Hope through Christ’s resurrection

We believe that Jesus died and rose again. Now, one thing that concerns is that fearsome enemy that we rightly fear—if you are going to say you do not fear death, I think that you are just grandstanding a little bit, because death is a very fearful thing. What is someone like me to do against the power of death? There is nothing I can do. But then I look to Jesus Christ, and he has already conquered it. And I have entrusted myself, and I have come under his care—because he has offered to take me, and he has covenanted unto me—that by his power, he will see me through, and death will not defeat me. And I say, How can that be? And I look to the empty tomb, and I say, That Lord Jesus—we believe that he died and that he rose again. He is the victor over the grave. I will happily entrust myself to him.

Moreover, if we understand the resurrection of Jesus rightly—as Paul labours particularly in that great chapter, 1 Corinthians 15:1–58—Paul emphasizes that Jesus, in his own resurrection, was not performing an isolated event. When we look at the resurrection of Jesus many years ago—breaking the bands of the grave and rising up in the power of new life—that was the beginning of a harvest that continues throughout this age. And just as the death of his believers is tied to his death, so also their resurrection. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15:20: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep. There is that asleep language again. What is a firstfruit? Well, the firstfruits are the offering—the first food that came out of the ground. The beginning of the harvest was the sign of the whole of the harvest, and it was offered unto God. And if Jesus is the first fruits of all his people who sleep, that means that his resurrection is the proof and the guarantee of the resurrection of the whole harvest.¹

Richard D. Phillips