Christ's Resurrection and Ascension
Christ's Resurrection and Ascension
10/2 Reading Portions: 1 Kings 4-5; Ephesians 2; Ezekiel 35; Psalm 85
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10/2 Reading Portions: 1 Kings 4-5; Ephesians 2; Ezekiel 35; Psalm 85
Psalm 85:11
Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.
SIGN
Jesus said that the only sign He would give an evil and adulterous generation was His resurrection from the dead (Matt 12:39-40). The resurrection of Jesus Christ can never be divorced from the gospel. To deny the resurrection of Christ is to deny the faith (1 Cor 15:17). By Christ’s resurrection, truth springs from the ground of His empty garden tomb. Christ’s body laid in a borrowed tomb for three days and nights. This speaks of the incarnation; of God becoming a Man. It also speaks of Christ’s death as a Man; dying on behalf of sinful men so those dead in sins may have eternal life in His name. Moreover, since Christ’s resurrection and ascension, Christ sent the Holy Spirit to abide in redeemed souls; and the resurrection presents the reality of regeneration— the transformation of the sinner becoming a saint. Truth springs out of the earth by those made new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) because we could not possibly trust in God’s gospel truth unless our dead souls have been raised unto newness of life. Further, it includes the actual resurrection of all those who are Christ’s when He returns (1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:54). Finally, Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father’s glory presents the truth of imputed righteousness. The only righteous Man who has ever lived is the One who died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. Jesus Christ, who is very Righteousness, looks down from heaven (the sky). You and I have no righteousness in and of ourselves (Rom 3:23; Phil 3:9); yet Christ’s righteousness is declared by God to be counted as ours through faith (Rom 6:5-7), and we grow more righteous from faith to faith because, being justified by grace through faith, we now live according to faith (Rom 1:17). When we speak of Christ crucified, it includes the truth of His incarnation, resurrection, ascension, and consummation of all things at His return. To exclude any one of these truths is to cripple the gospel and deny the faith.
The gospel truth sprung from the tomb
When Christ rose from the dead;
Whose gospel light cuts through the gloom
Where’er God’s Word is read.