FROM ALPHA TO OMEGA: A PORTRAIT OF JESUS by Dave Jenkins for Servants of Grace
The resurrection of Jesus is critical to a solid understanding of the gospel. When talking about the doctrine of salvation, what is often emphasized in the contemporary evangelical literature is the death of Jesus and the benefits therein. What’s often missing is the resurrection of Jesus. When we look at the Gospels, though, we see Jesus talking about the resurrection. When we look at the rest of the New Testament, we discover the Apostles talking about the resurrection. Now, the death of Jesus is central to the gospel, make no mistake about it. But the death of Jesus is only one-third of the gospel. The other two-thirds of the gospel are the burial, and resurrection of Jesus. To be clear, I’m not only saying that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is all the gospel is—there is more to the work of Jesus than just the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is just as critical to an accurate gospel message as is the death and burial of our Lord Jesus. Not only is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus essential, so is the ascension of Jesus, His ongoing ministry as our High Priest/ Intercessor/ Mediator, and His soon return at His Second Coming.
In John 11:25-26
, Jesus says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” These words of Jesus in John 11:25are among the most precious and important words to ever fall from His lips. J.C. Ryle comments that Jesus “tells Martha that He is not merely a human teacher of the resurrection, but the Divine Author of all resurrection, whether spiritual or physical and the Root and Foundation of all life.”[i]
Jesus reveals Himself as the source of “the resurrection and the life”. We can hope in the resurrection because Jesus Himself has entered into death and risen from the grave. “The whole human race is plunged in death,” writes John Calvin. “Therefore, no man will possess life unless he is first risen from the dead. Hence Christ teaches that He is the beginning of life.”[ii]
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“In him was life,” John said in chapter 1 of his Gospel testimony, “and the life was the light of men” (verse 4). Therefore, “All who face the recurrent death situations of life and wrestle with questions of death and life can find an answer only through faith in him.”[iii] To believe in Jesus is to receive the benefit not only of His life and death, but also of His resurrection; from Him through faith, Christians are entered into glory through the light of His open tomb. “Because I live,” Jesus said, “you also will live” (John 14:19).
