Many Christians are fond of speaking of the Resurrection of Our Lord in terms of its vindication of his propitiatory self-sacrifice on the cross. And well they should, since without the Resurrection, “the mystery hidden for ages in God” would remain hidden at its climax. A shadow of fatal doubt would be cast not only over the efficacy of the moment of the Passion, but over the entire gospel. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

But the word of God from St. Paul characterizes the Resurrection as much more than a mere demonstration. If the Resurrection is meant only as a revelation of Christ’s work to us, then it is no more than a show. Christ is not merely the revelation of God, He is the incarnation of God, the embodiment of God’s real self-giving to His people, in contrast to the shadowy prefigurations of the Old Covenant. Likewise, He does not merely appear to rise, or else He could not have eaten with the disciples and invited Thomas to touch His wounds, nor does He rise simply to reveal something that would have been true otherwise. Christ is the truth, and He is the Resurrection. The Resurrection is a realization of God’s will at least as much as it is a revelation.

The danger in overemphasizing the forensic reality of the gospel is of losing a fuller, more glorious conception of the depth and breadth of redemption. A key aspect of that danger is especially threatening to an understanding of the power, efficacy and necessity of the Resurrection, namely, an emphasis on the ontological, unitive telos of the Incarnation. Robust theology and healthy devotion alike cannot afford to be numb to the gravity of the Resurrection as an actual and indispensable component of salvation.

Taken forensically — that is, with a view to the “legal” dimension of salvation, with God as Judge and man as guilty — the Resurrection, again, indeed declares the justice of God as satisfied in the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Though this theory of the Resurrection falls short of completeness, it is in no wise precluded by a vision of the Resurrection as glorification. These perspectives need not compete, but should rather synergistically enrich the summative notion of the event.

As in the Incarnation it is understood that Christ laid aside His divine glory in order to be joined to humanity, and furthermore He gave up all glory in the abasement of the cross (Philippians 2:6-8), so the fruition of this humiliation blossoms in that the Father restores Christ’s glory to Him (Philippians 2:9-11). And if this had all been for His own sake, not only would such a circular course be unreasonable, but especially one that at its nadir immersed Him in the depths of Hades. But in the first place He was pleased to be made one with us — by being one of us — so that through His humiliation we might be exalted and thereby be made one with Him (Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 4:13, Philippians 3:10-12).

It is plain, then, that without the Resurrection, Christ’s descent is no longer a source of hope for us. The gospel amputated of the Resurrection would be a bleak enshrinement of hopelessness, a story of the triumph of death. Without the Resurrection, the despair of the cross, which is the curse of humanity, from the blackness of which even the Lord of Glory cried “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” would remain without a cure. If Christ remained in the grave, then so would humanity.

The Resurrection does not merely state, but instates that Christ did not die in vain — indeed, therefore that death itself is robbed of its vanity and its vacuous power to drain the meaning from all it touches. A great reversal takes place; meaning invades meaninglessness, life suffuses death, the Lord harrows Hell. So it is that divinity, having assumed humanity, enriches it (2 Peter 1:4). The union of Christ’s natures in principle is established forever in actuality as the nexus of their union in ubiquity. In the Resurrection, Christ carries divinity into the grave so that He can bear humanity out of it. He emerges the eternal victor (1 Corinthians 15:21-26).

The conjoining of man and God finds its conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, its climax in the conquering of the cross and the overturning of the grave, and its consummation in the Ascension. Not only does Christ raise mankind from his prior state of mortality through the Resurrection, but further exalts man unto glory by carrying glorified humanity in Himself up into the reaches of Heaven, breaching the invincible barrier between death and life, then crossing the previously impassible threshold from Earth to Heaven, going in the flesh where only angels had trod before. He blazes a trail out of Hell and paves a road to Heaven.

The Resurrection does not just uncover this fact. It is the fact. It is the manner in which Christ joins dead men with eternal life, mortal flesh with immortal God. “That which is not assumed is not healed,” and that which is not raised is not saved. Each event in the sequence of the mystery of God’s plan in Christ must unfold as it did. The Passion-Resurrection is one event, made up of more than one event, but also one with the single overarching event of the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Christian should be wary of making the Resurrection a mere addendum to the Passion, a convenient epilogue to the Crucifixion. It is Christ’s vindication, but also His victory. And because of the love of God, His victory is ours by faith (1 Corinthians 15:55-57, 1 John 5:4).

The Lord is risen indeed! Grace and peace to you, may the joy of Our Lord’s victory overflow in your heart today.