He is risen! He is risen, indeed!
This greeting of the ancient church sets the foundation for everything else a Christian confesses. As the apostle Paul acknowledges, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19) Still in our sins, unable to stand before God on the final day, following an impotent and ultimately unimportant messiah — if Christ did not rise we have no reason to hope. But as Paul declares, “. . . in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20)
The firstfruits are the leading edge of the harvest. They send a signal as to the quality of what follows. Jesus being described in this manner is meant to assure us that as he rose from the dead so shall we. And as he possessed a resurrected body no longer subject to mortality or decay, those who are his at his coming will likewise possess bodies like unto his. We will walk in the freedom and liberty destined for those whom Christ makes alive by his death and resurrection.
You may have read the recently published interview with the current president of Union Theological Seminary, Serene Jones. She was interviewed by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. If you haven’t read it, you should look it up. It’s pretty appalling. The whole tenor of her remarks are surprisingly juvenile. Among other pithy statements she made the following about the resurrection, “Those who claim to know whether or not it happened are kidding themselves.” Given everything she has to say, she would get along well with Bart Ehrman, the famous fallen evangelical. One difference, however, is that Bart had the decency to leave the church when he no longer believed what it taught. Serene is still with us, purporting to be a “Christian minister.” If the matter wasn’t so serious, we could dismiss her remarks as predictably puerile. As it is, Paul’s warning comes to mind, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18)
What the early Christians understood (and Serene does not) is that everything hangs on the resurrection. This is because our brothers and sisters took sin seriously, treated God’s holiness with due respect, and knew that unless God acted to change their circumstances they were without hope in the world. But their confidence in the resurrection, expressed in the ancient greeting offered above, was not established out of some psychological need, as if they were persuading themselves of something even though they had no reason to believe it. They knew that Jesus had risen, and subsequent generations who have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Peter 1:3) have also believed even though they have not seen. (John 20:29).
Pray for Serene, Nicholas, and Bart.
