Every time this year I am reminded of the fact that the resurrection can seem to many of us like saying “in Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer. That is to say, we say it because we know we’re supposed to, but we really don’t know why. With the resurrection that is often the case. We explain the gospel, focusing on the cross, and then we tack on, “Oh yeah, and Jesus was raised from the dead” without really understanding why it is so crucial.

We are taught very early on (if we are raised in a Christian home) that our problem is our sin and the penalty our sin deserves, and we are taught that Jesus died on the cross for us, taking our sin upon himself and paying our penalty for us. And that is right. But if that is all that is said, it indeed seems there is no need for a resurrection, or if there is need, it must be not a big deal. After all, it seems the cross solves the problem, with no need for a resurrection.

And many times even scholarly books do not aid us here. One of the most beneficial books on salvation I’ve read is titled, The Cross and Salvation, as if the resurrection is not as crucial. But this leads us then back to a question, “What did the resurrection accomplish?” or “Why is the resurrection so crucial?”

In order to answer this question, we really need to understand what Adam’s sin had accomplished, for correcting the effects of the fall is not as easy as someone coming along and doing things right. He must not only do things right but also undo what Adam had brought about because of his sin. It’s much like a scenario that I had occur in my car not to long ago. I had bought a large sweet tea from Chick-fil-a and was quite excited. After all, I have a slight addiction to sweet tea. But the problem is that the cups are so big that I can’t really fit them in my car drink holder without wedging them in against the radio. And on this occasion I had set it in there quite lightly.

The result of my folly was that when I took off, the tea tipped over and spilled all over the floor of my car. In order to make everything right, I did not simply have to get another large tea, put it in my drink holder, take off, and keep it from spilling. It’s not as if that would make everything alright. It indeed would have been success where the other was failure, but it would not have undone my failure. I needed to clean up, to undo, what my previous spilling had brought about.

So it is with Adam’s sin. The Bible does not simply look for one to succeed where Adam failed. It does no less than that, but it does more. The Bible looks for one who could succeed where Adam failed and undo what Adam did. And what Adam had done is brought about the reign of an enemy over the created world. He had surrendered ruling authority to an enemy who is death. Therefore, if there is to be an undoing of his work, then there must be a conquering of this enemy.

But let me pause here so that we appreciate the great evil of death. In the view of the Scripture, death is much more than just the expiration of the body. It is something horrible. Scripture presents it as a curse and an enemy of God. In fact, it might be difficult for us to grasp just how negatively the OT and NT views death because we give so little time, it seems, to thinking of death as the Scripture does. Again, it is horrible. So, no, we shouldn’t grieve like the pagans do when we see death, but we should grieve, for it is horrible.

I remember sitting in my empty living room as we were moving from our old house and fearful that Marie’s life might end in death at an early point in Lili’s pregnancy (as had our previous child’s), when I found myself longing for death simply to be destroyed. Again, it is an enemy. When Jesus confronts every stage of death, he sees this with an attitude that the enemy has done this. Death is nothing less than an enemy power reigning over God’s created world. And each of us has, one way or another, witnessed its disgusting power in our lives. This, is the problem that must be undone.

Adam’s sin had brought about corruption to a good creation, brought man and the rest of creation under the reign of an enemy – death, and left man unable to do anything about it since we ourselves were subjects of such slavery under the reign of death. This problem, then, highlights for us why the resurrection is so important, which is what we see in this text. We can see Paul making reference to Adam, all dying in his, and death coming from him. We see Paul referring to death as an enemy and there being authorities and powers against the Lord. However, what we mainly see in this text is the result of Christ’s triumph where Adam failed so that everything Adam had brought about was undone and God’s perfect plan is carried out. What Paul shows us in this text is the following:

The resurrection of Jesus set in motion the details that needed to occur for God’s reign over the cosmos to be perfectly realized and demonstrated as it had been seen prior to Adam’s sin

The resurrection, then, is simply the first critical act in the unfolding of everything God was going to accomplish to reverse the effects of the fall and demonstrate before all a redeemed creation which he could again call “good.” This is how important Paul pictures the resurrection. But what details specifically does the resurrection bring about? That’s what I want us to see this morning from these nine verses so that we might grow in understanding the importance of the resurrection for our salvation.

The resurrection made certain that all in Christ would be raised as well

This is the heart of Paul’s argument in this fifteenth chapter. The Corinthians, it seems, had believed that the resurrection was not a reality. Thus, Paul has spent the verses leading up to our section this morning arguing that if there is no resurrection, then Christ is not raised, and if Christ is not raised then there is no gospel and we are dead in our sins. Thus, if Christ had not been raised, then, “yes” they were right, there would be no resurrection of believers. “But,” Paul begins this section, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20).

By calling Christ the firstfruits he is saying that his resurrection guarantees more to come. It guarantees the resurrection of those who are in him. Paul calls Christ’s resurrection the firstfruits, as if he pictures the first of the harvest showing the rest of the harvest is coming.

I have two trees in my back yard that I planted at the beginning of the fall last year. The problem is, though, that I’m sure I didn’t dig the hole big enough for them. Whatever the directions required were far too much for me to buy into after I had sweated and digressed in my sanctification, laboring to dig in dry ground. However, a few weeks ago I saw a bloom on one of the trees, and my instant assumption was that the tree was going to be alright, full of blooms. One bloom signaled to me life and gave me the assurance that there is more to come. That is how Paul pictures Christ’s resurrection. It is the firstfruits of more to come.

But why does Paul think in those categories? Why does he think that what happened with one man can affect so many others? It’s because he realizes what has occurred from the beginning and what God is doing to redeem his people. We see this in verses 21-23.

Paul writes, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ is the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

Paul realizes that Adam had functioned as a head of the human race, so that his actions had not simply affected him but all who were in him, who came from him. That is, because we are united with Adam, what is true of Adam has become true of us. When he died, we all died in him. When he surrendered himself to the reign of death and sin, we became enslaved to it as well.

Therefore, Paul sees, when Christ is raised so as never to die again, having atoned for sin on the cross, all who are in Christ will be made alive as well. Because he is raised, all who are in him will be raised as well. This is why salvation is so often described as occurring in Christ. It is because it is through union with Adam that we find ourselves enslaved to Satan, sin, and death, and it is through union with Christ that we have life and will be raised. It is why Paul can say of Christ in Ephesians 1:20 that God has “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” and can say of us in Ephesians 2:6 that God has “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Just as we find ourselves in bondage to sin and death by being in Adam, so we find ourselves alive and assured of resurrection by being in union with Christ, who has been raised and is alive. Again, this is why faith is the right response to the gospel, for we are only united to Christ by faith.

But Paul does make clear in verse 23 that our resurrection has not happened yet even though Christ’s has. For there is an order. Christ’s resurrection was a firstfruits, but then when Christ returns all those who belong to Christ will be raised to eternal life as well. That’s why I said that the resurrection “set in motion” all the details that would realize our salvation and God’s reign. So, the resurrection of Christ is necessary in securing our resurrection as well.

The resurrection secures the defeat of death and the end of its reign

Paul speaks of Christ’s return and talks about those things which will occur in the end. One of them, he mentions is the defeat of death. He writes in verses 24-26, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Here he mentions the ultimate defeat of the enemy, death. Again, if one is going to undo what Adam has done, he must defeat the one who now reigns over mankind and the creation itself, and the Bible clearly shows that death reigned after Adam. Thus Paul speaks of Christ, in the end destroying every rule and every authority and every power and destroying the last enemy of death in these verses.

“But,” we might ask, “How does he get from talking about the resurrection to talking about the defeat of death at Christ’s return?” Again, the answer is found in understanding that the resurrection is somewhat of a first act that sets all of these other realities in motion, heading toward their conclusion. Therefore, when Jesus was raised from the dead, it showed very clearly that death did not reign over him. It showed very clearly that there was a greater authority and power than death. Thus, Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 28:18 that all authority had been given to him was kind of like a victory lap as death had been defeated. But death is indeed still a reality. Yes, that is true. But its destruction is sure because of the resurrection of Christ.

On June 6, 1944 Ally forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, dealing a fatal blow to the Axis powers in World War II. After that day, D-Day, it was clear that the war had been won. A fatal blow had been dealt. However, V-Day, the actual surrender of Germany, did not come until almost one year later. Victory was sure on D-Day but not realized until V-Day. That’s the kind of reality we see from the point of the resurrection until Jesus’ return. The resurrection has made clear that death is a defeated foe, but its formal destruction will not be seen until Christ’s return.

But, know this. Victory is sure. There is coming a day when death itself, that great enemy of mankind and of our Lord, will be defeated and will reign no more over us and the world.

The resurrection established Jesus as the reigning king over the world

We read of Christ’s reign in verse 25 and verse 24 talks about his kingdom, so the fact that his resurrection brings about his reign is clear. But it is very specifically dealt with in verse 27. In verses 25-26 Paul had written that Christ must reign until all enemies had been put under his feet, including death. Then, he writes in verses 27, “For, ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.”

The reason Paul says, “When it says” is because he’s quoting another text of Scripture. He’s quoting Psalm 8:6. Now, this might not seem like a very important detail, but it indeed is. For Psalm 8 is a psalm about mankind. In this Psalm, David is considering all the works of God’s hands – the stars, the skies, etc. Then he thinks of man and wonders why God would be mindful of him. Yet, then picking up in verse 5, he highlights the fact that God indeed is mindful of man and has made him glorious. He writes, “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:5-6). And there is our quote that Paul uses and applies to Christ.

In this psalm, David is remembering what God had done in the garden. He had created the world, and on the sixth day created his crowning achievement, man. He had given him glory and honor and had given Adam reign over all the world. All things were under Adam’s dominion, under his feet. He truly was the king of the world.

However, as we have mentioned, Adam sins and subjects the created order and even himself to another power – death. Therefore, psalm 8 celebrates the reality before the fall, but it is not true of man now. So, why is Paul quoting this verse in 1 Corinthians and applying it to Christ?

It is because Paul is showing very clearly that because of Christ’s resurrection he has actually fulfilled the charge that had been given to Adam. N.T. Wright writes beautifully on this, writing, “Just as, when Israel failed to be the light-bearing people for the world, the covenant God did not rewrite the vocation but rather sent the Messiah to act in Israel’s place, so now the failure of humankind (‘Adam’) to be the creator’s wise, image-bearing steward over creation has not led the creator to rewrite the vocation, but rather to send the Messiah as the truly human being. The purpose is that in his renewed, resurrected human life he can be and do, for humankind and creation, what neither humankind nor creation could do for themselves.”¹

Therefore, the resurrection is the first critical step of God seeing his perfect plan fulfilled, not through Adam, but through the God-Man, God, the Son, Jesus Christ. His reign begins on that Easter Sunday morning and will be fully demonstrated when he returns.

Finally, the resurrection ensures that God will be shown to be all in all, as his glory will be shown as he delights in his kingdom and his people under the reign of his Son

The text ends saying in verse 28, “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all tings in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

That is to say, harkening to verse 24 as well, when Jesus returns, he will destroy death, raise those who are in him, and reign over the world as his kingdom. And he will deliver the kingdom to God, the Father so that all things might be right, and God’s plan and purpose for creation be realized. Revelation 11:15 will be true. The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. We will reign over the earth, with Christ as our King, all to the glory of God the Father.

That is where history is heading even though things might look quite bad now. And it is sure because something definite and decisive happened in history. Jesus Christ raised from the dead. That one act set in motion everything necessary for the realization and demonstration of God’s reign over the earth through his Son over his people. The resurrection is indeed our great hope, and Christ’s resurrection makes it sure. May he now come quickly. Amen.

¹ N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) 334.

THE RESURRECTION AND OUR SURE HOPE