Often when we talk about God’s salvation plan, we spend a lot of time thinking and speaking about the death of Jesus. And for good reason! Jesus’s death is highly significant for a number of reasons…
- It fulfilled prophecy that said the Son of Man would suffer for our sins (Isaiah 53:4-6)
- It was the point at which Jesus took the sins of the world onto himself and took our punishment
- It was the moment when God gave humanity a way to have a restored relationship with him
All in all, a very important moment!
But so often, when we talk about how God has saved us, we stop with Jesus’s death! And that’s only half the story. The resurrection is just as important as the crucifixion! Here are three reasons why, this Easter, you shouldn’t forget about the significance of Easter Sunday.
When Jesus was resurrected, he proved he was God
During his earthly ministry, there were TONS of clues that pointed to the fact that Jesus was God. Not every baby’s birth is heralded by angels and celebrated by kings! Not every first-century carpenter could give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and mobility to the lame! And not every itinerant preacher could raise people back to life.
But when Jesus came back from the dead, he proved definitively, once and for all, that there was no doubt he was God. This is so important because it means that when Jesus says he has power to forgive sins (such as in Mark 2:1-12), he actually does – because he’s God!
When Jesus was resurrected, he defeated death
Death, and eternal separation from God, is God’s just punishment for those who turn away from him and do not repent. It’s a consequence of our broken world, and something that has power over all of us, believers or not. But for those who do recognise their sin and ask for forgiveness, we no longer have to fear death! In his resurrection, Jesus defeated the power of death and became the first one to be resurrected from the dead. And if we follow Christ and are covered by grace, we too can look forward to being resurrected and living for eternity with God in the New Creation. Check out Romans 8, particularly verses 10 and 11, or 1 Corinthians 15:12-28, for more detail about this.
When Jesus was resurrected, Christianity spread
Here’s something to consider: without the resurrection, why would Christianity have spread so quickly and so far? A dead man who did not achieve what he claimed he would is not worth following. But if we believe that the resurrection is true, then it makes a lot of sense that Christianity spread far and wide within just a few short decades! Everyone who witnessed the risen Lord (and there were hundreds of them!) shared what they had seen and the worship of Jesus spread as people knew their faith was in something true and life-changing.
When Jesus was resurrected, he proved that our faith is true
In 1 Corinthians 15:16, Paul writes to the church in Corinth, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Without the resurrection, Jesus is just a man who claimed to be God, did a couple of cool tricks, and then was killed for upsetting the Jewish leaders. But with the resurrection, our whole lives are changed. We are invited to accept the sacrifice of Jesus’ life as an atonement for our sins, and enter into a restored relationship with God. And we are meant to live in a way that pleases God, to demonstrate that our hearts have been changed by the salvation we received by grace. Without the resurrection, our faith and the teachings and actions that flow from it are useless.
This Easter, when you’re discussing the wonderful things that God has done for you in Jesus, don’t forget about the resurrection! Without the resurrection, our faith is useless, but with it, our faith is in the powerful son of God, who has saved us from sin and death and reigns eternally at the right hand of the Father.