What Does The Resurrection Mean?

What Does the Resurrection Mean?

READ ROMANS 6:1-11

Every year about this time join together and celebrate the Resurrection. We are always being reminded that Easter is the most important holiday in the calendar. And it is; but why? Shouldn’t it be Christmas? After all, you get presents. How could bunny Rabbits and chocolate Easter eggs ever hold a candle to Turkey dinners and Christmas trees and all those desserts and family gatherings and did I mention the desserts?

Well, Easter is about more than Easter eggs and bunny rabbits. It’s about the Resurrection! What does resurrection mean us? Let me give you three things that the resurrection means to us:

1. Jesus is no longer dead

The first thing that the resurrection means to us is it means that Jesus is no longer dead. You see, three days ago, on Good Friday, Jesus died; his heart ceased to beat; his brain no longer thought; his lungs stopped filling with air; his soul made the long journey to Hades.

But he did not go there because of his own sin. Jesus was sinless; he could not die. But when he hung on the Cross, God charged him for our offenses.

The consequence of sin is death and so Jesus died. But death could not hold him; though his body lay in a tomb, the tomb was not his home and on Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead- resurrected.

Because Jesus is no longer dead, we too are truly alive.

2. Jesus is risen from the dead


The second thing that the resurrection means to us is that since Jesus is risen from the dead, we too will rise from the dead. Our text this many promises us that sine we have been baptized into Jesus death thorough faith and repentance, we will also be raised with him. Verse 5: “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

A lot of times we miss this in our understanding of the gospel. We often present the gospel as believe in Jesus and go to heaven. And we fall into the trap of thinking that heaven is our destiny. But the truth is that the goal of the gospel is to get us back into our bodies. One day, when Jesus returns, our spirits will also return with him and be reunited to our bodies, but the curse of sin will be removed from our bodies and death shall no longer reign in them so that we will live in perfect bodies that free from weakness, disease and aging. The Bible describes it this way,
…The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body…. (1 Cor 15:42-44).

3. Jesus will never die

One last thing that the resurrection means to us: it means that Jesus will never die again. And if Jesus will never die again hen we also will never die again. We will live for ever. John describes what we will one day live to say in Rev 21:2 ff:
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God… 4And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” 5 Then [Jesus] said, “Behold, I make all things new.”



When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more,
and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair—
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
and the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.

On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise
and the glory of His resurrection share—
When the chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
and the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.

Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun.
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done,
and the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.