Christianity Is Based On The Resurrection
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
If Christianity were all about salvation from sin,
there wouldn’t have been the need for Jesus to
rise from the dead. His death on the cross would have
been enough; it paid for all our sins and guaranteed
complete propitiation. However, that’s redemption,
and not Christianity!
Redemption refers to saving someone by paying
a price. So when Jesus died, He paid the price for
man’s redemption with His own life; He did that for
all humanity; not for Christians. The Christian isn’t the
man that Christ died for. Look at it this way: when
Jesus hung on the cross, in the mind of God, we
were all hanging there too (in Him), for He was our
representative. When He cried out, “It is finished,” and
gave up the ghost, we also died in Him.
Now, here’s the big thing, which Satan didn’t
see coming and the angels still marvel at, and seek to
look into: Christianity is based on the resurrection of
Jesus, and not on His death. The resurrection of Jesus
Christ gave us something far beyond redemption; it
ushered us into a newness of life. We’ve been raised
up together with Christ (Ephesians 2:6).
Romans 10:9 says, “...If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.” It lets us know that salvation comes
by believing in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the subsequent confession of His Lordship. A
Christian is one who identifies with the resurrected
Christ. The Christian has no past, for the Bible says
in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature”; meaning that he’s a new
species; one that never existed before.
No wonder James declares that “Of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a
kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). Being
born again, therefore, you’re not the “redeemed”;
you’re the fruit of the redemptive work of Christ.
Redemption was consummated with His death, but
Christianity came from the resurrection. Hallelujah!
Prayer
Dear Father, I thank you for making me one with Christ. I’m
a new creation and I walk in the newness of life, conscious that
I’ve been raised together with Christ, and made to sit together
with Him in the place of victory, authority, and dominion forever,
in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Further Study:
2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
1 John 4
Daniel 1-2
2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
revelation 6:11-17
Joel 3