Living the Effects of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Dear Weekly Readers!

We have just gone through Holy Week. Now, as we live our life as Christians, we live in the power of the resurrected Lord!

Pastor Orval Wirkkala writes about this below! May God Bless your week!    


                  Living the Effects of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

While Jesus was yet in the tomb, those who did not understand the meaning and purpose of the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, made provision to stop Him from coming out of the tomb that His dead body had been laid in. This they did by placing a stone in the opening of the tomb and by putting guards at the tomb. (Matthew 27:62-66) 

When He arose on Easter morning, the guards who had been "as dead men during His resurrection," went to tell "the chief priests all the things that were done"
 and were told to tell people that His body had been stolen away in the night by the disciples. (Matthew 28:4,11-15)

The rejection of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the denial which began on the same day on which He arose continues today. In a letter written somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years after this unparalleled historic event, a Christian congregation had a question concerning the resurrection of the dead.  

The question did not so much center on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, but more so on the question of "Is there a resurrection of the dead?" For the answer to that question drives the answer to the following questions: Did Jesus arise from the dead? Do we need to believe that He arose from the dead? Can't we be a Christian without believing that He arose from the dead? 

Everything that we believe and trust in is dependent upon whether Jesus Christ arose from the dead and is alive today. If He indeed arose from the dead, then it follows that all that He did and said in His life is true. If He did not rise from the dead, then it also follows that all that He did and said is not true. 

Let us hear how this question was answered by the Apostle Paul in the year 50 AD (approximately) picking up at the beginning of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians.

He begins his answer by speaking of the Gospel that he received and which is defined as the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He goes onto give evidence of Jesus' resurrection by pointing out the various people who had seen Jesus alive after His resurrection, which included Himself. He then poses the rhetorical question in verse 12, then gives the consequences of no resurrected Jesus.

 12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

No resurrection means that Christ is not risen, the content of our preaching is worthless, our faith has no substance, we are liars, we are yet in our sins, those who have gone on before have died in their sins, and we who are living today have only this life to live. But.....no, He is resurrected, and therefore the opposite of what he just told them/us is true.


 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

There is a resurrection from the dead, therefore Christ is risen. This means that the content of our preaching is true, our faith has as its object the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are telling the truth, we are not in our sins, those who have fallen asleep (died) before us are awaiting the resurrection from the dad, and we have a lot more to look forward to than this life.  

Christ arose and He is the "first fruits" of them that slept. His unique resurrection precedes all other resurrections, for even though people have been raised from the dead previously in a physical sense, all but Jesus went back to the grave to await the final resurrection unto life. This thought is captured by both the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle John:

  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors Isaiah 53:10-12

And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John 12:23-24


What does this mean for you, for me, as we live in our post resurrection life? 
There is a resurrection from the dead, therefore Christ is risen. This means that the content of our preaching is true, our faith has as its object the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are telling the truth, we are not in our sins, those who have fallen asleep (died) before us are awaiting the resurrection from the dead, and we have a lot more to look forward to than this life. 

Let this be an encouragement to us today, for our preaching is not based on some abstract idea, but rather it is based on the historical facts of the death, burial and resurrection of the Incarnate God, Jesus the Christ. 

Dear brothers and sisters in the mission, Keep on preaching the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ!

God's Peace!

Pastor Orval Wirkkala