Our justification depends not only on Christ’s death for its foundation but also on his life for its continuation (Romans 5:10). The reason you can’t be condemned is that you not only have a bleeding atonement, but you also have a living Advocate (1 John 2:1–2).

There’s a well-known hymn by E.E. Hewitt called “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place.” You’ve probably sung it. The familiar chorus goes like this:

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that he died for me.

It’s a statement that’s glorious and beautiful—and false if misunderstood. Do we have no other argument? Is there nothing else Jesus did that provides our faith with a resting place?

Don’t get me wrong. Rightly understood, the chorus is perfectly biblical. From the cross, we hear Jesus say, “It is finished” (John 19:30). And Romans 5:9 tells us we’re “justified by his blood” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:2). So I don’t want to quibble with Hewitt’s chorus for not saying everything at once, just as I don’t want to quibble with Romans 5:9 for not saying everything at once.

Instead, I want to use the question raised by the chorus to press in on a deeper theological question: Is it really enough that Jesus died? If we’re justified by his blood, then what role (if any) does his resurrection play? I ask because shortly before telling us we’re justified by Jesus’s blood (Rom. 5:9), Paul claims that Christ was also “raised for our justification” (4:25).

What does that mean? What role does Christ’s resurrection play in our justification, and how might it provide us with another “argument”? Here are three ways that Christ’s resurrection relates to our justification.

1. His resurrection proves his death worked.

Imagine it’s still Holy Saturday, and Christ is still in the tomb. He’s been delivered up for our trespasses—praise God! But how do we know it worked? How do we know our debt has been discharged—what with Christ Jesus still laying “in death’s strong bands”?

Answer: Just give God a few more hours. Did Good Friday work? Easter’s answer is yes! Not only was he delivered up for our offenses, but he was also raised for our justification. Paul uses the same Greek preposition (διὰ, “for” or “on account of”) in both halves of the verse. Basically everyone agrees the first half means he was delivered up on account of our trespasses. But if διὰ carries the same meaning in the second half (which seems plausible), this would mean Christ was also “raised on account of our justification.” He was raised because our justification had been successfully secured by Christ’s blood (Rom. 5:9).

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