What is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection?

D.A. Carson writes: “In the Bible, a handful of people were brought back from the dead before Jesus.  One of the most notable was Lazarus, brought back from the dead by Jesus himself (John 11).  Yet Paul insists that Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection of Christ’s people at the end of the age (1 Corinthians 15:20).  What makes his resurrection so special, especially if he is not, sequentially, the first?  Apart from the question of who this Jesus is who has been resurrected—none less than the incarnate Son of God, who by his death atoned for the sins of all his people—the New Testament texts insist that his resurrection is unique.

True, Lazarus was brought back to life in bodily form after spending even more time in the grave than Jesus did.  But his body remained an ordinary body; presumably Lazarus died again.  By contrast, after his resurrection Jesus is said to possess a “spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44).  Jesus’ post-death body has some sort of continuity with his pre-death body (the marks of the wounds are still there); it is certainly a genuine body in the sense that Jesus could be touched and handled, and he could eat with his disciples.  Yet it was more than a body as you and I know it.  Jesus continues to be a human being forever, a resurrected spirit-body human being—and our resurrection bodies at the end will resemble his.” 

The destiny of the Christian is not the immaterial existence of a disembodied ghost; rather, our ultimate destiny is resurrection existence with glorified bodies (2 Corinthians 5:1-10) in the new heaven and the new earth.  Only Jesus has undergone this transformation to resurrection existence.  He is the firstfruits of it, the one who has secured it for us.

If you are interested in talking more about “the resurrection,” you are invited to come and join us for our next Bible study, which takes place tomorrow night (Wednesday, July 27) from 6:30 to 8 PM.  We meet at 9257 Amsden Way in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.