people who come along and question whether Jesus ever died on the cross and/or whether He was actually resurrected, and that He was somehow resuscitated from the tomb. This flies in the face of our understanding of what took place in crucifixion. That is one of the things we discover when someone comes along and questions the validity of the resurrection.

The physical, bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ: why is this so important? Another view that the liberals come up with is that Jesus’ resurrection was a spiritual resurrection, a resurrection in the hearts and minds of His disciples, and He continues to live in their hearts and minds, and so they redefine resurrection away from a physical, bodily resurrection.

But what we read in Scripture is that the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ is at the foundation of our salvation, and mostly importantly of our spiritual life. Without that physical, bodily resurrection then as the apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians chapter fifteen we are hopeless and helpless and still in our sins.

On the night before He went to the cross our Lord celebrated the Passover with the disciples. They left wherever they celebrated that, walked across the Kidron Valley and up to the base of the Mount of Olives to the garden of Gethsemane. It was there that the Lord Separated Himself from the body of His disciples and took Peter and John with Him who would act as guards. They would fall asleep while our Lord was agonizing over what was about to come. He was praying to the Father for strength and aid to sustain Him during His time on the cross. And His agony was so intense that we are told by Luke 22:44 His sweat fell like drops of blood. This has been question of course by critics. They question everything, but it is a rare condition that has been documented in medical journals. It is known as hematidrosis or hematohidrosis, and under intense emotional pressure people have been known to sweat blood.

Jesus is going through such stress it goes past midnight into the early hours of the morning. He is betrayed by Judas, He is arrested, He is taken to Pilate, to Herod, to Pilate, taken through six different trial and examinations, and then when Pilate finally turns Him over to the cro9wd He goes through a physical scourging by the soldiers. Once we understand basic anatomy as well as the Roman crucifixion practices it is clear that there wasn’t much left in terms of physical or even emotional strength by the time Jesus got to His cross.

He is functioning completely in His humanity here. Too often people think, well He is divine so that could sustain Him. But a large part of the point is that He is facing everything within His humanity demonstrating that He is relying exclusively upon the sustaining power of God the Holy Spirit in His ordeal on the cross.

The Jewish practice of scourging would only involve 39 lashes because they were prohibited by the Mosaic Law from giving more than forty lashes. The Jews would stop at 39 in case they miscounted. But Romans could whip and scourge as long as possible and give in to all of their sadistic desires. So they would take a flagellum which was usually three or four strands of leather that has rock and metal woven into it, and then they would viciously beat the victim. They would beat him not only on his back but upon his chest and upon his shoulders and strip away flesh. It would in many cases strip away much of the musculature, which would involve numerous blood vessels, and so there was a significant loss of blood in the scourging which would lead to a great degree of physical weakness. It was ruthless scourging that often in Roman practice would kill its victims long before they made it to the cross, though that was not their intent because they wanted to see how long they could keep someone alive and how much pain they could go through. Often victims of crucifixion would last three or four days on the cross before they would finally die.

As a result of the scourging it would cause shock to the victim. It would cause a great degree of blood loss. The wounds would be torn open and contaminated with dirt and other things as well, and then as the victim was led to the cross many times he would fall down to the ground and reopen those wounds.

Following that the Romans made a crown of thorns for Jesus’ head. The thorns are thought to have traditionally come from a tree which has thorns of about and inch to an inch and a half long. The branches were woven together and then jammed down on top of Jesus’ head. Next He was led away to be crucified. He had about one third of a mile to go and carry the cross. Once Jesus arrived at Golgotha they offered Him some wine mixed with gal to help deaden some of the pain. He tasted it but then refused it because He wanted to taste everything in full consciousness.

Then they stretched Him out and nailed his wrists to the cross. In the ancient world they considered the wrist to be part of the hand. The wrist area just below the heel of the palm was considered part of the hand, and that cross bone would hold on the nail. Just nailing through the palm would rip out the hand, so they would drive an iron spike through the wrist and this would hit the median nerve sending intense flashing pain continuously down the arms. He would be dealing with that His entire time on the cross. He would hang like that for six hours. Crucifixion was the most humiliating and painful form of crucifixion. The word we use to describe intense pain is “excruciating,” which comes from a Latin compound meaning “from crucifixions.”

We know from the Scripture from Isaiah 53 as well as records in the New Testament that like a lamb before his shearers is dumb so He opened not His mouth. He did not utter a single sound during that entire process until at noon when God the Father began to imputed to Him the sins of the world when then and only then He cried out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” It was God the Holy Spirit who sustained Him on the cross, and for the next three hours He suffered unimaginable physical pain. His spiritual pain, bearing the sins of the world went beyond it to a degree that was beyond anything that we could ever imagine. That paid the penalty for our sins.

Before Jesus Christ died physically John, to emphasize the point, said: “When it was finished” [tetelestai – perfect tense, indicating completed action. (John 19:30) The work of salvation was already complete before Jesus died physically].

Some have asked why Jesus had to die physically. He had already paid the penalty for sin. As the divine Son of God He could have taken Himself down from the cross. But His physical death was very much a part of God’s overall plan, not just for the payment for sin but for what the resurrection would indicate.

We want to look at what was accomplished in the resurrection: the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. First of all, the resurrection fulfilled prophecy. This shows that it validates Old Testament prophecy, along with prophecies by Jesus Christ to His disciples. In the Old Testament we have passages like Psalm 2:7 which are taken by the apostles to be a reference to the resurrection of Christ: “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me [Messiah], ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’” In Acts 13:30-34 Paul emphasizes the resurrection of Christ: “Acts 13:30 “But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers …” That refers to an Old Testament prophecy. “that God has fulfilled this {promise} to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’” That is not is not when the begotten has occurred, it is a declaration of something that is already true: that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. That had been declared in eternity past but there are subsequent times when it was declared in relation to the life of the savior. It is declared on the Mount of Transfiguration, it is declared with the resurrection, it is declared with the ascension. “{As for the fact} that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY {and} SURE {blessings} OF DAVID.’”

We also see its fulfillment in Psalm 16:9, 10 which is cited by Peter in Acts 2:31 ^NASB “he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.”

But then there was another Old Testament event that was a type or a pattern for the resurrection which Jesus referred to when the Pharisees asked Him for a sign that He was who He claimed to be. Matthew 14:40 and 16:4 He refers back to the sign of Jonah. Matthew 12:40 ^NASB “for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 16:4 ^NASB “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.”

In Matthew 16:21 and 17:23 we see that Jesus from the mid-point of His ministry on the earth began to instruct the disciples that He was going to die but would be raised from the dead. Matthew 16:21 ^NASB “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” Matthew 17:23 ^NASB “and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.”

Mark 9:9 ^NASB “As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. [10] They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.” Sometimes we might say that the disciples might not have been very bright. But we have to remember they did not have the indwelling and teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit like we do. Afterward they understood this, but they had never heard of anyone being risen from the dead before and so this concept just wasn’t computing for them. We have such familiarity with the doctrines of the crucifixion and the resurrection that for us this is not difficult to comprehend. But for them this was something they just could not compute. Even when Jesus went to the cross as He had predicted they still didn’t put it together. Then even when Jesus rose from the dead and they hear the news they initially don’t want to believe it. They just didn’t get it until Jesus actually stood in front of them and then they understood.

Matthew 20:18, 19 ^NASB “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify {Him,} and on the third day He will be raised up.”

The second reason it is important that we know that Jesus rose from the dead is that if the physical bodily resurrection did not occur, if it was just a sort of spiritual resurrection, or some mystical internal thing like some of the movies that come out of Hollywood where you never see a physical bodily resurrection but you always hear a disembodied voice as if it is inside the head of the disciples, then the apostles are liars and frauds. The apostles are the ones who proclaimed the message of the gospel, they are the writers of the New Testament, and all of the New Testament is built upon the foundation of the truth of the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ. If Jesus did not rise from the dead in a physical, bodily resurrection as the apostles said then they are all frauds and liars, and all of them have given their lives (exception of John who died a natural death) as martyrs. They gave their lives for their belief that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day.

Therefore we are left with only the option of either rejecting the New Testament as a total hoax, written by liars and deceivers, committing the greatest fraud in human history, or we must accept it in its entirety as a trustworthy document, that it is exactly what it claims to be: the revelation of God. If the resurrection did not occur then just throw out the whole New Testament, but if it did occur then we have to take it at face value that it is the Word of God and therefore it lays a claim upon our lives beyond anything else.

The third point is that it shows that the penalty had been paid, that death was vanquished. Acts 3:15 ^NASB “but put to death the Prince of life, {the one} whom God raised from the dead, {a fact} to which we are witnesses.” This shows that Jesus Christ in terms of the resurrection is the one who gives new life. 1 Corinthians 15 says that Christ had victory over death. Because of His victory over death we can have new life.

The fourth thing about the necessity of the physical, bodily resurrection is that the miracle of physical, bodily resurrection is one of several miracles that the rabbis said indicate/signify the Messiah. Three of those that they listed was that the Messiah and only the Messiah would give sight to the blind. Jesus did that in John chapter nine when He gave sight to the man who had been blind from birth. Only the Messiah, according to the rabbis, would be able to heal leprosy. They derived these examples from Old Testament messianic prophecies. And only the Messiah would be able to bring people to life from the dead. Jesus demonstrated that first with Lazarus in John chapter eleven where Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” Then it was demonstrated again in Jesus when He was raised physically and bodily from the grave.

The fifth point is that this is the last, the eighth and the greatest of the signs that Jesus was the Messiah, according to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is organized around these eight great signs. Seven are usually identified, but the eighth sign is the greatest of them and is referred to by Jesus in John 20:30, 31 ^NASB “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

Those seven signs in the Gospel of John are: 1) The changing of water into wine in John 2:1-11; b) When He healed the royal official’s son in John 4:46-54; c) When He healed the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:1-18; When He fed the 5000 in John 6:5-14; When He walked on the water in John 6:16-24; When he healed the man who was born blind in John 9:1-7; When He raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-45; and then Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead in John 20:30, 31.

This was written right after the resurrection appearance to Thomas. Thomas had said he was not going to believe it until he could put his hands on the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and on the wound in His side. Jesus appeared and said, “Here I am.” Then John said there were “many other signs.” That implies that the resurrection is a sign.

Sixth, the resurrection is a sign that God validated the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The Father accepted Hs sacrifice, accepted His payment for sin, and Romans 1:4 echoing Psalm 2:7 again states: “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.” So the resurrection declared that He was who He claimed to be, the Son of God and that He was God Himself, and that His sacrifice on the cross was accepted.

The resurrection was the beginning of a series of events related to His glorification. There was the resurrection, then there was the ascension of Christ to heaven (described in Acts chapter one), and then His being seated at the right hand of God the Father, referred to by prophecy in Psalm 110:1. The session of Christ is that He is seated now at the right hand of God the Father. So the resurrection is necessary in terms of establishing the foundation for Christ’s future ministries related to His session at the right hand of the Father, His future coming and return to the earth, and His establishment of the messianic kingdom. Without the resurrection, the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ, we don’t have the sure hope that we have in terms of not only our spiritual life today but also future resurrection to go to heaven to be with the Lord and to return to rule and reign with Him in the millennial kingdom.

The seventh point related to the resurrection of Christ is that this is foundation to His elevation to the throne of God. Ephesians 1:20 ^NASB “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly {places,}”

So the doctrine of the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ is also significant and foundational as a first step in these series of events: His resurrection, His ascension to heaven, His return to His re-incarnate glory at the right hand of God the Father, His exaltation seated at the Father’s throne, His second coming to the earth in power and glory to establish His future kingdom where He will sit on David’s throne as the ruler of the millennial kingdom, and His exaltation as the judge of all men at the great white throne judgment. All of this is built on the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

The eighth reason that the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ is significant is because it is the result of the completed work of our justification. Romans 4:25 ^NASB “{He} who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because on account of our justification.” Because the work of paying the penalty for sin had been accomplished then the work for justification had been accomplished. Jesus Christ’s work on earth related to salvation was complete and He could be raised from the dead as a validation of that and ascended to heaven.

The ninth reason. Without a physical, bodily resurrection, as Paul said, there is no meaning to our faith. 1 Corinthians 15:17 ^NASB “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” The phrase “in your sins” is a way of saying you are still spiritually dead, still helpless and hopeless in relationship to your sin. Then it means all of our departed loved ones who are Christians are still dead and they have no future life. It means also that the apostles would all be false witnesses. And so Paul says in conclusion [19] “we are of all men most to be pitied.”

So these are nine foundational reasons for why we must have the bodily resurrection of Christ.

The primary usage of the resurrection throughout the New Testament has to do with our spiritual life. In Romans 6, Colossians 2, it is the death of Christ that pays the penalty for sin but the resurrection of Christ is the pattern for our new life in Christ.

Colossians 2:12 ^NASB “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” The resurrection, then, becomes the pattern for the fact that we are raised to new life. That is what is implied in this verse. It is made more clear when we put it with Colossians 3:1 ^NASB “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” The Christian life is built on our understanding of resurrection that gives us a newness of life. This is clearer in Romans 6:4, 5 ^NASB “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be {in the likeness} of His resurrection.”

The baptism here is the baptism by the Holy Spirit—our identification with Christ. Baptism is a term that always relates to identification. Literally is refers to some kind of immersion—physical, like water, or it may be a spiritual immersion—but the significance is always identification; something is identified with something else. At the instant of salvation we are identified with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. That is the foundation for what Paul is saying in Romans 6:4. So the resurrection is not related to the penalty for sin, or the gospel itself which is believing in Christ for justification, but it is related to understanding the results of our identification with Christ in His resurrection that we now have the ability to live in newness of life.

2 Corinthians 13:4 ^NASB “For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God {directed} toward you.” The living by the power of God becomes the analogue for our understanding our new life in Christ.

Romans 8:11 ^NASB “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Paul is not talking about justification or eternal life at this point, his discussion on justification ended in Romans chapter four. The life that he is talking about here is experiencing the fullness of our life in Christ, the abundant life as Jesus said in the Gospel of John, that He came to give life but to give it more abundantly. He is talking about the fullness of life mentioned in Romans 8:11.

In conclusion, what we see is the significance of the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ. It validated His sacrifice on the cross, and He lays the foundation for our new life. Without the resurrection there is no basis for the spiritual life of the believer. That is what we look to for the spiritual life. It is the cross that we look to for the payment of sin, for justification; but it is the resurrection that gives us the pattern for our new life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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