Have You Been Resurrected?

Have You Been Resurrected?

The power of the resurrection was a central theme among the New Testament disciples. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 affirmed that God raised Jesus from the dead. Later Peter appealed to the Jews to repent in Acts 3 when he declared, “But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14-15). In the city of Athens Paul preached the message of resurrection to a heathen world showing a day of judgment was coming by the assurance that God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 16:31). When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth he gave a list of those who had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus from Peter to over five hundred disciples (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). All believers in Christ accept that he died and was risen the first day of the week (Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20).

Because of the resurrection of Jesus all disciples of Christ live for the final resurrection when the mortal will put on immortality and the hope of Heaven is realized (John 5:29; 11:25; 1 Peter 1:3). However the resurrection to eternal life is not guaranteed to every person. As with salvation, conditions are determined by God that allows acceptance into His grace. The promise of resurrection will only be given to those who have been resurrected in this life.

This type of resurrection does not refer to a bodily resurrection like Lazarus (John 11) or the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11-17). There is a resurrection that takes place in the lives of all those who obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul explains the means which all men enjoy this resurrection. “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5). The English Standard Version says, “We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” To enjoy the resurrection of life eternal all men must be united in the likeness of his death.

Paul does not leave us without the knowledge of how to be united in the likeness of the death of Christ. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). Edward Hiscox declared that “baptism is not essential to salvation” leading many to deny the power of the resurrection. The apostle Paul denies that by showing that without baptism there is no resurrection and without resurrection no man shall see God.

The essential character of baptism is when a person dies and is buried in water and raised to newness of life. The believer is a resurrected person. When Jesus returns He will not be looking for those who have only accepted an ideal but who have “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which [they] were delivered” (Romans 6:17). Paul continues, “For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God” (Romans 6:7-10). Like Jesus we must be crucified, die, buried and raised! Only then are we saved!