This Sunday Christians observe Easter, the great Holy Day of the church commemorating the resurrection of our Lord. Why should that event be celebrated? The question seems almost irreverent, but it is worth asking.
To many Christians historically, the answer is principally negative: Jesus Christ is no longer dead, thank God, but is alive. But this is only half of a right answer, and perhaps not even half.
The reason that this truncated answer has often been thought of as the entire answer is that for most of its life, the Western church lost the full significance of the resurrection.
The Easter community
The primitive church in the first few decades after Christ’s ascension was an Easter community. The early Christians reveled in the risen, ascended, and ruling Lord long before they grasped the theological significance of his death. Of course, they had a general sense that Christ died for the sins of man, but nothing like our understanding of that substitutionary atonement.
On the other hand, they were overjoyed by the living Lord, and that resurrection-generated Lordship is something they understood (Acts 2:22-36; Acts 3:11-16; Acts 9:1-9; Acts 10:34-43). In fact, as Oscar Cullmann noted, the earliest creed in the church is Kyrios Christos: Jesus is Lord. The one who arose and ascended to assume the throne of David was formally installed as Lord of everything in heaven and earth (Philippians 2:4-11). This the early church did know.
The retreat from Easter
Over time, however, as the Easter ardor of the primitive church cooled, and succeeding Christians grew distant from the historical reality of the resurrection, it was the interpretation of the atoning death of Jesus that gained prominence, particularly as its benefits were communicated through a sacerdotal church.
This concentration on the death of Christ to the relative neglect of his resurrection continued in the Western church into the present, such that Christians might look at us quizzically when today we pose the question “How are we saved by Christ’s resurrection?” They understand how his death saves us: he bore our own sins in his own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24; Colossians 2:13-15). But it is not clear to modern Christians how the resurrection of Christ saves us, though the Bible plainly teaches that it does (John 11:24-26; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:12-21).
Paul preached, in fact, that the resurrection should take precedence even over the death of Christ, which is the last reality that any true Christian anywhere would underemphasize: “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).
We rejoice in the hymn lyric: “It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.” But strictly speaking, this is not true. If we asked ourselves on what grounds we can be saved, our answer might be: “Christ suffered the penalty from my sins on the cross, and all my sins are taken away; God will not judge me because he judged his Son in my place.” This is only a partial truth.
Paul makes very plain that we cannot be saved by the death of Christ alone: “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19). Had Christ suffered on the cross for our sins but never risen, we cannot be saved. In fact, we would still be dead in our sins. To those of us who understand substitutionary atonement, this might come as a shock. Did Christ not suffer for our sins on the cross? Yes. Was the cross sufficient to take away our sins? No.
The new world order
While the crucifixion removed the penalty for sin, Christ himself bearing it, the resurrection overturns the entire sinful order. Though the crucifixion has glorious effects throughout all of history and even eternity, the resurrection is a persevering eschatological fact. When Christ declared on the cross “It is finished,” he meant the atonement was over. He died once for all (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 9:11-28).
But when he rose, he did not say “It is finished.” Why? Because the resurrection is not finished. The resurrection is not only a past event; it is also, and equally, an eschatological event.
If you had asked Paul when the final resurrection would be, he would have responded that it has already started. Jesus was the firstfruits, the first of many (1 Corinthians 15:20–23), and will be followed by all of the saints on the Last Day. The crucifixion was final and definitive. The resurrection is progressive and continuous. Not that Christ himself must die and rise again, but his rising from the dead is the first in a long, glorious, comprehensive cosmic process.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they not only elicited divine judgment on themselves as individuals; they invited an entire sinful cosmic order. All creation was cursed, and the age or eon itself became sinful. The first Adam created a new sinful world order (Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 2:8; 2 Corinthians 4:4). The problem with sin in the world is not simply that if man does not trust Christ, God will eternally judge him, though that ominous prospect is true enough.
In addition, however, the created order itself is weighed down by sin: the sin of man, not the sin of society or institutions, as Pelagian heretics and modern liberals would have us believe.
When Christ rose, he instituted a new righteous age and a new redemptive order. He had suffered death, the penalty of sin, on the cross, but he only finally defeated sin and death when he rose. Why? Because death is the infallible mark of a sinful order (Genesis 2:17). His resurrection put to death the old order, though death in a still-sinful world still claims us and will only finally be obliterated in the final resurrection. But that order itself was judged and broken at Easter. Christ is now ruling over a new cosmic righteous order.
This is why Paul writes that Christ is exalted “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21). He also trumpets: “For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9).
Peter similarly declares: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him” (1 Peter 3:21-22).
The new Easter order
This Easter eschatology is a reality in the Christian life. When we were united to Jesus Christ by faith, we were united to his suffering for sin on the cross, as well as his resurrection-crushing of the old sinful world (Romans 6:1-11). For this reason, sin no longer has any reign over us. This does not merely mean we can have consistent victory over sin. This also means we are victors over the cosmic sinful order. We still sin, because sin has not been removed entirely from the cosmos, but sin is no longer our master. We live Easter eschatology lives.
But this Easter eschatological victory cannot be limited to the individual or even the church. When Christ rose to vanquish the entire sinful order, that includes all of life and culture. Jesus Christ is presently seated in heavenly places as a result of his resurrection (Ephesians 1:20). He is ruling and reigning, and we are reigning with him (2 Timothy 2:11).
The resurrection victory of Jesus Christ extends to the entire cosmos. This means that we should work for and expect the gradual elimination of abortion; the reinstallation of a godly sexual order constituted by one man and one woman for one lifetime; the dethronement of statism as the new idol and the restoration of self-government, church government, and family government as the leading governments in society, and much more.
To argue for resurrection victory in the individual Christian life and the church, but not in society and culture, is to advocate a truncated, emaciated view of Easter. Easter eschatology is present everywhere sin is entrenched.
This Easter weekend, let us commemorate not merely the single great event of the empty tomb, but also the continual Easter event of which the resurrection of our Lord was the harbinger and firstfruit. We can rejoice this Easter Sunday, as well as every Sunday, that all areas of creation presently under the dominion of sin are being redeemed and resurrected by the power of the Spirit. Easter is the great eschatological fact that should govern our entire lives.
This article was originally published on P. Andrew Sandlin's CultureChange Substack.
