Articles
What It Takes to Be Saved (8): God's Part - A Savior Who Was Raised from the Dead
What It Takes to Be Saved (8): God's Part
A Savior Who Was Raised from the Dead
Mike Willis
It was not enough that Jesus died on the cross. Had He not been raised from the dead, He would not be qualified to be our Savior. The resurrection of Jesus is embedded in Christian theology, so let us see why it was necessary. Paul said, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17).
1. Jesus’s resurrection is the guarantee that Jesus was victorious over sin and death. Physical death was God’s judgment against Adam’s sin. Jesus’s rising from the death was proof of His victory over sin and death. Paul wrote, “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” (1 Cor. 15:54-57).
2. Jesus had to be raised from the dead TO FULFILL DIVINE PROPHECIES. Peter quoted Psalm 16:10 as being fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:22-28). “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” (Psa. 16:10). God could not have kept His promise had this prophecy not been fulfilled.
3. Jesus resurrection from the dead was used as proof that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Paul introduced his letter to the church at Rome with these words, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 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” (Rom. 1:1-4). How do we know that Jesus was God with us? The Jews asked Pilate to put Him to death because He claimed to be their Messiah. God confirmed Jesus’s claim by raising Him from the dead.
4. Jesus resurrection to life made it possible for Him to continue to make intercession for His people. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, SHALL WE BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE” (Rom. 5:10). He ever lives to make intercession for those who believe in Him (Heb. 7:25).
5. He is the guarantor of my own resurrection. Paul wrote, “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. 6:5). A few verses later, he added, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Rom. 6:8-10).
I serve a risen Savior who is the guarantee of my own resurrection from the dead! So, I can face death with hope, unlike those who have “no hope” and are “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Do you have this hope?
