Jesus Is Risen, Mighty to Save!

Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen! Because he lives forever, we will also live forever. Jesus Christ is the mighty Savior of all who surrender to him and confess him as Lord.

All people believe Jesus died. Few believe Jesus died for their sins, and few believe that God raised him from the dead for their eternal salvation. Christ’s holy orthodox church believes what the holy Bible teaches. We believe in the apostolic doctrine. Let God be true and all men liars (Rom. 3:4).

Born Sinners

Most people do not believe the truth of the Scriptures because they are born sinners. As such, they can only practice sin. They are children of the devil, and they lie because their father the devil is the father of all liars. They are pervasively sinful, as the Scripture teaches. For example, in Genesis 6 we read, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Jesus himself said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matt. 15:19). Paul wrote, “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7–8). Unregenerate people can only sin continually.

Born Again

Without regeneration, without God granting us a new heart (i.e., a new mind, new will, and new affections), we who are sinners can only believe lies and speak falsehood. That is why many people do not believe in the resurrection of Christ. All biblical miracles are reasonable only if we believe the truth that it is God Almighty who works these miracles. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question, “What is God?” The answer is, “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”

Our God is almighty, omnipotent, omniscient, triune Lord of the universe. He is the Creator and Redeemer. All other gods are demons and idols. The God of the holy Bible alone is the true God. He is the truth and the life. He is the resurrection and the life. He alone is King of kings and Lord of lords. He rules all his creation.

Eyewitness Accounts of the Resurrection

All four gospels speak of the resurrection of Jesus and the empty tomb, and we have the eyewitness accounts of the apostles. The resurrection of Jesus is as historical as his death and burial.

Luke the historian speaks of the eyewitness accounts he based his gospel on: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word” (Luke 1:1–2). And in the book of Acts, Luke says, “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). The apostle John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us” (1 John 1:1–3).

The Gospel

Paul wrote the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3–8. He did not make it up in his head. What he received from God, he proclaimed, and all the apostles preached the same gospel. Paul begins saying that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures and that he was buried. This burial emphasized the reality of Christ’s death as well as the reality of his bodily resurrection. Then Paul says that Christ was raised on the third day, again, according to the Scriptures. Then he says he was seen by Peter, by the Twelve, and one time, by over five hundred brothers. Then he was seen by James, the Lord’s brother; then by all the apostles; and, finally, by the most brilliant enemy of Christ’s resurrection, Saul of Tarsus himself.

The Resurrection Is a Historical Fact

The Old Testament teaches that in order to establish the truthfulness of a matter, there must be two or three witnesses: “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deut. 19:15b). The resurrection of Jesus Christ, therefore, by the biblical standard is a God-established historical fact. The empty tomb was seen by many. The resurrected Lord appeared himself to many hundreds of people, as well as to his apostles.

Look at the apostolic witness itself. On the day of Pentecost, Peter declared, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32). Later he testified, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this” (Acts 3:15). Peter and the other disciples also declared, “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). The Sanhedrin told them not to speak the gospel, but they said, “No, we must speak what we saw and heard.” Peter later proclaimed, “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen” (Acts 10:39–40). And Paul, once the enemy of the gospel, preached, “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, his children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’” (Acts 13:30–33).

Yet most people do not believe this gospel, this good news of Christ’s death and resurrection. They are blinded by sin and the devil. Every unbeliever who does not believe in Jesus Christ is blinded by sin and the devil.

All Promises Fulfilled in Christ

The death and resurrection of the Messiah was promised in the Old Testament (see Isaiah 53 and Psalm 16). Jesus made reference to these promises after this resurrection. In Luke 24 we read, “Then he opened their [eyes].” What is our problem? Our eyes are blinded by sin and the devil. Educated people are fools because the Bible says, “A fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” So Luke says, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, that repentance and forgiveness of sins be proclaimed to all the nations’” (Luke 24:45–47). And before his death, Jesus himself spoke of his death and resurrection five times in the gospel of Matthew alone. For example, in Matthew 16 we read, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matt. 16:21).

If the most difficult thing Jesus prophesied came true (his resurrection from the dead), then it is logical that all his other teachings about God and man, about the future, about the devil, and about judgment, are also true. He said he would be the first to rise from the dead to live forevermore.

Paul uses the word egêgertai seven times in 1 Corinthians 15. It is a perfect passive indicative third person singular of egeirô, “to raise up.” It means Christ was raised to die no more and to live forever. Elsewhere Paul makes the same point: “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him” (Rom. 6:9).

Paul also uses various words for resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15—twenty-seven times, to be exact—to emphasize the historical resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

All that Jesus did was for the salvation of God’s elect people. Jesus is a Jew. He is the Son of David and the Lord of David, God and man in one person, as the creed tells us. He is the Messiah of the Jews and of the Gentiles. He is the Savior and Judge. He alone fulfilled all the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah.

There are no other messiahs. Jesus alone is the sinless Son of God who died for our sins and was raised for our justification. And this Jesus Christ is our atonement. Paul writes, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Peter says, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). John states, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1–2). There is no other messiah, no other savior, no other lord, and no other sacrifice.

Jesus Is the Messiah

Jesus Christ alone is the Prophet who speaks truth to us about everything (Deut. 18:15; Matt. 17:5). The Hebrews writer says, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1:1–2). He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, so he is the Prophet.

Jesus Christ is also the anointed sinless Priest who made atonement for our sins. The psalmist says, “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek’” (Ps. 110:4). Jesus alone is the acceptable sacrificial victim, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

As Messiah, Jesus Christ is also the anointed King. He alone is given all authority. He alone is God’s messianic King that we read about in Psalm 2. There the Father declares, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill” (v. 6). And if you are an unbeliever, here is God’s counsel for you: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (v. 12).

Jesus alone is God’s Messiah, the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, who became incarnate to die for our sins. Fools mock the idea of the bodily resurrection of Christ. In this sense, they are like the educated Greeks, who believed in the immortality of the soul. They believed the human body was the source of all troubles, so death to them was glorious freedom, deliverance from the prison house of their bodies.

But the Scripture does not say matter is evil. In fact, matter is good because the good God created all matter, including our bodies. God himself said that all creation was very good (Gen. 1:31).

Jesus became incarnate so that he could die our death and destroy death for us forever. Then he was raised in a glorious physical body of flesh and bones. He ate and drank with his disciples for many days. They saw him, heard him, touched him, talked to him, walked with him, and saw him ascending to heaven, in his resurrection body.

Resurrection Gives Hope

Paul tells us that Christ was raised from the dead by the Father as the firstfruits of those believers who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15:20). Firstfruits in the Scripture points to the reality of a great future harvest.

The resurrection of Christ proclaims the certainty of the resurrection of all who died in Christ, as well as the transformation of all believers who are living when Christ comes again in great glory. When Christ comes again, the dead in Christ will be raised and the living will be changed, transformed. They all will receive physical bodies of immortality, power, and glory like the resurrection body of Christ—bodies engineered by the Holy Spirit, designed to dwell with God in the new heaven and new earth, where there will be no sin, tears, or death.

Thus, the resurrection of Christ is the proof, pledge, and guarantee of our own future resurrection and transformation. Paul writes, “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also” (1 Cor. 6:14). He also says, “Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (2 Cor. 4:14). Elsewhere he declares, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Rom. 8:11). He also says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20–21).

By his disobedience, Adam brought sin and eternal death to all his descendants. But that is not the whole story. By his perfect obedience as the sinless God-man, Jesus the Messiah brought eternal life to those who belong to him by saving faith (1 Cor. 15:23), that is, to those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17).

God raised Jesus from the dead because death was not able to keep him dead. Why? Because he was without sin. Jesus was sinless, and by his death, he conquered death for all his people (Acts 2:24). He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Therefore, in God’s sight, we are now justified by faith in Jesus. All our sins are forgiven, and God sees us in Christ as sinless. That is why we also will be raised from the dead and changed. Death has no claim on us because we are sinless in the sight of God. And now, for us, death shall be gain, not a loss. When we die, we shall not experience the sting of death, because the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. Christ alone experienced the sting of death. He kept the law perfectly for us and died our death with its sting. So we are no longer under sin and law, but under grace. Paul says, “There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Without faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, no one can be saved because, as Paul tells us, “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” (Rom. 10:9).

Christ satisfied in our behalf all the righteous demands of God’s holy law, which we could never do. He obeyed by his active and passive obedience. And God accepted his propitiatory sacrifice, his substitutionary atonement in our behalf, for our sins (Eph. 5:2).

How do we know that the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice? We know because God raised him from the dead, to die no more. Jesus said to the Father, “It is finished.” In other words, he was saying, “The work of atonement you gave me to do is done.” And God the Father said, “Amen,” by raising Jesus from the dead.

In Romans 7:24–25, Paul asks the big question, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” The great answer comes: “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, you cannot be saved. (PGM) There is no salvation to anyone in this whole universe outside of Jesus Christ.

By his atoning sacrifice, believers in Jesus are delivered from the wages of sin, which is eternal death, the condemnation of the law, the power of sin, the sting of death, and the power of the devil, flesh, the world, and hell. Truly, we are free at last!

In Christ, and under grace, we have already experienced spiritual resurrection, (i.e., regeneration). We have been justified and adopted, and we are being sanctified. And we shall be glorified by future physical resurrection and transformation. So we read in Hebrews 2, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering” (v. 10). Our destiny is glory. Christ died and was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures, and he was seen.

In Romans 9:23, we read, “We are objects of mercy prepared for glory.” So we read, “In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, when the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15: 52).

Oh, that be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me

When by his grace I shall look on his face,

That will be glory, be glory for me.

We already are new creations. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17). Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God is with us and in us, and we are in God. God is a wall of fire around us. Christ is united with us and we are united with him. So we shall receive a resurrection body like his (Phil. 3:20–21).

Saul of Tarsus, the most brilliant and powerful enemy of Christ’s resurrection, tells us how Christ appeared to him and opened his eyes. He believed in the historical reality of Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection.

Our Reasonable Faith

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest work God has ever done, greater than all the other mighty works recorded in the Scriptures. This is why Christianity is a reasonable faith. Mock all you want, as the Athenians did when Paul spoke of Christ’s resurrection: “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered” (Acts 17:25). Mock all you want, as Festus, the Roman governor did when he said the dispute with Paul was “about a dead man named Jesus” (Acts 25:29). The next day Paul said to Festus, “I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.” When he heard Paul speak of the resurrection of Christ, Festus interrupted with a loud voice. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.” And Paul, the most brilliant apostle, replied, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus. What I am saying is true and reasonable.” It is what happened in time, space, and history (see Acts 26:22–25). The resurrection of Christ is as historical as his death and burial. And there is a day coming when God will mock all the mockers (Ps. 2:1–4).

Consider the reasonable argument Paul made to the educated, rich, and famous people: “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). We cannot raise the dead, but God can—the same God who created the world by a command.

Paul said the resurrection is quite reasonable because of God. It is unreasonable and irrational only for fools who deny the eternal reality of the existence of God. It is true and credible that the God of the Scriptures created the universe by a commandex nihilo (out of nothing). So it is also credible that this infinite personal God could raise Jesus from the dead. And he will raise all the righteous and the unrighteous on the last day, as Paul declared in Acts 24:15: “I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

We may think whatever we want about Jesus Christ. But be sure of this: we all will meet him on the last day. Jesus himself said, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). He also said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28–29).

Go ahead and mock. Don’t surrender to Jesus Christ. Mock him and say all the miracles are irrational. Say the resurrection is not reasonable. I agree that it is not reasonable to one who has a twisted mind because such a person is dead in sins and trespasses. But in the end, what you think about Jesus Christ matters for eternity. In the teaching aboutd the sheep and the goats, Jesus said, “Then [the wicked] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). There is an eternal hell and eternal life.

The resurrection of Christ guarantees resurrection and change for everyone, both the righteous and the wicked. There is an abundance of evidence of the resurrection for anyone whose eyes want to see: the empty tomb; the testimony of holy angels; the eyewitness testimony of the apostles and their radical transformation; the Old Testament prophecies; Christ’s own prophecy; the designation of Sunday as the day of worship in view of Christ’s resurrection on Sunday, which is called the Lord’s day; and the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which both proclaim the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God is not interested in granting any private personal appearances of Jesus for hardened unbelievers so that they may believe. In Luke 16 we read that a rich man died and went to hell. He wanted deliverance from hell, fire, torment, and misery, but God said, “No.” Then he requested that God send Lazarus from heaven to earth so that his five brothers could believe in Jesus and go to heaven, not hell. God said, “No,” again, and then he said, “They have Moses and the prophets.” In other words, these people had the Bible. So we read, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

God will raise up everyone. We read about this in Revelation 20. John begins, “And I saw the dead, great and small. . . .” Presidents, Supreme Court justices, and governors are going to be there. Hitler is going to be there. Every single person who ever lived will be there. They will be “standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.” Where can we go from his presence? No one can hide anywhere. All will be raised up and must appear before Christ. “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:12–15).

There is only one thing needful. What must we do to be saved? The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” There is only one question we must consider: Have we believed in Jesus Christ with saving faith?

There will be no private, personal appearances. The world’s billionaires may say to God, “I will believe in you if you make a special appearance for me.” But God does not do this just because someone is rich and famous.

Jesus told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). The early church believed based on the written Scriptures, written by eyewitnesses of the historical reality of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. John himself said, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have [eternal] life in his name” (John 20:31). And the primary author of Scripture is God himself. Peter says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8).

Have you believed in Jesus Christ? Faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world. It overcomes hell, death, and everything else. If you are outside of Christ, you are without hope and without God in this world. But thank God for the gospel, that is coming to you today. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

If you have trusted in Jesus Christ, you can rejoice today and tomorrow. You can rejoice in the hour of your death because you will be going into the very presence of God to be with him forever and experience unimaginable, indescribable happiness. Happiness is to know the Savior. Happiness is to be with God forever and ever, in a new heaven and a new earth, where there is no sin, where there are no tears, there is no death, there is no disappointment, but only joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is my earnest desire that all of you will be with me in eternity with Christ. Amen.