Risen to Rule and to Save

Christ is risen indeed! This Sunday we celebrate the culmination of the greatest event in history, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning we are separated from one another, but if death itself could not hold Christ back, then this forced separation cannot hold him back from meeting with us by his Spirit this morning.

In our text this morning, verse 9 forms the foundation for the preceding verses, so I will begin with the foundation and the move to verses 7–8. I will do so under three headings: first, Christ’s resurrection, speaking about the event itself; second Christ’s purpose; and, third, Christ’s possession.

Christ’s Resurrection

Romans 14:9 says, “Christ died and lived,” or as the New International Version (NIV) renders it, “Christ died and returned to life.”

Jesus Christ came into a dying world. We are all born dying. Some live longer than others, but we all are headed for the same end. The pandemic that has been impacting most of the world has highlighted our weakness, but regarding the certainty of death, it has not changed anything: death is inevitable. Death is also universal. No one can avoid death by being especially athletic or by eating the right food. No one can avoid death by being connected to powerful people or by spending money on medical products or by having some insight into the secret of a good life. Everyone will die. Death is also irreversible. If you have lived long enough, you have known people who have died, and none of them has returned. There are many ways into death, but in this world, there is no way out.

Death, therefore, means there is an ultimate vanity to all human endeavors. The book of Ecclesiastes reflects on this reality. It begins, “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Eccl. 1:2). Death makes the hands of the living hang limp. Death means there is no strong arm we can ultimately depend on in this world. Psalm 146:3–4 speaks of the mightiest of men, those who are most capable of helping us. It says of them, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” Death means there is an inevitable parting in all of our relationships. At funerals, many grieve without hope, as 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says. This is one reason some people isolate themselves and avoid close relationships, because death must end them if nothing else does sooner. And death would not be dreadful if it were not the wages of sin. Sin is the sting of death. Guilt brings terror to death. That is why the people of this world are hopeless, depressed, anxious, and miserable. Death reigns!

It is into this world that Jesus came. He shared in our humanity, and he died. His death was violent. The Roman soldiers, at the instigation of the Jews, killed him decisively on the cross. At his death, as Matthew 27:51 tells us, “The earth shook and the rocks split.”

Those who were zealous to see him dead were equally zealous to ensure that everyone understood he would always be dead. The chief priest and the Pharisees remembered that Jesus had said he would rise again on the third day, so with Pilate’s approval they made the tomb secure. They put a seal on the stone that covered the tomb. This was a declaration that anyone who broke the seal would face the death penalty from the Roman authorities. They posted guards to prevent anyone from getting to the tomb to steal the body.

But God did not care about the determination of the Roman authorities or of the rulers of the Jews or of the devil himself. Jesus had said he would rise on the third day, and that he did. Matthew 28:2 says that early in the morning on the third day, “there was a violent earthquake,” as there had been at his death. God removed Jesus’ body from its place, leaving behind the grave clothes he had been wrapped in. No guards could prevent it.

His resurrection was not an escape from death, but a triumph over it. He did not return to the same sort of life and the same mortality that he had been under before death. First Corinthians 15:42–44 describes his resurrection body. It was truly a physical body, but it was also powerful. He could not die again (Rom. 6:9). His resurrection body was glorious. It was not subject to the pains and ills that are common to mortal man. His body was engineered by the Holy Spirit to live in immortality, to walk among men, and to go into the presence of God.

In Romans 14:9, the apostle Paul refers to this glorious immortality of Christ’s resurrection by saying, “Christ . . . lived.” The life under the reign of death hardly deserves the name of “life.” First Timothy 5:6 says, “The widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.” The apostle Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as “life” also in Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

Jesus Christ is the victor! That is why the angel came down from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it. He was probably laughing as the guards fell down, shaking and petrified from terror.

Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the good news that is the foundation of the Christian faith. This is not a mythical resurrection motif of emerging from death as winter passes into spring each year. This is not an act of sentimentality, in which we say he is always alive as long as we remember him. This is a historical event with cosmic significance. It happened at a particular place and at a particular time.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote to the people in the Corinthian church who had been led astray from the distinct knowledge the Jesus rose physically from the dead. In verses 3–8, Paul restated the central truths of the gospel: Jesus died for our sins and he was raised on the third day. For each of these propositions, Paul gave a confirmation. The confirmation that Jesus had died was that he was buried. The confirmation that he had been raised was that he appeared to people. Although there are several other lines of compelling evidence, these two are enough to establish the event of Jesus’ resurrection.

Jesus had been buried. The leaders of the Jews and the Romans knew that if the tomb was empty, people might say that Jesus had risen from the dead. So they sought to ensure that Jesus’ body would not leave the tomb by placing the seal and the guard as we have already seen. Praise God that they did, because in doing so they made the evidence of Jesus’ empty tomb all the more powerful. God turned their demonic wisdom back against them.

How do we explain Jesus’ empty tomb? Jesus’ death was verified, so he did not revive in the cool air and walk out on his own. The stone and the guards would have been enough to prevent him, if the crucifixion were not enough. If Jesus’ enemies had removed his body, they would not have had to work so hard to prevent the spread of the news that Jesus had been raised. They could have produced the body—the ultimate habeas corpus!

As for Jesus’ disciples, they did not expect Jesus to rise. Mark 16:10 says they were mourning and weeping, and John 20:19 says they had locked themselves in the upper room. Luke 24:11 says that the resurrection report of the women who had been to the tomb seemed like nonsense to the disciples, and they did not believe it. If all this and the seal and the guard were not enough, if Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body, they would have known that the resurrection was a lie. They would not all have boldly proclaimed his resurrection, in some cases for many years, and persisted in it to the point of death. No, they did not die for a lie. They lived and died for the truth that Jesus rose from the dead.

Furthermore, the tomb was not completely empty. Christ’s grave clothes, laden with seventy-five pounds of expensive spices, lay there, separate from the face cloth. John saw this and believed. It meant that no one had stolen the body. Instead, the resurrection body of Jesus, with its peculiar new properties, had passed through the grave clothes.

But we are not left with an empty tomb as the only evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus showed himself to many people. The New Testament records at least ten times that Jesus appeared to people, five of them on that first day and five of them during the following forty days. These were not hallucinations. Jesus appeared to individuals, to pairs, to small groups, and to a large crowd (GMW). He appeared to men and to women. He appeared at all times of the day. When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he said most of the five hundred who saw Jesus at once were still living, so the Corinthian Christians could ask them about it. The apostle Thomas would not believe even his fellow apostles that Jesus had risen unless he could touch Jesus in order to verify that it was him. The apostles generally had not expected Jesus to rise, but Thomas was stubborn in his doubt. Nevertheless, John 20:27 records Jesus calling on Thomas to touch him, which Thomas did, and Thomas believed. 

Christ’s Purpose

Romans 14:9 says, “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life.” Crucifixion and resurrection were not something that just happened to Jesus. He pursued them with a purpose. Jesus stated in John 10:17–18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

As he said, Christ’s purpose was not his own idea. He was not motivated by selfish ambition. God the Father planned in eternity past to save a people to be his own, and God the Son agreed to accomplish it. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 16:21 that “he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” It was a divine necessity.

Christ’s purpose for dying and returning to life was authority. This authority has various aspects. Looking back on his earthly ministry, it proves everything he said and justifies everything he did. John 2 records Jesus driving the money changers and animal vendors out of the temple. After that in John 2:18–19, we read, “Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple [meaning his body], and I will raise it again in three days.’” When four friends brought a cripple to Jesus, he asked the crowd, “Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?” (Mark 2:10). Both claims were beyond all natural power, but the people could verify only one of these claims for themselves. When they saw the man get up and walk, the other was established as well. So also during Jesus’ earthly ministry, he claimed to be God. He claimed to be without sin. He claimed he would come again to judge the world. And regarding his great work of redemption, he claimed from the cross, “It is finished.” He fulfilled his claim that he would rise from the dead, and so all of these other claims are true, and we stand on solid ground in believing them.

But looking forward, Jesus Christ rose in order to obtain lordship. “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14:9). As God, he was already almighty and sovereign. But even as God, there was one thing he could not do by his powerful word, and that is to redeem his people from sin. So as God/man, who had borne our sins and passed through death for us, Jesus was made Lord of salvation by his resurrection. Peter declared to the crowd at Pentecost, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

At his resurrection, Jesus was fully equipped to rule and to save. He was clothed with death-conquering power. Romans 1:4 says that he “was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.” He received “all authority in heaven and on earth,” as he said in Matthew 28:18. He was so clothed with the Holy Spirit that Paul calls him now in his resurrection “a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). Everything was made subject to him in order to work out salvation. In Ephesians 2:20–22, Paul says that when God raised Christ from the dead, he “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.”

Christ was not just equipped. He also exercises his lordship. He sends men out into the world to declare the gospel of his kingdom. In Galatians 1:1, Paul introduces himself as “Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.” Paul’s sending was connected with the power and authority of the risen Jesus Christ. The Lord Christ sends life and raises the dead; he is the “life-giving spirit.” He commands and demands, and those commands are to be obeyed. And everyone will end up bowing to him. In Philippians 2:9–11, Paul says, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Christ’s purpose was to be Lord of salvation, and that salvation is from sin. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is rejection of and disobedience to God’s law. But the good news is that Jesus is Lord, and by turning from rejection of him and his rule to submitting to him, we may share in the salvation he brings. In Romans 10:9, Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” What more could you ask for in a lord? To whom else will you go? Satan rules to kill and destroy. Jesus came to give us abundant life. So, then, we must believe in him, in him who rose from the dead. And then we must express our faith publicly by confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Let us be clear that the confession, “Jesus is Lord,” is not an empty passphrase to get into heaven. It is something we articulate with our mouths, but it is also something we express with our lives by obeying him. Many today will teach the opposite. They say that no obedience and no repentance are necessary. But this is a lie. Cursed are they who shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. Jesus Christ did not die and live so that sinful men could look down on him and decide whether it was in their interest to do what he says, all the while sinning with impunity. “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14:9).

“The dead and the living” in our text are not all people, but only his people, the same people spoken about immediately prior in Romans 14:8, where we read, “Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” It is true that he will judge those who have done good as well as those who have done evil (John 5:27–30). It is true that he is “head over everything” (Eph. 2:22). But this is a lordship that is focused solely on his people. John Murray put it this way: “He has achieved this dominion because he himself entered the realm of death, conquered death, and rose triumphant as the Lord of life. He established his supremacy over both domains and therefore whichever realm believers [are in] they are embraced in his lordly possession as those for whom he died and rose again.”[1]

But Christ will not be mocked. His great purpose in dying and rising to life was to be Lord, and only those who come under his lordship will be saved. All who reject him will receive the just punishment for their sin, which is eternal death in hell. So confess Jesus Christ as Lord! 

Christ’s Possession

Everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ is part of “his lordly possession.” Romans 14:7–8 states a great reality, and the practical outworking of that reality. It gives an indicative and the evidence of that indicative, or we could say the imperative flowing from that indicative. The indicative is that for every believer, “whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

We have a chorus that says, “I’m not my own, I belong to Jesus; he purchased me, I’m all his, bought with a price, the blood of Jesus; I’m not my own, I’m his.” You do not belong to yourself.

There is a sense in which, when you join the army, you no longer belong to yourself but to the army. You are one of the army’s assets. The army gives you a certain identity as a soldier. The army will supply what you wear and what you eat. It will order your day, and it will send you where you are to go. But the ownership of Jesus Christ is greater, because it is all-comprehensive and eternal. When you confess Jesus Christ as Lord, you give up everything. You submit every thought and every decision to him, because you belong to him.

This is the most blessed ownership. It is not primarily that he is yours, but that you are his, and he will not let his people go. Jesus said in John 10:28, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” The Heidelberg Catechism is one of the great Reformed catechisms. It stands out for being warm-hearted and personalized, and its most famous question, the first question, begins from our text. It asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” And the answer begins, “That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”

The practical outworking of that reality is in the same verses, and I will note that the word “alone” in the NIV is not in the original text, so it reads, “None of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.” Pastor Mathew said in his exposition of these verses that “to himself” and “to the Lord” is a dative of advantage, so that it is “to his own advantage,” or “to the Lord’s advantage.”[2] I will work this out first as we are his in death, and then as we are his in life.

1. We are his in death. Christ’s lordship in our death particularly matters in these times when we constantly hear a lot about death. If you listen to the news, you will inevitably hear a count of the number that have died of this coronavirus so far, and you will hear a projection about how many are going to die of it by the time this pandemic is over.

The world deals with death largely by trying to pretend it is not coming. A group of celebrities recently compiled a rendition of themselves singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” They want to erase God and eternity and “imagine all the people living for today.” When the inevitability of our own death can no longer be ignored, some revolt against the thought that death will overtake them. They say that it is their own death and they have the right to die on their own terms at their own appointed time by taking drugs intended to kill them. Others go in the opposite direction and they recoil from death. When Voltaire, the famous French philosopher and atheist, lay dying, he said he would give half of his great wealth to his doctor if only he could prolong his life for six months. Voltaire had no hope for resurrection, and he died a miserable man.

These are all forms of rebellion against the Lord. Submitting to Jesus as Lord means that you submit to the day and the circumstances of your death. You submit these things to him and you rest in him and his perfect plan for you, including your death. You are his, and the greatest use of your death is to glorify him in it. He is Lord in death.

And Christ is Lord in death because he died and conquered death. We who trust in him share in his conquest over death. He promises that as he has risen from the dead, so he will raise our physical bodies from the dead. We will receive a physical body like unto Christ’s incorruptible, glorious, powerful, spiritual body. First Corinthians 15:20–23 promises, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”

Therefore, we can face death with peace and confidence. Death is no pleasant experience, but we know what Christ has done to death, and we know that in the resurrection, death will be swallowed up in victory. When our brothers and sisters in Christ die, we grieve, but we do not despair. They will be raised up, and we will see them, never to be separated again.

But understand that as Jesus is Lord in death, death is no escape from his claim on you. People talk about suicide as a way to “end it all,” but it does not bring an end to Christ’s authority over you. If you do not die to the Lord’s advantage but only to your own, the Lord will still raise you up at the last day. You will still be compelled to bow your knee and confess Jesus Christ is Lord, but as you do, you will not be his possession. You will face everlasting judgment as the wages for your rebellion. Submit your death to the Lord. Die for the Lord, so that you will rest in him who has the power of eternal life.

2. We are also his in life. Just as death is no escape from Christ’s lordship, so also his lordship is not something only for some spiritual realm that we go to when we leave this life. Jesus is Lord now. He claims your allegiance and your life and your obedience in this present age. Either you are living to the Lord’s advantage, or to your own. Living to yourself means that you do you what is right in your own sight. It means you pursue your own ends and your own prosperity. It means that you follow your lusts. Is this how you are living?

It is likely that before this pandemic has passed, some who are now hearing my voice will have gotten the virus, and perhaps some will get very sick. Suppose you do. You are welcome to pray that God would heal you, and the church will join you in that prayer. But consider that God has the right to ask why. Why should God heal you? Is it because you have places to go and people to see? Is it because you have had a pretty good life and you were enjoying your life in this world? Is it because you have a trip planned? Is it because you had planned on making more money? What will you do with your life? Live for yourself?

God has the right to ask us: “Are you listening to me?” When he speaks through the preaching of the word, through personal counsel, or through your own reading, do you do the thing he is telling you to do? Obedience is an essential part of living for him; without it, you cannot be living for him.

But it is possible to basically obey the things you are told to do while still fundamentally living for yourself. David’s argument to the Lord when he pleading for his life was, “Will the dust praise you?” (Ps. 30:9). That is what David was going to do with his life, and praising God is something we do with our words. But it is also something that we do with our lives. Jesus lived the greatest life of praise, and he said in John 17:4, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” And see how the apostle Paul approached his life. Because he saw Jesus Christ declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead, his old life meant nothing to him. He gloried in being “Paul, a bond-slave of Jesus Christ . . . set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1). So I ask you: Do you live for him as a servant whose job is to produce fruit for the master, so that you are looking to see how you can bear fruit for him?

Christ’s possession will live for him whatever the circumstances, and especially when we are directed to shelter-in-place, life has its difficulties for many people. For many, especially older people, this means near solitary confinement. Those with young children face having no break from taking care of antsy kids. Some people have lost their jobs and are facing financial tightness or even poverty. In the face of such difficulties, how are we to live for him?

First, know that he will not let you be tried beyond what you can bear (1 Cor. 10:13). None of these things can separate you from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 8:38–39). Your times are in his hands, and he gives grace. But what is this grace?

We live for the risen Lord Jesus Christ, not by our own strength, but by the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the power of Christ’s resurrection is at work in us as we trust in him. In Ephesians 1:18–19, Paul says, “I pray . . . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know . . . his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Every unbeliever is not just morally weak, but he has total moral inability. He is a slave to sin. He is powerless to say “No.” He is also rootless. He is blown around by the winds of circumstances. And God chooses us who are the weak of the world. We see our own moral poverty, so we are poor in spirit. But the very power of Christ’s resurrection is at work in us. Paul goes on in Ephesians 1:19–20: “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” This is the power to say “No” to temptation and to make it stick. This is the power to do the will of God. This is the power that is greater than the heritage of the empty way of life that is passed down by our forefathers. This is the power to be a super-conqueror in all circumstances. That is why Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” Brothers and sisters, this power is not according to our resources, but God’s. Do you know this power? Jesus said in John 14:19, “Because I live, you also will live.”

All who are hearing me today are alive. We all live, and we all must die. The only question is how we will live and die. I pray that you will make certain today that you die in hope by living a life of faith in Christ, who by his death destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Amen.

[1] John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. II (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 183.

[2] P. G. Mathew, The Gospel Life: Romans 9–16 (Davis, CA: Grace and Glory, 2014), 431.