Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1992

I Believe In Communion With The Church
Wim Meijer

From death to life.

One of the things in the ministry of Jesus which made an enormous impression on the people was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. To be sure, Jesus had raised people from the dead before (the young man at Nain, the daughter of Jairus). But these people had just died when Jesus brought them back to life. Lazarus, however, had been dead for four days already. No return from that is possible, the people thought. When they saw Lazarus coming out of the grave, many believed in Jesus.

Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we read about people being raised from the dead. Yet Jesus is called the "first fruits" of the resurrection (I Cor. 15:20), and the "the first begotten (first born, NIV) of the dead" (Rev. 1:5). The resurrection of Jesus was unique compared to the coming-back-to-life of those other people. They returned from the grave to die again and to be buried again. Jesus was the first one who was raised in immortality. And now I am speaking about His human nature, of course, because His divine nature was immortal already.

Raised for our justification

The Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 45) asks: "What does Christ's resurrection benefit us?" What a wonderful thought. There is a benefit for us in everything Christ has done. He did it all by Himself, but not for Himself. Paul says: "He was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). In His death as well as His resurrection He had sinners in His mind. He wanted to do all this for them.

The Catechism mentions three benefits of the resurrection of Christ. The first one is that "He might make us share in the righteousness He won for us by His death." How can Jesus be of any help to us as long as He is in the grave. If Jesus would not have risen from the dead, we would have no Advocate in heaven to plead our cause with the Father. If Jesus would have stayed in the grave, He would not have been able to pour out His Holy Spirit upon His church. To quote Paul from that great chapter on the resurrection I Cor. 15: "and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" (vs. 17). Praise the Lord that Jesus is risen, and that He lives to make us partakers of the salvation which He has earned for us.

From spiritual death to spiritual life

The second benefit of Christ's resurrection is that "by His power we are resurrected to a new life." We often fail to see this. We think that Christian life consists in the efforts we make to please God and to love our neighbour. Some people think that being a Christian means that you adapt your life according to a number of Christian values and traditions, and that is it. However, according to the Bible it is a little different. Being a Christian means being raised from the dead. As Paul says in Eph. 2:4-6 "but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved) and has raised us up together [with Christ]." The resurrection of Christ is the image, but also the foundation of our regeneration. We are so dead in trespasses and sins that only the power of Him who raised Jesus from the dead can make us spiritually alive.

Our glorious resurrection

The third benefit is that Christ's resurrection "is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection." If the head (Christ) has been raised to immortality, then the body (the Church) will be raised also. There is no doubt about that. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives reason for a strong and confident hope that the bodies of those who have died in faith will be raised again in that glorious resurrection. That is the Christian hope which we express when we are standing near an open grave of someone whom we loved. Needless to say that this final resurrection will only be a GLORIOUS resurrection for those who in this life had been raised up to a new, spiritual life, and consequently have lived by a true faith in Jesus Christ. Let us make sure that when people will be gathered around our grave they may express the Christian hope: "This body, too, will be raised unto glory!"

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