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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:24; 3:15; Rom. 4:25; Acts 10:41; John 10:15, 17-18; Heb. 2:14; 1 Cor. 15:52-54; John 13:31-32; 17:1; Luke 24:26; John 12:24
In the foregoing messages we have considered in detail two very important matters: the incarnation of the Man-Savior and the jubilee. Now in this Life-study we want to cover two more vital matters — the Man-Savior’s resurrection and His ascension.
According to the Bible, three matters related to the Man-Savior are of particular importance. These matters are His death, resurrection, and ascension. Along with the Lord’s Person, these are clearly revealed in the Bible. However, they have not been covered adequately by most Christian teachers.
The Person of Christ is, of course, a great mystery. This mystery is related to and involves the Divine Trinity. This means that when we consider the Person of Christ, we cannot avoid the Divine Trinity.
Christ’s all-inclusive redemptive work includes His incarnation. His redemptive work began with His incarnation and was completed in His resurrection. All that Christ did during His thirty-three and a half years on the earth was part of His redemptive work. I believe that in this Life-study we have covered Christ’s incarnation rather thoroughly. In the Life-study messages on both Mark and Luke we have spoken much regarding Christ’s human living. Eventually, we were brought to the end of Christ’s redemptive work with the three vital and crucial matters of His death, resurrection, and ascension.
We have seen that when the Man-Savior died on the cross, He had a sevenfold status. This means that He died as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), a man in the flesh, a man in the old creation, the serpent (John 3:14), the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:15), and a grain of wheat (John 12:24).
A simple way to remember the aspects of the Man-Savior’s sevenfold status in His death is to recall the three aspects mentioned in the Gospel of John. First we are told that Christ was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world; second, that He was typified by the brass serpent; and third, that He was the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. The Lamb of God took away our sin, the One typified by the brass serpent destroyed the old serpent, Satan, and the grain of wheat released the divine life. Hallelujah, sin has been taken away, Satan has been destroyed, and the divine life has been released!
Having seen these aspects from the Gospel of John, we may go on to consider the remaining four aspects. Christ died on the cross as the Firstborn of all creation. In this aspect of His status, He brought the entire old creation with Him to the cross. Christ also died as a man, the last Adam, bringing the old man to the cross. Furthermore, He was crucified as a man in the flesh. Second Corinthians 5:21 says that He was made sin for us. Sin is related to the flesh. Therefore, Romans 8:3 says that God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin. On the cross He condemned sin in the flesh. Finally, Christ died as the Peacemaker, the One who abolished the ordinances of human culture and living. Hence, on the cross Christ was the Lamb, the serpent, the grain of wheat, a man in the flesh made sin for us, the last Adam, that is, a man in the old creation, the Firstborn of creation, and the Peacemaker. In this sevenfold status He died as our Redeemer.
Just as we have considered the Man-Savior’s sevenfold status in His death, we also need to see a number of points concerning His resurrection and ascension. It is difficult to find a book that speaks of the Lord’s sevenfold status in His death. Likewise, it is also difficult to find a writing that covers all the various matters we shall see regarding the Lord’s resurrection and ascension. Many of these matters are neglected in today’s teachings. Hence, in the Lord’s recovery we have the burden to cover them. Nothing that we share in these messages is the product of our imagination. On the contrary, every point comes from the divine Word. All that we have seen concerning Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension comes from diligent study of the Word under the divine light.
When we consider the Man-Savior’s resurrection, we need to humble ourselves and empty ourselves of preoccupying thoughts. For example, we need to realize that Christ’s resurrection has nothing to do with the things of Easter, such as colored eggs.
Regarding the Lord’s resurrection, there are two main aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. With both the objective and subjective aspects there are a number of points. In this message and the message following we shall cover the objective aspect of Christ’s resurrection. Then we shall go on to consider the subjective aspect, the aspect of the Lord’s resurrection that involves something that needs to be wrought into our being.
The first point of the objective aspect of the Man-Savior’s resurrection is that it was God’s vindication and approval of the Man-Savior and His all-inclusive redemptive work. By resurrection God vindicated and approved the Man-Savior; God also vindicated and approved the Lord’s redemptive work. In other words, God vindicated the Person and work of the Man-Savior.
With each one of us there is the matter of both person and work. Our person is what we are, and our work is what we do. The criticism of others is always related either to their person or to their work.
This certainly was the situation with the Lord Jesus. According to the four Gospels, there was much criticism, especially from the Jewish leaders, of Christ’s Person and deeds. Concerning His Person, some said that He was a Samaritan (John 8:48), that He was beside Himself, that is, mentally ill (Mark 3:21), and that He was demon possessed (John 8:49). Furthermore, His works were condemned by the Pharisees as a blasphemy to God. The religious leaders surely denied, rejected, and condemned the Man-Savior. They sentenced Him to death and had Him crucified. This was the attitude of the leaders of the Jewish nation, those among whom Christ was born, lived, and worked.
The religious leaders regarded the Man-Savior as worse than a criminal and a murderer, as someone worse than Barabbas. They condemned both Him and His work; they rejected both His Person and His deeds. Their rejection of the Man-Savior was to such an extent that they sentenced Him to be put on the cross.
Suppose the Man-Savior had not been resurrected. Suppose His body was left in the tomb. If so, then the Jewish leaders would have won the case. However, God resurrected Christ and thereby vindicated Him. This kind of vindication was extraordinary. After the Lord was crucified and buried, God raised Him up from the dead.
In the book of Acts we are told a number of times that God raised up, resurrected, the Lord Jesus. For example, referring to the Lord Jesus, Acts 2:24 says, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death.” Acts 2:32 says, “This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses.” Acts 3:15 speaks of “the Author of life...whom God raised from the dead,” and 4:10 tells of “Jesus Christ the Nazarene...whom God raised from the dead.” Other verses in Acts that speak of God raising up Jesus from among the dead are 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 33-34, 37; 17:31 and 26:8. The reason this is repeated so often is that the entire book of Acts is a book of the testimony of the resurrection of Christ. The apostles’ testimony was that of the resurrection of the Man-Savior. God vindicated Christ by raising Him up.
The Man-Savior’s Person and work were both rejected and condemned. The religious leaders thought that they were through with Him and that they could now joyfully be at rest. But God came in to resurrect the Lord Jesus. God did not argue with the religious leaders; He did not have a conference to negotiate with them. Instead, God seemed to say, “I don’t care to talk to you foolish ones. I shall do one thing — I shall raise up the very One you crucified. My raising Him up is my vindication of Him and His work, but it is a shame to those who condemned Him.”
The Lord Jesus was the turning point of human history. What He did has affected the whole world. Through resurrection, God, the supreme Judge, vindicated the Man-Savior and His redemptive work.
The resurrection of Christ was not only God’s vindication, it was also God’s approval of Him and His work. In resurrecting the Lord Jesus, God seemed to be saying to the Jewish nation with its leaders, “I approve what you condemn. You say that Jesus was blaspheming Me. But I approve what He did, what He said, and what He was. You thought that you could put Him to death. On the cross He suffered your persecution, and then He accomplished My redemption. I approve of His redeeming work. He accomplished the redemption I had planned in eternity past. I not only vindicate Him and His work — I also approve Him and His work.”
According to John 10, the Lord Jesus laid down His life and took it again by God’s commandment. God commanded Him to lay down His life. Therefore, God came in to vindicate and approve the Lord Jesus and His work. Again God seemed to be saying, “If I did not approve Jesus of Nazareth, I would leave Him in Hades. After He was buried in the tomb, He went to Hades. But I have raised Him both from Hades and from the tomb to declare to you that I approve what He did and that I vindicate Him.” Thus, by raising up the Lord Jesus, God silenced those who condemned the Man-Savior.
The resurrection of Christ, as God’s vindication, is a proof of our justification by God. Romans 4:25 says that Christ “was delivered because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.” The death of Christ fully satisfied God’s righteous requirements so that we may be justified by God through Christ’s death (Rom. 3:24). His resurrection is a proof that God is satisfied with His death for us and that we are justified by God because of His death. In Him, the resurrected one, we are accepted by God. Therefore, Romans 4:25 says that Christ was raised because of our justification.
Suppose Christ died for us and our sins and was buried in the tomb, but was not resurrected by God. If this were the situation, could you still believe that His death was accepted by God? Could you believe that His death satisfied God’s requirements and fulfilled His desires? We could not believe this if Christ were still in the tomb. However, the Man-Savior is not in the tomb. God raised Him up from the dead and He came back in resurrection. This is a strong proof that God has accepted His death for us, that His death satisfied God’s requirements and fulfilled whatever God wanted Him to do for us.
Let us use the paying of a debt as an illustration. Suppose you owe someone a very large amount of money and are not able to pay the debt. However, a wealthy friend of yours intervenes to pay the debt for you, and then gives you the receipt as proof of payment. When you see the receipt with your creditor’s signature on it indicating that the debt has been paid in full, you will be happy, knowing that you have been released from the debt.
As sinners, we were in debt to God. But Christ died on the cross for our sins. How do we know that God has forgiven us? We know it by the fact that God raised Christ from the dead. Christ’s resurrection is for our justification.
How do we know that God has justified us, that He has accepted us? We know this by the fact that God has resurrected Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the proof of our justification by God. The resurrection of Christ is a strong proof that God’s requirements have been satisfied by Christ’s death and that God has accepted Christ as our Redeemer. Christ’s resurrection is the receipt, the proof, that our debt has been paid. Praise the Lord for the “receipt” of the resurrected Christ!
