The Benefits of His Resurrection

 Today, we want to talk about “THE BENEFITS OF HIS RESURRECTION!” The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to the Christian faith. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Christian faith would just be “hopeful thinking.”

1 Corinthians 15:14, 20 says, “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain… 20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died” (1 Cor. 15:14-20, NLT).

How does the resurrection of Christ benefit us?

1. By His resurrection we too are already resurrected to a new life. Our hope of new life is not just a future goal; it is a present reality.

2. His resurrection guarantees that the bodies of all Born-Again Believers will also be raised in the end. Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee of the glorious resurrection of all Born-Again believers. 

Beyond the grave, there is a glorious body to be worn by the children of God! What will our bodies be like after they are resurrected? The Bible teaches that it shall be a spiritual body. It shall be a body like unto the glorified body of Christ.

Therefore, “We await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly (vile) body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

Christ’s resurrection was the firstfruits of a resurrection harvest yet to come. “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23).

3. By His resurrection Jesus Christ has overcome death, so that He might make us share in the righteousness He won for us by His death. First Corinthians 15 makes clear that if Jesus has not been raised our “faith is futile” and we “are still in our sins.” 

“For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised: and if Christ is  not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16-17).

“But why?” you might ask. “If Jesus died on the cross for our sins, bearing the curse that we deserved, shouldn’t we be free from our sins whether He rose again or not?” 

In other words, Why is the resurrection, and not simply the cross alone, necessary for the forgiveness of sin?

This is because without the resurrection nothing has been conquered - not sin, not death, not the devil. 

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead testifies that Jesus is the Son of God. “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

4. His resurrection assures us that the work of salvation has been accomplished. If Jesus had not been raised it would be an indication to us that the work of salvation had not yet been accomplished. 

His resurrection indicates the satisfaction of divine justice. The punishment for sin is over. The merit of Christ has proven worthy. The debt has been paid. Death has been vanquished. Sin has been atoned for.

5. His resurrection means that the death of Jesus was enough. Enough to atone for our sin, enough to reconcile us to God, enough to present us holy in God’s presence. 

6. His resurrection means Christ proved Himself righteous to the Father, so that through faith we now can share in His righteousness. That’s why Romans 4:25 says Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

The Cross and the empty tomb cannot be separated. The two events are dependent upon each other. Together they demonstrate that Christ’s payment for sin has been accepted and His victory is ours.

Many times, in the New Testament, we see the phrase “in Christ.” This little phrase speaks to the glorious union believers have with Christ through faith. 

Just as by nature we were “in Adam” when he sinned in the garden, so by faith we were “in Christ” when He suffered and died and rose again. 

We died in His death and we rose again in His resurrection to new life (Rom. 6:5-11).

We are not the same people we once were. “We who were dead in our trespasses have been made alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5).

Never forget your union with Christ. We struggle with feelings of guilt and cannot really believe we are justified because we forget that every lash and blow we deserve has already been dealt to us through our Substitute. 

And the convincing proof of our acquittal has already been demonstrated in the resurrection. Likewise, we struggle with feelings of helplessness and cannot really believe in the prospect of sanctification because we forget that we died to the old self and have spiritual life every bit as real as Christ’s new spiritual body. Because of our “in Christ-ness” new life starts now.

7. The resurrection of Jesus Christ assures us of spending eternity with God (1 Pet. 1:3-4). 

8. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us forgiveness (Rom. 4:24-25).

9. The Resurrection gives us access to the power (ability) that raised Christ from the dead (Phil. 3:10-11). 

10. The resurrection of Christ gives us victory over death (1 Cor. 15:54-57, KJV). The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a proof that death has been defeated.

Watch out for the Good News from the Pulpit!

• Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (the Senior Pastor, HOG).