Or, What It Means to Be Raised with Jesus
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:14
Date: March 27, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Death could not keep Jesus from rising again. No one took His life, and no one could keep Him from coming back to life. He had the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again (John 10:18). He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:4). We confess the resurrection and celebrate it as of first importance. His resurrection is a reality that has changed more than we know and a reality we know has changed and is changing us.
Resurrection distinguishes Christian teaching from every other belief system. We believe that God, the eternal Word, took on flesh, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. Of course other religious radicals have died as martyrs for their teachings, maybe even unjustly. But on the Sunday morning following Jesus’ crucifixion, when the ladies went to His tomb, the stone had been rolled away (John 20:2). Mary Magdalene ran and told Peter, and he and John ran to the tomb (John 20:3-4). They found no body, only linen cloths lying where the body had been (John 20:5-7). His disciples claimed that He appeared to them multiple times in the following forty days, sometimes eating food with them. At least 500 people witnessed Jesus walking around in body after the weekend at Golgotha (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). No other prophet can claim anything similar.
The resurrection of Jesus is a constant subject of the apostles’ sermons; being a witness to His resurrection was a requirement for the position (Acts 1:22). In Jesus own generation, among hundreds who could deny the claims, men proclaimed that Jesus was risen from the dead just as He had said. Peter preached the resurrection on Pentecost (Acts 2:32). Paul preached it to the philosophers in Athens, telling them that God raised Jesus from the dead as an assurance that He would judge the world (Acts 17:18, 31-32). Paul preached it when he was on trial (Acts 23:8). He even claimed that “It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial” (Acts 24:21).
There is no gospel or assurance of salvation without the resurrection. Again, the gospel is Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). If He is not raised from the dead, then preaching is not only foolish it is futile (verse 14), our faith is empty and we are still in our sins (verse 17), and we are pitiable creatures trying to sooth our consciences with a lie (verse 19). But He is alive! (verse 20) And we must believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead in order to be saved (Romans 10:9).
Forever we will worship the Lamb who was slain, but who now stands (Revelation 5:6). The resurrection from the dead declared Him to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4). It verified that payment for sin was complete. He was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:24).
But His resurrection is more than a Roman numeral point in our gospel presentations. It is a necessary chapter in our soteriology books, and it lives beyond the pages. His resurrection is an historical event with consequences that are far from complete. He rose again so that we could be raised to life—twice.
Christians have been raised and will be raised. We know a resurrection today and we will know it another way on the last day.
Our baptism symbolizes the spiritual life we now have. We are raised to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4), “raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). That resurrection is an already fact that should empower today’s sanctification. God, being rich in mercy and grace, “made us alive together with Christ…and raised us up with him” (Ephesians 2:6). Since we’ve been raised with Christ, we seek heavenly things (Colossians 3:1).
But our resurrection is also a not yet fact. The “trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:52). “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Corinthians 6:14).
So consider the three resurrections:
What does this do for us? Better, what doesn’t it do? It fires our conversations, it orients our decisions, and it forges our attitudes. The resurrection(s) bias our message, our lifestyle, and our posture. Knowing the principles of resurrection makes us people of resurrection principles.
We could use more principled people, principled Christians in particular. We need more Christians with integrity who do not compromise because it will increase their profit or power or ease. We need more believers who will suffer, if necessary, for truth, righteousness, and the good news. We need the resurrection(s).
When we understand the resurrections—completed, current, and coming—on Easter, what does it affect? What does it mean to be raised with Jesus?
2 Corinthians 4 shows the way. Every paragraph in this chapter is one of my favorite passages. 2Co4 belongs on a small shelf of guaranteed-to-be-rewarding soul-hole-stoppers. The pace-phrase of the whole chapter is, “we do not lose heart,” leading in verse 1 and leading the final paragraph in verse 16. Paul not only rehearses realities that cause him to endure in ministry, he also provides an example for all Christians close to collapsing on the track.
Verse 14 is critical among the eighteen verses in the chapter.
knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. (2 Corinthians 4:14)
Based on the finished resurrection of the Son by the Father, all believers look to their future resurrection by the Father to be with Him, with the Son, and with one another. The only prerequisite has been fulfilled: Christ is risen. The fact that we believe He’s been raised is evidence of our being raised which will end in being raised with Him. Knowing these resurrection principles changes things.
This “knowing” explains why we say what we say, how we live, and what attitude we spread. Here are three pairs of resurrection principles.
Knowing His and our resurrections is the motive for verse 13.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing… (2 Corinthians 4:13)
The quotation comes from Psalm 116, a song of endurance and boldness in the face of suffering. When tears well up, when men slander, when distress and anguish run at us, those who love the Lord trust the Lord. He’s the one that we confess especially when affliction hits.
The psalmist said, “I believed, even when I spoke, ‘I am greatly afflicted.’” Paul adapts it. We also believe, and so we also speak.
We believe what? We speak about what? From the beginning of chapter four he’s made the case for “the open statement of the truth” (verse 2). He’s referring to the gospel, to proclaiming Jesus as Lord. Verses 3-4 explain that unbelievers are blinded from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. A veil covers their spiritual eyes.
But we believe in God who raises the dead. He is our salvation, and He is the one we trust to raise dead men around us. We have faith and so we speak about the gospel, about the Lord, about His resurrection. We believe and speak knowing the resurrection. We speak about the resurrection; it is the hope of all men. We speak in light of the resurrection; our own resurrection is secure no matter how men respond. The reason for courage is built right into the confession.
The resurrection fills our hearts and mouths. It also functions as the pattern for our lives.
The previous paragraph is well-known for describing the jars of clay who show the surpassing power of God. We proclaim His resurrection power and we embody it.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7–12)
The series of “but-nots” lead to the ultimate analogy of incarnation. We are almost broken, looking like we’re on our own, and this wave of breaking points is epitomized by carrying Jesus’ death and manifesting Jesus’ life in our bodies. We are death-and-resurrection pots, enacting Easter by the day.
Physical death is not what Paul had in mind because one cannot be “always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake.” Death cannot be “at work” more than once in a body. But by analogy, we die to what’s precious to us, we endure affliction and confusion and criticism and loss so that life comes in us and through us.
Paul made a similar comment at the start of the letter.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8–9)
That last phrase is not merely an accomplishment of God, it is an attribute of God. God: the dead-raiser. God: He who is unlike all other gods, those for whom raising the dead is preposterous fiction. He who raised the Lord Jesus is He who by nature raises. Jesus is the first fruits because resurrection from the dead is part of who God is. We have this treasure in containers that keep showing this pattern when we get battered. We do not run away from sacrifice and suffering, we expect God’s resurrection power to be put on display through them.
Christ’s resurrection, and ours on the final day, is good news and all gift. We couldn’t have made Him walk out of the tomb even if we would have been there. We could not raise ourselves from the dead; dead men don’t even apply for help. When we believe it, we receive grace. When we speak it, we’re just stewards of grace. When we embody it, it’s painful but not meaningless.
So believing, speaking, dying, living, are all acts of grace, empowered by His grace, and for the purpose of extending His grace.
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:15)
The resurrected spread grace, not law, or burden, or grief, but freedom and gladness. We say, “Come to Jesus and escape death. Follow Jesus and you will walk in light and know true beauty and freedom.”
They type of people who understand this grace, the type of people we should see increasing around us, are thankful people. There is a play on words, abounding grace (χάρις) brings abounding gratitude (εὐχαριστίαν), from the same Greek root. The thanksgiving of the many is growing. It isn’t only information about resurrection that we want to spread, it is gratitude. If we want to see thanksgiving go viral, we’ve got to be willing to be used up and endure all things.
What you wear, what you eat, who you’re with and how you handle their fussiness, will be flavored by knowing that Jesus is risen and you will be raised with Him. Our resurrected gratitude grows and glorifies God.
Resurrection is what we believe, what we should speak, how we should conduct ourselves, and our hope for seeing the spread of grace and gratitude, in our hearts, families, church, and among the nations.
As we are poured out, banged up, beat around pots, sloshing grace over every side, the only way we’ll keep going is as we look to our resurrection. We will only give up our lives for others if we believe that in giving up life we gain life, that dying is never vain and not the end. Dying and death result in resurrection, being raised with Jesus. If we are examples of pettiness, bitterness, or reluctance, we’re not living like those who have been raised. If we only do what is convenient, cheap, and selfish, the gratitude of others will shrivel, and then God will not be honored as He deserves.
We are not dead stones. He has made us living stones, and He is building us as His temple on the living cornerstone. Resurrection is not a dead truth on a page, it is a living energy that fills and builds and unites persons.