We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
What the Resurrection Says About the Cross
As with every other aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry, even the resurrection must be understood in light of the cross. This event was not just the resuscitation of a random corpse. It was the resurrection of the Incarnate Son of God who had fulfilled the human side of the God-human covenant by living a sinless life and who, as an unsurpassable expression of divine love, came to earth and entered into the worst of human evil and carried it all on his shoulders. Understood as such, the resurrection can only be viewed as God’s vindication of the self-sacrificial life and death of this God-man through whom God’s eternal character was made known.
For this reason the resurrection must not be interpreted as a display of triumphalist power that contrasts with the humble, cruciform, character of God revealed on the cross as well as throughout Jesus’ ministry. It was rather a display of power that confirmed that the cross is in fact the revelation of God’s true character and that God’s enemy-loving, non-violent, self-sacrificial way of responding to evil is in fact victorious.
It is for this reason that the One who sits on the throne in the Book of Revelation and who alone is worthy to open the scroll of God’s plan for history is the victorious lamb who was “slaughtered” (Rev. 4-5; 21:22; 22:1,4). And it’s for this reason that those who conquer are depicted as doing so because they “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4), bearing witness to his victory and imitating his sacrificial death (Rev. 12:11). Moreover, throughout Revelation we find the emphatic declaration that the glorified and victorious Jesus is the same as the crucified Jesus (see Rev. 5:6, 9, 12; 7:14, 17; 12:11; 13:8; 17:14).
This is precisely why all who have been raised with Christ and who therefore participate in his resurrected life (Rom. 6) reflect their participation by taking on a cruciform character that leads them to sacrificially serve others, including their enemies, just as Jesus did (Rom. 12:7-12). The same point is made by noting that for Paul, the Spirit that dwells within believers is the Spirit of the crucified Christ that empowers them to live according to “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), which is to love others as he loved us “when he gave his life for [us]” (Eph. 5:1-2).
Ernst Käsemann is thus surely on the mark when he holds that the cross is “the signature of the one who is risen.”[1] And the surest signature that anyone belongs to him is that they participate in Christ’s risen life, which means they participate in the expression of his self-sacrificial love.
[1] E. Käsemann, “The Saving Significance of the Death of Jesus in Paul,” in Perspectives on Paul, trans. M. Kohl (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), 56.
Related Reading
Mother’s Day
Alain Bachellier via Compfight Happy Mother’s Day to all of our beautiful, luminous ReKnew moms and moms-to-be! And comfort and love to those who grieve lost children this Mother’s Day. You’re in our hearts and prayers.
Loving the Unlovable
Mother Teresa had a prayer she spoke each day that enabled her to minister effectively: Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick, and whilst nursing them, minister unto you. Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I…
The Accelerating Train
If you aren’t experiencing it yet, you will. Each year goes by faster than the previous one. The reason is that, as you get older, each year is a smaller fraction of your life. I turned fifty-eight this year, so this year felt about twice as fast as when I was twenty-nine and more than…
The Hope of the Cross & Resurrection
In a real sense, God has already “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms” (Eph 2:6). And while “we do not see everything subject to [us],” the truth of the matter is that, in Christ, we have already been restored to our rightful place as co-rulers with Christ.…
The Cross as a Trinitarian Event
On Calvary, the all-holy God fully identified with sinners, suffering the consequences of our sin as though he himself were guilty. While God is never culpable for the evil he allows, he nevertheless assumes responsibility for it by fully identifying with those free agents who are in fact culpable. While the Son alone suffered as…
Sermon Clip: Extravagant Forgiveness, Extravagant Love
Greg Boyd had the wonderful opportunity to guest speak at a great church in Carlisle, PA called Carlisle BIC. He spoke on the topic of forgiveness and love. In this short clip, Greg describes how a prostitute was being judged by the Pharisees, but Jesus came to her rescue. You can listen to the full…