What Did the Resurrection Do?
It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:24,25 ESV)
Justification
For the past weeks we have looked at what Jesus does for His people. For the next couple of weeks, we will narrow it down to consider what particularly the RESURRECTION of Christ does for Christians.
Paul here writes that Jesus was crucified for our trespasses, and resurrected for our justification. This seems an odd concept.
Does not Jesus’ death justify us, in God’s sight? We are made righteous because of Christ’s obedience on our behalf, and His payment for our sins. But there are two fantastic aspects of this.
First, the resurrection can be seen as God’s stamp of approval on Jesus’ sacrificial death. Not quite a reward, it is God showing that Jesus’ dreadful death was absolutely a part of God’s plan. He shows this by undoing the terrible part, death itself.
Second, the resurrection completes the deal. It was not only Christ’s death that accomplishes salvation It is also Christ’s perfectly obedient life prior to His death. He obeys, which allows God to exchange His obedience with our disobedience.
But it is also Christ’s life after death that completes our salvation. If Christ had remained in the grave, our justification would have led to nothing beyond death, either. We would be forgiven, but dead. We would be made right in God’s eyes, but dead.
But now Christians are justified! Redeemed fully. Forgiven for an eternal purpose. Justified completely.