Resurrection Sunday, 2013 - Romans 6:1-10 What happened in Christ's Resurrection?

We're going to be taking a look at what are the different things that took place on the day that Christ was crucified. Not only the fact that he was resurrected, not only was he resurrected physically, but other things took place. Looking back, Lesson 70 in our Law and Grace series, which we presented last fall, said that when Christ died, when he was crucified, there are at least six things that happened.

And we won't go over them in immense detail here, but just refer back to them. Christ died for our sins. He died in our place. That applied to every person on the planet for all time. We also said that Christ's death made the devil powerless. This is out of Hebrews chapter 2, and that applies to every person who believes. Everyone who believes has made the devil powerless here through Christ's death. Next it says, New Covenant was confirmed by Christ's death. This is what's meant by Christ saying at the Last Supper, this is the New Covenant in my blood. That applies to Israel. It confirms Israel's New Covenant.

Then three things that apply to the church. Christ paid the bride price for us. He bought us as the bride of Christ, as was the custom in those days. Next, Christ paid the price for a slave or a flock. That applies to the church. And finally, and lastly here, we have been identified with his crucifixion and with his death. The first of five things, as we'll talk about shortly, that we've been identified with Christ's sin. Now that applies only to the church. The last three of those apply specifically to the church. What we're going to be looking at today is not the crucifixion, as we looked at then, but today what happened when Christ was raised from the dead, aside from him simply being raised from the dead. What took place spiritually? What insight do we have from scripture as a result of looking at that? So we'll be asking that question. Matter of fact, we've got three different slides summarizing those things, and we'll look at those in more detail.

The first thing was the obvious physical thing. Christ's body was raised from being physically dead. He was physically dead and then was made alive. So that was the first thing and the most obvious thing that we would observe here. The next thing is Christ's body was raised at the very beginning of the greatest engagement of power ever known in the universe. The greatest engagement of power ever known in the universe. Next, Christ's body was raised to life with a new kind of body.

Christ didn't come back as Lazarus did to a body like this. Imagine, here's Lazarus. He's already been through this death process. He comes back into this kind of a body, one like you and I have, and what's he going to do? At some point, he's going to die again. Imagine Lazarus. Oh no! I've been through this again. How many times are you going to do this? A new kind of body. Not one like this. Not like Lazarus. It's not just coming back to this life. A new kind of body altogether.

Next, Christ's body was raised so that we could be justified. That's declared righteous. So that we could be justified. since it does no good to declare a lifeless body to be righteous." Go up to a corpse, you're righteous, right? Doesn't help. So, that was the next point. After that, Christ's body was raised as the very beginning, the first, of the new creation. both displacing and replacing this old creation. Now, the stuff that this world is made of, I'm really glad for this building and all the pews, and I'm sure you'd rather have the pews there than suddenly drop out and you're falling down to the next floor, right? It's good to have everything here, but you know what the Bible says, that all this stuff and all this world is going to go.

And how soon might that happen? You add it up, It might be as soon as 1,007 years from now. Possibly that soon. This world will wind up. Scientists tell us the sun's got about another billion years, so if you're waiting on that, no, not going to happen. But God will wind up this present universe, Peter writes, all the elements will melt. There is a new creation. that God will make, and that's the creation that we will ultimately live in. So when does the new creation begin? It began the day Christ was resurrected. And guess what? You're in Christ and Christ is in you. You are a part of that new creation.

We'll be talking about that some more here. The Father raised Christ, that's what we have from scripture, we'll look at that in more detail, enabling the Holy Spirit to give us new life so that all three persons of the Trinity are involved with us. It isn't like, okay, there's God, and then there's the Holy Spirit, and the only one we're involved with is Jesus. No. All three persons of the Trinity are involved with us. All of God for all of you.

Next, we were raised to new life with Christ as the third part of a five-part sequence of being crucified, buried, raised, which of course this is the day when we particularly observe and take note of that, ascended and seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Those five things are the things in which we were identified with Christ. We were spiritually identified with Christ. Do you remember going through those five things?

No, only because you were told, not because you experienced it. This is not a matter of experience. It's a matter of faith in what's been revealed. Faith in the facts is a way we could call it. Next, and this is the third of three slides here, and it's what happened when Christ was raised from the dead. Our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ provides for Christ to indwell us. Christ indwells every believer. and to do the living of His life in and through us who believes. So Christ's resurrection isn't a, whoopee, somebody was dead and now they're alive, but it impacts how we live today. That's by God's intent. So the resurrection isn't just some historical event, although it certainly was, that we look back on and we could say, look, there's great evidence for it and all that, and wasn't it nice that Christ was raised. It's not just that.

It's how I live. It's how I live today. It's how I can live righteously, but not under law. Entirely by grace. How? Because Christ, who indwells me, doesn't need the law to live righteously. See that? Christ doesn't need the law to live righteously, and if He's the one doing the living, then that's all I need.

Next, our death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating together with Christ provide for us to have a body like His when we will see Him face to face. I don't know about you, but it'll be really nice to have something to replace this. It'll be really nice. Matter of fact, I think one of the reasons the Lord allows things to go wrong with this body is so we'll be real glad for the next one. Real glad for the next one. Some of you may have things where you're kind of struggling with your body. Some people have things that are chronic. I do. It just doesn't go away. You're dealing with things that your body is malfunctioning about. There is an increasing eagerness as a result of that for saying, I'll take the new one. That new body will be like Christ's.

Next, our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ provide for us to be dead to the sin nature, the law and the world, and to be, in resurrection, alive to God and living to God. We live to Him, ongoing, alive, that's our position, living in our daily condition. Eternal position is what we have eternally right now. God did it. God pulled it off. And our daily living that out, living to God, is our daily condition. Now, Christ's body was raised from being physically dead. Christ's body was raised from being physically dead, having died on the cross, having been buried in the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea, along with Nicodemus and others with them.

The hundred pounds of wrappings, the large stone, and it was exceedingly large. That was the slide you saw up there. Very large stone. The Roman seal and the Roman sentries did not keep Christ in the wrappings. Between the cloth wrappings and the aloes there, a hundred pounds of material that is all wrapped up in. That didn't hold him back. A large stone set with the seal of Rome, which had a death penalty for breaking it.

Custodia of soldiers, about 16 Roman soldiers in front. That didn't stop anything. A heavily guarded tomb. And these, by the way, were battle-hardened soldiers. And they didn't fall asleep. That's a sort of a mythology that gathered around the account. They didn't fall asleep. They did run in fear. They did become paralyzed with fear. What do you do with an angel that's not the least bit threatened by you? Here he comes. The angel's just looking at you like, eh. That's what these guys encountered.

John 20, 11-13, But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so as she wept, She stooped and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."

So here is Mary, and this is Mary Magdalene. That means she's from the town of Magdala on the west side of the Sea of Galilee so Mary Magdalene and at this point in time she does not know Christ is resurrected she's just very upset that the body is not there she figures somebody she just says they have taken away my Lord whoever that is they've taken away my Lord his body isn't there I don't know where they've laid him and that's what she's puzzled by there's no little note that says Jesus body was moved over here right There's no little note like that. There's nobody there saying, Hey, you know, we moved him over here. None of that. So then when she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener? She said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary, ah, wait a minute, I recognize that voice. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. She recognized, ah, this is not the gardener.

I have the answer. Nobody took the body away. Here he is standing right in front of me. How? How could that possibly happen? This is the greatest engagement of power ever known. Ephesians 1.18-21 looks like this.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is a surpassing greatness of His power into us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." This is the greatest engagement of power in the entire universe. I'm not talking about a powerful engagement like Joe and Kelly's or something. This is the greatest engagement of power.

That's something different. This is an according, this is a surpassing greatness of power. Okay? Surpassing means, this word means overthrown. Okay? It isn't, boy this was kind of powerful. This is way over the top powerful. This is the kind of thing where you hit the ball and it goes into orbit. Okay?

That's the kind of power he's talking about here. And one other thing, a lot of your translations will say, power toward us who believe, kind of like, you know, in your general direction. This word is translated over 400 times, into. So I changed the translation there, into. This immense, overwhelming power, this way over the top power of the resurrection is the power into us who believe. you and me. Isn't that astounding? Do you feel powerful? No, not necessarily. It's not what you feel.

It's the power that God has carried out in you from and because of the resurrection of Christ. These are in accordance. When you see in accordance in the Bible, or according to, you can put in there the words consistent with. These are consistent with the working of the strength of His might. The working, that's the carrying out of it. The strength of His might, at that point it's potential power. The working of it is engaging it, putting it in power.

That immense power, the greatest engagement of power ever known, was the power to resurrect Christ and that same resurrection power is the power put into you as a believer. Resurrection power in your life. It's the greatest engagement of power in the universe. That same power is what God has put into you. You have resurrection life in you. The most phenomenal, amazing, astounding, overwhelming power in the universe. God's invested that in you.

He brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places and the next chapter says we're seated there with him that resurrection power is into you the seating in the heavenly places you're there with him take a look at that shortly here Christ was raised to life in a new kind of body you have on this slide on page 1, the poetic pattern here of this passage.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body. It is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Verses 42 through 49, and we're only covering through verse 44 here, are in a poetic form. We've shown you that. In each case to show a contrast between the present kind of a believer's body and the same was true of Christ. The present kind of the believer's body and the same was true of Christ, and the future kind of a believer's body following after the resurrection of Christ. in each variation in that contrast. So what he does, he doesn't sit there and repeat the same words over and over again. He shows the contrast with different aspects so that we'll have a full understanding of the difference between this body and a resurrected body. Christ's body before he was resurrected and Christ's body afterwards. And the same will be true of us. We need to understand then the nature of this present Adam body and the Christ body that we will have because Christ was raised.

It's one of the reasons why it's a great thing to be able to go, and you may see this a little strangely, to be able to go at a graveside service for a believer and tell people right there at the cemetery, nobody's getting buried here today. That's right, nobody's getting buried here today. And they're thinking, what? I mean, isn't that about what they're going to do? Or, you know, what's this hole in the ground for?

Nobody's getting buried. Nobody. No believer gets buried. As a matter of fact, you know, they'll have this term, final resting place. Wrong term. This is not the final resting place, because nobody's getting buried today. Every believer, when they put them in the ground, gets sown. That's different. You see that? Nobody gets buried if you're a believer, you get sown. Physical earthly body is sown, and the spiritual heavenly body is raised. So we don't have a burial plot, we have a sowing plot. This isn't a graveyard when you have Christians involved.

This is a crop. This is a crop. Because we're not burying anybody here, nobody who's a believer is going to have this as their final resting place. Nobody. They're going to be sown. And this crop here, The Lord's going to harvest it. The Lord's going to harvest it. Nobody's buried. Everyone here who's a believer that is put in the ground is sown to be raised. Raised into a heavenly spiritual body. We have two different kinds. There's the present body and then the future body. The present body is perishable. The future body is not. And I'm really glad of that. The present body is sown in dishonor.

Now, I have to make a comment, because one of the things I'll do at a graveside service is to say, you know, what we're doing today is honorable and respectful, and it is as it should be. But just don't get the idea that this is permanent. This isn't permanent. What we're doing here is temporary. I'm glad it's honorable. It ought to be. But the reality is, it's temporary. This isn't the great honor, as much as we might wish to honor. This isn't the great honor. This is actually putting them in a place that's temporary, and this is on this earth, this is dishonorable by comparison.

The future body is glorious. The future body is glorious. It's sown in weakness. These bodies that, okay, you know, They might last a certain number of years, but at some point or another, we're going to reach our expiration date. You ever notice that you go into the grocery store or something and they'll have things, you know, here's your expiration date. Sell by, you know, drugs, you have an expiration date. Well, guess what? These things have expiration dates, too. It just isn't printed on them too often, right? So we have an expiration date, too.

So this is a weak body, okay? This is going to be a time it just doesn't make it, doesn't pull through. The future body will be one of power. The present body is natural. You know, we oftentimes have this idea that natural is a good thing. Well, it kind of is, but the reality is when you compare that to spiritual, it's just nothing. Natural is not anywhere near as good as the future spiritual body.

Now, Christ's body was raised so that we could be justified. Now, not for his, Abraham's sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it was credited. those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead he that is Jesus our Lord who was delivered over be because of our transgressions and was raised for our justification raised for our justification now you think about it judges don't sentence corpses nor they do they declare them not guilty They don't bother. You bring a corpse into the courthouse, the judge is going to say, that looks like a dead body, get it out of here.

They don't bother. They don't go through the whole process and have lawyers and everybody argue. They just don't do that. Judges don't do any declaring of a dead body other than saying, that's a dead body, get it out of here. I won't have that in my courtroom. That's the way it is with dead bodies.

We needed to be spiritually alive as a result of Christ's resurrection life in order to be declared righteous. That's justification. And I'm not talking about making excuses. To be declared righteous, we had to be alive because God, the Judge, would need to have us alive in order to make a declaration that was worth anything. So we were raised with Christ, we were made alive because of His being made alive in order that we could be declared righteous, justified in our standing before God. This is God's declaration. God as the judge says, not guilty, righteous.

He does that only to those who are living spiritually. That's us, that's you, that's me. Spiritually and physically, all of this present creation will pass away. Only the new in kind beings will continue into the new creation, starting with Christ who was raised. Christ was raised to a new creation body. Not like this present world. A new creation body. And because you and I are in Christ and Christ is in us because we're believers because of that He is the beginning of the new creation the universe after this one already and you share in that new creation character and you too will get a new creation body Now, the Lord's been taking us home one at a time, but there will come a time when the Lord will take us home all together. I hope that day is today, when we can have that new creation body. I'll be real glad to get out of this one.

Colossians 1.18 says, For he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Wait a minute, He's the beginning? How is He the beginning? Because He's the first of the new creation. He's the beginning of that new creation.

This world will not be terminated until at least 1,007 years from now. But the new one has already begun, and that began at Christ's resurrection. Because you were identified with Him in that resurrection, and because you are identified with Christ, you're in Christ, and Christ is in you, you also are a part of that new creation. You will have a body that's a part of that new creation.

It's already begun. The new creation has already been started. It was started almost 2,000 years ago. It's continuing today in believers. So here, the people sitting here this morning are part of that new creation. That new creation that won't be initiated in the full sense until at least 1,007 years from now.

Revelation 1.7, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead. The first. Now the Father raised Christ, enabling the Holy Spirit to give us new life.

That's clear in more than one passage, but Galatians 1.1 is as clear as any.

Paul, an apostle, not sent from men or through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Who raised him from the dead? God the Father, right? But now, How do we have life? Romans 8, 11, But if the Spirit of Him, that is the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life into your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The Father raised Jesus. It is a work of the Spirit. I think you've got an elective downstairs on the work of the Holy Spirit. The person and work of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the things that the Holy Spirit does. This gives life to the believer. And it happens because the Father raised Christ.

Notice again, all three persons of the Trinity are involved here. So the Bible teaches that God is three personal beings, one essence. Now, we're used to the idea of one personal being, one essence. So the idea of three personal beings, one essence kind of blows our circuits. But that's what the Bible teaches. The term for it, you won't find it in the Bible, but the term for it, and I think it's a good one, is a trinity. Some have called it a triunity. All three of those beings, personal beings, one God, all three of those beings are involved in Christ's and our resurrection. Christ himself, of course, being the recipient of that first resurrection.

You'll find this, we won't pursue all the references there, but you're certainly welcome to do so. Now, expanding on that, Galatians 2, 19, 20, and 21 talk about this. The way we went through this, and that's how I'll do it here, is 2, 19, and 21 are kind of of a theme. And we have here the version called Expanded and Explained. Courtney made reference to that.

And it's more wordy, but I think is very understandable. For by means of the ability of the law to condemn and sentence me to death, I died in relationship to the law so that I was eternally separated from it. But this death with Christ and my subsequent resurrection with him also had its eternal purpose in order that I would live in relationship to God forever. Verse 21, In saying these things I do not reject the grace which is an essential part of God's own infinite and eternal character, because if being declared righteous by God comes by means of the law, then I must conclude that this, and it's just absurd, that Christ died for absolutely nothing. There are a great many people in Christendom, and I'll use that term, who will keep hitting you over the head with the law.

Boy, you've got to follow the ten, you know? And they'll say, well, someone got uncomfortable with that Sabbath thing, because they don't quite understand that. And besides that, we're meeting on Sunday, right? So you've got to follow the ten minus one. Oh yeah, you've got to tithe on top of that. So ten minus one plus one. And so anyway, they come up with various combinations.

If righteousness by God comes by means of the law, then I must conclude, and this is just absurd, Christ died for nothing. Galatians 2.20 Since I first believed the gospel by God's doing, I have been made to be in Christ. I didn't get to be in Christ because I worked hard at it, or I'm working at it and somehow partially through with the process.

By God's doing, 1 Corinthians 1.30, I've been made to be in Christ, that I was crucified together with Christ, I died with Him, then the next part, what we celebrate today, and having also been raised with Christ, since Christ also was made to dwell in me.

It is no longer I who do the living. If you're trying to do the living, stop it! It's not your job. I cannot encourage you to try to be a good Christian. Not a good idea. That's not what God wants. You realize you can try to be a good Christian, and you can work really hard at it, and God will not be pleased. Why? He doesn't want you to do that.

He wants Christ to do the living through you. That's what this verse is telling us. And it happens because Christ was resurrected. Having been raised with Christ, and since Christ also is made to dwell in me, it is no longer I who do the living, but Christ who indwells me does the living in me. I'm done. I can resign. I'm done, because it's Christ's job. And the life which I now live in this body here on this earth, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me immensely, and who expressed that immense love in that He gave Himself up willingly for me, voluntarily dying in my place.

He didn't go to the cross kicking and screaming, shouting out, Oh no, you guys have it all wrong! I'm innocent! You got the wrong guy! I don't deserve this! No, He went to the cross, Put his arms out. Let's do this. Let's do this. He voluntarily gave his life for us. That's grace. That's love. Romans 6, 3-5, and we're going through a portion of what Courtney read for us here. Partially expanded and explained. You have it on page 2 of your handout.

Or do you not know, and of course you do, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, that means immersed into, baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death and this this we underline so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so we too might walk in newness of life so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father because he's the one who raised him so we too might walk in newness of life Impacting now, why was Christ resurrected? By the glory of the Father? So that you might walk in newness of life. Not trying to live to please God, but living a new kind of way, a new kind of life.

Because He's pulling it off, not me. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, then certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection." We've been identified with Him. The next verses, 9 through 11, since you know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, He's not going to keep going through this like Lazarus, right? Death no longer is master over Him.

For the death that He died, Christ died, He died in relationship to the sin nature once for all. It's done. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. That's not once done and it's always done. That continues on. Even so, you must consider yourselves to be dead in relationship to the sin nature, but in sharp contrast, alive in relationship to the God in Christ Jesus. Alive in relationship to God is ongoing because of what was done. because of Christ's death, because of His burial and His resurrection, and our spiritual identification with Him in those three things. Alive in relationship to God.

For how long? Can we check it out on our clock? Can we mark it on the calendar? No. Forever. God made this relationship change as a once-completed past action so that we forevermore as believers, for all eternity, live in relationship to God. 1 John 3, 2, and this is one, as I was going through a Greek translation class in seminary, this is one where I was translating 1st John 3.1 and 3.2 and after I just got through translating the thing and here's all this greeky geeky stuff right I'm going through and as soon as I finish I burst into tears I couldn't see the screen because it hit me how immensely the Lord loves us and and the Lord has permanently given his gracious love to us beloved we are now children of God and by the way that that was a declaration that in the Roman Empire, let me back up a little bit, it was legal for fathers to kill their children, even their adult sons. But if you were accepted as a child, legally, the father could not kill you, and you would be kept alive. This is what this is saying in equivalent. Beloved, we are now children of God.

We are completely accepted. It has not appeared as yet what we will be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him just as He is. We have been made like Him spiritually, having even shared His history. We share a history with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. Two processes are going on right now among believers.

You're being conformed, Romans 8.28 and 29. and you're being transformed.

2 Corinthians 3.18. Those two processes are in the same direction. They're in the direction of conforming you and transforming you into the image of Christ. That pair of processes will be complete the day you go to see the Lord. It will be complete. And the other thing that will be completed is the replacement of this body with the new one.

We will be like Him that day when we'll see him as he is. We will be fully conformed, fully transformed spiritually into the image of Christ. We will have a body just like his, sharing his history. That's how we can be seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Sharing his history and having that body like his, having been made spiritually like him.

Matter of fact, we will share every quality and characteristic that Christ has and we will share his history in those five things and the only way that we will differ from Christ himself will be in deity. He will be deity and we will not. But we will have everything else. We will share his history. We will have a body like his. We will be fully conformed.

We will be fully transformed. we will see him in the resurrected bodies like his because he was raised and we will have bodies identical to his we will see him just as he is we will be like him because of the resurrection that will be true I hope the Lord comes today when he appears we'll be like him today would be just fine Okay? Let's pray. Lord, thank you as we look at these passages, as we look at these truths that you've clearly laid out in scripture.

There's even a chance we haven't touched on all the different things, but still what is theirs is plenty for us to grasp and absorb. But what a wondrous thing, Lord, you've done. We who didn't deserve it, matter of fact, we deserved something else. And we who could not have pulled it off on our own.

An amazing thing that we will be like you in every respect except for your deity. But you have decided, determined, to share your glory with us. To have a power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, be the power that is directed into us and through the person of Christ who indwells us. Thank you for these marvelous and immense truths we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.