Tomorrow Sunday! Christ’s Resurrection and Ours 

 “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”  

(1 Cor. 15:17)

Do Paul’s words strike you as strange? “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3), says Paul. Yet, he adds, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). Are you tempted to retort, as I am, “It was finished at the cross—right Paul? How am I still in my sins if Christ died for them but wasn’t raised?” We saw last week that Jesus’ “Finished!” declaration wasn’t referring to personal salvation but rather to cosmic re-creation. 

In Ephesians, the same Apostle says that in our pre-Christian state, we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). That’s not a rhetorical flourish on Paul’s part. Rather he’s picking up on God’s pronouncement to our first parents, “In the day you eat it, you shall surely die.” Adam and Eve later died physically, but on the day they ate the fruit, they died spiritually. So back to this week’s question: Why is it that if Jesus is decaying in the tomb, we ourselves are still in our sins, spiritually dead? Because not only our physical but also our spiritual resurrection is bound to our Lord’s resurrection. 

Spiritual resurrection is exactly what spiritually dead people need. And that's exactly what we’ve experienced “But God, writes Paul, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with Him” (Eph. 2:4-6). The italicized statements are parallel. That means they explain one another. To be made alive together with Christ means to be raised up with Him—spiritually resurrected. Moreover Paul points out that the same immeasurable power that raised Jesus is the very power God exerted toward believers raising us to spiritual life: “according to the working of God’s great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Eph 1:19-20).

That resurrection power didn’t raise us to then retreat; rather that power presides in us through the person of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 1:4; Eph. 1:13). Brothers and sisters, we are indwelt by the Spirit of the risen Christ. We can put sin to death because we have been raised to spiritual life. If we of all people have been made alive, our families, friends, co-workers, and enemies can be raised to new life as well. Take heart!

Tomorrow’s Resurrection Day!