If Jesus’ crucifixion — being hanged on a tree — signalled his bearing rejection and curse (Deut 21:23), then his resurrection declared his vindication.
Indeed, ‘the resurrection was not just an event that happened to Christ, for it corresponded to the kind of Person he was in his own Being.’1T. F. Torrance, Space, Time, and Incarnation (T & T Clark, 1976), 60; emphasis supplied.
‘His appointment as Messiah and investiture with the full power of office dates from the resurrection.’
Without It, Nothing Is Guaranteed
The resurrection was simultaneously a revelation of who Jesus is and an expression of the value and worth of his blood-soaked, sin-bearing, punishment-averting death.
Paul makes the connection explicit, tying the reality of the resurrection directly to the efficacy of the cross:
‘Without the resurrection there would be no guarantee that the death of Christ had accomplished the atonement for our sins. Paul says that without it we would be still in our sins (1 Cor 15:17) and Jesus was “raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25). Jesus’ great victory over death occurs by the destruction of sin as “the sting of death” (1 Cor 15:56).’2Mark D. Thompson and Robert C. Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant: 2 Systematic and Historical Reflection.’ Unpublished Lecture, 2.
Three Counts
This vindication was accomplished on three counts.
First, in raising Jesus from the dead, God gave an absolute and final affirmation — a Divine ‘yes’ — to Jesus’ claim to absolute kingship (Mark 14:62).
Second, far from signalling abandonment, the resurrection expressed God’s acceptance of Jesus’ death as a fully sufficient bearing of sin.
Third, the resurrection was the prelude to Jesus’ exaltation to the throne-room of the universe — his ascension and reign at the Father’s right hand.
A Caution Worth Hearing
The first count deserves closer attention, because the resurrection’s relationship to Jesus’ own identity is easily overstated:
‘Jesus himself linked his claims to his resurrection from the dead (John 2:19). His identity as “Son of God” is powerfully declared by that fact (Rom 1:3-4). It is true to say that we should understand this not as an adoption, for he was sent into the world as the Son (Gal 4:4; Rom 8:3), but rather as his coronation (Heb 2:9). We should be careful here. Contrary to much modern apologetic practice, the New Testament does not actually point to the resurrection of Jesus as proof of his Divinity. It vindicates the claims he does make, but in and of itself it does not prove that he is God. (After all, there are other resurrections in the New Testament: Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, Jairus’ daughter, and others were resuscitated, and in the wake of Christ’s crucifixion others were raised).’3Thompson and Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant,’ 2.
That’s a genuinely useful correction, and it cuts against a common apologetic shortcut. Being raised from the dead does not, by itself, make someone divine — several people in the New Testament were raised, and nobody worships them.
What the resurrection does is vindicate the claims Jesus made. And since those claims included the claim to be one with the Father, the vindication reaches all the way. But the logic runs through the claims, not around them.
That last observation finds striking confirmation at the very moment of Jesus’ death:
‘the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many’ (Matt 27:50-54).
Taken together, though, this first movement of exaltation vindicates the worth of his death: sin is overcome, judgment is settled, death is beaten, and the devil is disarmed.4See Paul Molnar, ‘Resurrection and Atonement in the Theology of Thomas F. Torrance,’ in T & T Clark Companion to Atonement, 57-76.
Rejected Stone, Cornerstone
Crucifixion alone would have rendered Jesus of ‘no account’ — but resurrection declared him ‘the cornerstone’ (Acts 4:11).
Having been executed at the hands of religious and political powers, his raising from the dead indicated that ‘God exalted him to his right hand as Ruler and Saviour, to grant repentance … and forgiveness of sins’ (Acts 5:31).
Resurrection demonstrated beyond all doubt that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord, the Saviour, the King of God’s Kingdom — and was itself a Divine investiture.
That investiture, moreover, was not a terminus but a threshold. His resurrection issued in further exaltation, and his enthronement at the right hand of God constituted his ultimate glorification — a glorification encompassing his dominion over ‘all people’ (John 12:23, 32).
On the basis of his death and resurrection, Jesus established the saving power of the Kingdom of God, exercising ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ (Matt 28:18). By ‘his resurrection from the dead’ he was declared ‘the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness’ (Rom 1:4) — and this, Paul affirms, is the very centre and substance of ‘the gospel of God’ (Rom 1:1).
Confirmation, or Something More?
This raises a question worth pressing. Was the resurrection simply the moment when an already-established status was publicly confirmed? Or did it accomplish something more?
The resurrection was no mere confirmation of a status Jesus already held. It was itself constitutive of that status.
Passages expressing this include Matthew 28:18 in the context of the whole chapter; Acts 17:31; and Romans 1:3-4.
As Seccombe puts it: ‘the resurrection is more than a demonstration of Jesus’ messiahship; his appointment as Messiah and investiture with the full power of office dates from the resurrection.’5Seccombe, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 164.
Which Leaves You With Something to Do
That appointment carries a corresponding claim on every hearer — because an appointed Judge cannot be ignored.
‘By raising Jesus from the dead God has identified him as the one to whom he has given the authority to judge both the living and the dead (Acts 17:30-31). There is no excuse for continued defiance once the Judge has been made known.’6Thompson and Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant,’ 2; slightly amended.
Read that last sentence again, because it’s where the doctrine turns personal. The resurrection isn’t only information about Jesus. It’s the public identification of the person before whom every human life will finally be assessed — which means indifference to it is no longer an available posture.
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- 1T. F. Torrance, Space, Time, and Incarnation (T & T Clark, 1976), 60; emphasis supplied. ↩︎
- 2Mark D. Thompson and Robert C. Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant: 2 Systematic and Historical Reflection.’ Unpublished Lecture, 2. ↩︎
- 3Thompson and Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant,’ 2. ↩︎
- 4See Paul Molnar, ‘Resurrection and Atonement in the Theology of Thomas F. Torrance,’ in T & T Clark Companion to Atonement, 57-76. ↩︎
- 5Seccombe, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 164. ↩︎
- 6Thompson and Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant,’ 2; slightly amended. ↩︎