Sunday Leftovers (4/8/07)

The life of Christ has been called "The greatest story ever told," and the resurrection has been called "The greatest event in history" and "The key to everything." All those statements are not only true, they are crucial.

Christianity hangs on the validity of the resurrection, as Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 15. It is of first importance. There is nothing more important in the faith of the believer than the truth of the resurrection. If Christ was not resurrected, then our faith is worthless. Why would it be worthless? Because the fundamental thing that Christ came to do — to give His life as a ransom for many — was left unaccomplished. All men would still be in sin — entrapped and ensnared by sin, unable to live for the glory of God for even the briefest of moments and unable to do anything but sin. And of course if Christ is not victorious, then something and someone else must be — death would still reign, and Satan would be powerful.

Yes, if Christ is not resurrected, then we really are to be pitied more than any other men on earth. Everything would be wasted.

But thanks be to God that Christ is risen indeed!

And that has left us as humble and grateful recipients of the greatest treasure. As Spurgeon has noted, because of the resurrection of Christ, we have new life —

• We are made alive in Christ (and no longer remain dead in sin!)
• We are made alive in sanctification
• We are made partakers of a new life (e.g., as a contrast, Lazarus had the same life restored to him)
• We have a pre-eminent security for future perfection
• We have a life that is new in its principles, motives, objects, and emotions
• We have with this new life new possessions — we are rich in faith.
  

How rich we are because Christ became poor!

There can be no salvation from sin unless there is a living Saviour: this explains the emphasis [of the Epistles] on the resurrection. But the living One can be a Saviour only because He has died: this explains the emphasis laid on the cross. The Christian believes in a living Lord, or he could not believe at all; but he believes in a living Lord who died an atoning death, for no other can hold the faith of a soul under the doom of sin. [James Denney; quoted by John Stott, in The Cross of Christ.]