WHY DOES THE RESURRECTION MATTER TO
CHRISTIANS ?
Beyond knowing the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, is the question of why Jesus chose to willingly go through crucifixion, death, and resurrection in the first place. The Gospels make clear that Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be seized by the authorities and crucified.
Matthew 16:21 : “From that time Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day.”.
Paul explains that the reason for Jesus’ sacrifice was to pay the price owed by the sins of humanity, in Romans 4 :25 : “Jesus] was delivered over because of our wrongdoings, and was raised because of our justification.”
As a result, Christians “participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus” in a personal way ; it is for the individual believer’s own sin that Jesus CHOSE TO DIE and each believer is personally impacted by the resurrection. It is not that the sins of mankind simply caused the death of Jesus, but rather that Jesus CHOSE TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF to pay the price for those sins, so that:
“In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings.” (Ephesians 1:7)
This forgiveness brings about eternal life, a re-unification of believers with their Creator after death. As a practical response, Christians need not fear death. Although the fear of death is common to mankind (and not without reason), Jesus provides Christians with the knowledge in the here-and-now that their eternal future is secure. Christians can abate the fear of death, by adopting “God’s heavenly perspective” knowing that whatever tragedies they face in this life will be fixed and made right, if not in this life, without doubt in the hereafter
This outlook should encourage the believer to live a life geared towards their eternal future. Rather than becoming bogged down by concerns of the day, or wasting time chasing temporary “worldly” goals (in pursuit of money, worldly power, etc), they should orient their lives towards the pursuit and service of the God they will ultimately be reunited with and spend eternity in the company of.
The life of a believer should be centered around doing the will of God. In Colossians 3, the Apostle Paul writes: « Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth… »
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As Christ told us in John 13 : 35 : « By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. »
So let’s commit ourselves to emulate the person of Christ, by being an example of love, mercy, kindness, gentleness, understanding, patience, and compassion with everyone around us. Will you ?