Reading: “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Romans 4:25.
The resurrection of our Lord and Saviour is an essential article of the Christian faith. It was as necessary to our justification as His death was to atone for our sins. Had He not risen, it would have proved His work to be incomplete, and our salvation would have failed. The truth of His claims to be the Son of God He Himself placed upon His rising from the dead. His resurrection then was conclusive proof that He was what He claimed to be, the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and the Saviour of the world.
How thankful should we be that such abundant evidence is afforded to establish our faith in this fundamental article of our holy religion! This great fact, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, was every where proclaimed by the apostles. It was so interwoven with the gospel, and lay so at the foundation of our hopes, that it was impossible to preach the gospel without affirming the Saviour’s resurrection from the dead.
With what confidence may I rest in assured faith that my Lord and Redeemer who was crucified for my sins, arose from the dead on the third day; seeing the seal of heaven thus set to the perfection of His great work, as mediator between God and man! If I am crucified with Him, let me rise with Him; let me die to sin, as He died for sin, and rise to newness of life, as He arose from death to life. Let me live under the influence both of his death and of his life. And as he arose and triumphed over death, as the Head of His church, and as the first fruits of His people, let me rejoice in the pledge thus given, that my body and the bodies of all His people shall be raised in glory hereafter, fashioned like to His most glorious body.
“Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope.”—C. H. Spurgeon
Adapted from J. J. Janeway (1774–1858), A Communicant’s Manual
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