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Jesus’ Death and Resurrection
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The death and resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone event of all history. It is the moment when the human problem was solved. It is the climax of human history. Everything before Christ was pointing to Christ, and everything afterward is the unfolding of Christ. The human mind cannot fully fathom the mystery. Christians have used several pictures to try to get our heads around some of the pieces of the divine puzzle.
Jesus’ Death
John 3:16 and Romans 5:8 capture God’s motivation behind sending his Son to die on the cross. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God sent Jesus to rescue humanity. God sent Jesus to reconcile humanity to himself. And the reason he did so was because he loves us.
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
After the sins of Adam and Eve, we found ourselves alienated from God, enslaved to the power of Sin in the world (cf. Rom. 7:14-15). Jesus death was like paying a ransom for our freedom (Mark 10:45). The end goal of all these things is the reconciliation of humanity back to God (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18-19) and a “New Jerusalem” that not only returns humanity to its state before Adam but brings us to the fullness of what God wanted for us (Rev. 21).
Romans 3:25 says that God offered Jesus as an atoning sacrifice. “This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past” (NLT). The Bible doesn’t quantify such things. It simply indicates that Jesus’ death made sense given the weight of human sin.
1 Peter 2:24 says, “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’” We should have died because of our sins, but Jesus died instead. In a very real sense, he took our place on the cross.
After the sin of Adam and Eve, God allowed Satan to have extensive power over this world. Part of Jesus casting out demons was the beginning of his defeat (cf. Luke 11:20). Hebrews 2:14 indicates that Jesus death brought about the final defeat of the Devil. Although he is still fighting, his doom is sure (e.g., Rev. 20:10).
Jesus’ Resurrection
The core message of all the sermons of Acts is that “God raised him from the dead” (e.g., Acts 2:24). Despite opposition, despite disbelief, God showed that Jesus was truly the Messiah. Jesus truly is Lord of all. He was declared to be the “Son of God in power” by his resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:3-4).
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is celebrated as the defeat of death itself. It assures us of eternal life, indicating that death does not hold the final say (1 Cor. 15:54-57). Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee of our future resurrection.
Our Right Standing with God. Jesus’ death alone did not guarantee that atonement would work. It only looks back to past sin. The resurrection is about life. Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins,” yes. But “he was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Our justification means our reinstatement of full relationship with God.
The resurrection made possible the presence of the living Christ in us through the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit could only come after Jesus had victoriously completed his mission on the cross and in resurrection (Acts 1:5). Because of the resurrection, believers receive the Holy Spirit, who empowers them to live in alignment with God’s will (Romans 8:11).