Christian reader, if you are struggling under a sense of guilt and punishment—if your conscience is condemning you before God because of your sin—I entreat you to battle for assurance at the doorstep of the empty tomb. He was raised for your justification! You’re right to feel the pang of sin in your conscience, and you’re right to despair of doing anything about it before God. But Christ has lived and died in your place, and in His resurrection the Father testifies that righteousness is accomplished!

Last week, we looked at the significance the resurrection has as it relates to Jesus’ Himself. The resurrection identifies Jesus as the Second Adam, the seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, and the Son of David. It also vindicates the testimony He had given about Himself.

This week and next, I want to consider the significance of the resurrection for believers. What implications does the resurrection have for the people of God? In fact, every aspect of our salvation—our regeneration, our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification—is tied in some way to Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

The Ground of Regeneration

1 Peter 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Peter says our new birth comes through the resurrection of Christ. Our new spiritual life that is born in our regeneration has its source in Christ’s resurrection life.

And we are made to share in that resurrection life through union with Him. Ephesians 2:5–6 says that while we were dead in our transgressions, God “made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with Him.” Because of the union that believers have with Christ, Scripture says that our spiritual resurrection in our being born again has its source in Jesus’ bodily resurrection.

And so the resurrection is the ground of our regeneration.

Conquers and Delivers from Death

Second, the resurrection conquers the enemy of death and delivers us from its fearful slavery.

Hebrews 2:14–15: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

If you surveyed 100 people on the street and asked them what their greatest fear is, 95 of them—if they were being honest with you—would say, “death.” For those without the sure hope of eternal life in Christ, death is the great unknown. And this text describes human beings as those who are so afraid of death that we are subject to slavery all our lives. This fear of death controls people, such that they go to great lengths, pay large sums of money, and make significant sacrifices to avoid it.

But by His resurrection, Jesus conquers this great enemy of death. Acts 2:24 says, “God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” Because Christ has been raised, and because we are promised to be raised with Him through repentance and faith in the Gospel, the agony of death has been ended. The tyrannical slavery that is fueled by the fear of death is broken. The believer in Christ has nothing to fear in death, because to be absent from the body in death is to be present with the Lord in heaven.

In the first chapter of Revelation, the Apostle John falls like a dead man before the ascended Christ. But Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” (Rev 1:17). Hebrews 2:15 said that Satan held the power of death. But because of the resurrection, not only has Christ broken free from deaths bonds, but He is now the ruler over death, such that He has its keys. As Beale says, He has the control over who is released and retained in that realm.

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