Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Romans 4:25 | Date: September 27, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Romans chapter 4. We’re working our way through the doctrine of salvation. We have investigated the various aspects of Christ’s death, how it was significant, and in what ways. We looked at subjects like Christ’s death as a sacrifice, as a propitiation for sins, as a substitute for sinners. We looked at Christ’s work as a redemption, and so on. We looked at the various aspects of Christ’s saving death.

Now that we’ve worked through that, we need to look at the saving significance of Jesus’ resurrection. We looked at that last week from the standpoint of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 primarily, and we saw that Jesus was raised from the dead, the first to be raised from the dead into the resurrection of the age to come. He is the first to get there. God raised him from the dead. He’s into the age to come. And the significance of that is that he takes us, his people, with him. And so we will be raised with him as well in the final resurrection.

Then at the end of the message last time, I tried to point out quickly the present saving significance of Jesus’ resurrection, and that is that our resurrection with Christ is not entirely future. There’s a present experiential aspect of our resurrection with Christ today. And it’s enormously important in the teaching of the apostles. And we saw it in Ephesians chapter one with regard to the doctrine of regeneration. Our new life in Christ is precisely that: our participation with Christ in his resurrection. He has been raised to the age to come. We, by the Spirit of God and through faith, have been joined to Christ and now participate with him in the experience of the age to come. Not fully yet—that will come at the final resurrection—but nonetheless we experience with Christ in his experience of the resurrection to the age to come. And so we have new life.

And I mentioned just briefly at the end that that is true not only of the doctrine of regeneration, it’s true of our sanctification, our glorification, and our justification. Every experience of salvation that we have, we have because we are joined to the risen Christ. Now today, we look at it specifically with regard to the doctrine of justification. We’ve seen what justification is, and we’ll review some of that this morning. The question now today will be: What is the relation of Christ’s resurrection to our justification? It’s a marvelous theme in the New Testament. I hope that you’ll find it so.

Romans chapter 4, I will begin reading with verse 13:

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. That is, righteousness that comes by faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void, for the law brings wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may be of grace and be granted to all his offspring.

By the way, notice what he says here. We’ll come back to that later in this series. It depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace. That is, it is important in God’s saving us that it is by faith, and it is by faith in order that the gracious nature of our salvation may be preserved. It’s by faith.

It depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be granted to all his offspring, not only to the adherence of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations” in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “so shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why faith was counted to him as righteousness.

That’s Genesis 15:6.

But the words, “it was counted to him,” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.

And here we come to our point.

It will be counted to us or imputed to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Again, verse 25 will be our focus: “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Let’s bow for prayer.

Our Father, we are grateful for this wonderful gospel of Jesus. How thankful we are that all of our salvation depends upon him and none of it depends upon us. How grateful we are that we have in him everything that you require of us. Lord, give us a grasp of that this morning, and I pray that you’ll refresh the hearts of your people in it. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Reviewing Romans 1 to 4

I want to back up and just review quickly what we have seen in Paul’s letter to the Romans in Romans 1 to 4 up to this point where we are now. We have seen it at various times. We’ve taken our time working through a lot of this, particularly in chapter 3 with regard to the nature of Christ’s death.

In chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, the Apostle Paul states his theme for the entire letter: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.'” So Paul is telling us here at the beginning, here he states his theme, that the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God. I think I’ve pointed out before, he might well have said the gospel is a revelation of the grace of God, or the gospel is a revelation of the love of God. Gospel is a revelation of the patience of God. Any of those would be right. But Paul’s theme is that the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God.

And what he wants to articulate for us, and what he does in the coming chapters, is that God justifies his people. Here’s the center of the gospel: God justifies his people, declares them righteous, on the ground of what Jesus Christ has done for them. And so, the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God, and this comes, he says in verse 17, from faith for faith. That is, it’s by faith and nothing but faith. So somehow God pronounces guilty people righteous, and he does it through their faith, and nothing but faith. That’s the theme that Paul’s going to expound throughout the rest of the book.

Now in verses 18 and following, all the way through toward the end of chapter three, verse 20, Paul expounds the problem that the gospel answers. And the problem that the gospel has to answer is the problem of human guilt, human sinfulness. And Paul tracks that out in chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three, with regard to those who have received the revelation of God, like under Moses; they’ve received direct revelation from God, they’ve received his law, but it applies equally to those who have not received any special revelation from God through any prophet. All equally have sinned; all have rebelled against the knowledge that they have.

Here in Romans 1, verses 18 and following, he expounds with regard to the nature of the pagan, the one who’s never heard any special revelation from God, and yet from the very created order itself, and intuitively, he recognizes certain truths about God against which he has rebelled in his own heart. And there’s not any exception to that in all of humanity, in all of the history of humanity; all have done worse than they know to do. We know better.

He takes it then in the following chapters with regard to those in Israel who have received revelation from God. You might think that, well, if what we need is to know what to do, and if God will just give us his law, we can follow it. That’s Romans 2 and 3. He talks about that with regard to the Jews who have received the law from God, and he says they’ve not done any better. They become a microcosm of the whole in which they have rebelled against the revelation that they had also. All of humanity has rebelled, and that’s the conclusion he comes to in chapter 3, in verses 9 and following:

What then? Are we Jews any better off? Not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written, “None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. They’ve all turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is on their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery. The way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Or as he summarizes again in verse 23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Now this is the problem that the gospel must answer. If God is to receive us, if we are to have fellowship with God and be restored to him, this problem of our guilt is what must be answered first. This is why I say this gets to the heart of the gospel. How can we who are guilty and sinners, having violated God’s law so consistently, how can we have fellowship with God?

And so in chapter 3, verses 21 and following, Paul answers the question: How does the gospel answer that problem? Here we are universally guilty; that’s the problem. How does God answer that problem? And the answer he gives is in this doctrine of justification, that God declares righteous. Keep in mind the meaning of the word justification. You’ve heard it a hundred times; I’m going to say it again. Justification envisions the courtroom scene. It’s a legal term where it pictures the judge declaring the accused to be righteous. Declaring him righteous—declaring righteousness, the judge pronouncing righteousness to the accused. How in the world can God do that, given what we have in chapters one to three?

That’s the argument Paul is taking up. That’s the problem he is seeking to answer. How does this just God, this righteous God, who can only make righteous pronouncements, righteously pronounce sinners to be righteous? It seems to be an impossible problem. Well, he answers that problem then in this marvelously compressed paragraph in chapter 3, verses 21, particularly through verse 26. Just a compressed statement where he says the answer is found, of course, in Jesus. Jesus came as a substitute for sinners. He is a propitiation for our sins. He rendered satisfaction to God on behalf of his people. And because he has propitiated God on behalf of his people, they then are redeemed. They’re released from their sins; released from their sins, released from the curse of the law. God pronounces them righteous, and he does so righteously because their righteous verdict is grounded on the work of Christ, the righteous, who took their place and appeased God’s wrath and satisfied all of the just demands against us. We’ve seen all of that.

And then verses 21 to 24, again, we find this expression that justification is by grace through faith, that it is not something earned. It’s nothing we contribute to. It depends wholly upon Jesus, and we receive him by faith, by trusting him. And so verse 22, we have the expression, “the righteousness of God through faith.” The righteousness of God through faith. Very important expression. Righteousness is what God is. Righteousness is what God demands of us. But in the end, righteousness is not something we give God. And here’s the gospel: Righteousness is something he gives us. He gives it to us in Jesus, who has taken the punishment of our sin and given us, in exchange, his righteousness.

That, in turn, takes us to chapter 4, where we have learned about the doctrine of imputation, where Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, counted as ours, made ours, and so there’s this wonderful exchange. Our sin made his; in exchange, his righteousness becomes ours. We find this all throughout the New Testament, some wonderful statements with regard to how God justifies the sinner. He justifies us through giving us the righteousness of Christ, counting his righteousness to be ours.

So, for example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30, Christ became unto us righteousness. Where’s the righteousness upon which God declares me to be righteous? Answer: It’s in Jesus, and it’s been counted mine. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21, that we’ve seen also, in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him—in Christ, in Christ we become, or we are made righteous. We saw it in Philippians chapter 3 where Paul speaks of it in terms of his own testimony. He’s turned on all of that he used to hope for. And now he says, my whole hope is that I will in the end be found not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. A righteousness alien to us, but counted ours in Christ. You’ve heard me say it before. Martin Luther is famous for this. One of his statements for which he’s famous is that our salvation is outside of us. Very important to recognize that our salvation is accomplished by something entirely outside of us. It is Jesus and not us.

All of this, as I say, is the entry point of salvation. With all of its attending blessings that come, this is the first step. How can God receive us? How can we receive all of the attending blessings of salvation? First of all, the problem of our guilt must be addressed. And that is what is addressed in the death of Christ, taking the punishment of our sin. It is the event by which we are accepted back to God.

What is the Relation of Christ’s Resurrection to Our Justification?

All right, all of that is what we have seen in Romans 1 to 4 in this series. That brings us now to what I want to focus on in Romans chapter 4, verses 24 and 25: “It will be counted to us, that is, imputed to us, righteousness imputed to us, who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Now, up to this point in Romans, Paul has connected our justification to Christ’s death. He died in our behalf. He died in our place. Dying in our place, he propitiated God. He paid the death of our sin. We are released because of what he did on the cross in his death. And so we have there the doctrine of imputation, the doctrine of propitiation, the doctrine of substitution, and all that we have seen. So up to this point, Paul has connected our justification to Jesus’ death. Now we have it tied explicitly to Jesus’ resurrection. See it again, verse 25. He was delivered up for our trespasses and he was raised for our justification. So here he connects our justification to Jesus’ resurrection.

Now before we develop that, I want you to note that this is, in fact, not something that’s just tucked away in Romans 4:25. This is actually a very prominent apostolic theme. And if you want to look at some other passages here in Romans, look at Romans 8, over a couple of pages. Romans 8, verses 33 and 34, a passage we’ll come back to: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” So we have God who justifies and no one can condemn us. Why? Because Christ died and was raised, is ascended and making intercession. Again, our justification is tied to Christ’s resurrection.

Look at chapter 10, verses six and seven, where Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. “But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘do not say in your hearts who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.'” The point here is simply to say the Christian is not to despair as though righteousness has yet to be provided. It has been provided. How? Christ who died and rose from the dead. So again, he’s tying justification to the resurrection of Christ, not just to his death. And that’s why now in verse 9 of chapter 10, this saving faith—this saving faith on which righteousness depends or justification depends—is a faith that God raised Jesus from the dead. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So again, he connects the resurrection of Christ to our justification.

Now we saw that somewhat last time in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul argues that if Christ is not raised, you’re still in your sins, you’re still condemned, there’s no righteousness to have, you’re lost. The resurrection of Christ is tied tightly to our justification. So our question this morning then: How so? What does his resurrection have to do with our justification? We, I think, more quickly get it that his death is tied to our justification and that he took the penalty that God’s justice requires. What’s the connection with his resurrection? Again, verses 24 and 25 of Romans 4: “He’ll be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Now notice we have in verse 25 two clauses. We’ve got to see how they’re parallel. He was delivered on account of our trespasses, or delivered over, that is, given over in death because of our trespasses. That’s clear enough. That one’s pretty quick to grasp, I think. He’s a substitute, the sin bearer, delivered up for our trespasses. Our trespasses became his. But then the second half: “raised for our justification.” So our sin was the reason for his death. Our justification is the reason for his resurrection. We’ve got to follow the thinking here and we’re going to work our way through it. How is Jesus’ resurrection connected to our justification?

What Did Jesus’ Resurrection Mean to Him?

The first step to answer that—we’re going to back away from this and come back to it—is to answer another question. What did Jesus’ resurrection mean to him? I’m not asking you to respond; rhetorical question, but think on that. What did Jesus’ resurrection mean to him? And to answer that, I want you to keep your hand here, we’ll be back to Romans 4, but look at 1 Timothy chapter 3.

Verse 16, 1 Timothy 3:16: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He, that is Christ, was manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory.” What a marvelous verse. Here’s a verse you could use as a text for several theological lectures. Here’s a wonderful summary of the person and work of Christ. I mentioned to someone last week, and I don’t remember their names, but there was, in earlier America, there were a couple of brothers, both were ministers. One was Unitarian, who of course does not recognize the deity of Jesus, and the other was an Orthodox minister, a Presbyterian minister, a faithful gospel preacher. The people in the congregation of the Unitarian pastor had met the brother, who was a gospel preacher, and they pressured their pastor: “You need to let your brother come preach.” And he really didn’t want that. But it was pressured, and so he talked to his brother and said, “All right, I want to have you preach, but you’ve got to promise me nothing controversial.” Deal. No problem. And he came to preach, and he took this passage as his text. And does anybody remember the King James translation of verse 16? Nothing controversial here. The King James translation renders this: “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh.” And there you have the incarnation, the sermon on the deity of Christ, and there’s no controversy about it at all. The text says so. Brilliant thinking.

Verse 16, though, is a wonderful summary of the person and work of Christ. Look at all of these successive phrases. “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.” One, he was manifest in the flesh. That is, he became incarnate. God the Son became man. Two, he was vindicated by the Spirit, that is, in his resurrection. Three, he was seen by angels, that is, in his resurrection and his triumph. Number four, he is proclaimed among the nations, that is, in the Church’s Great Commission. Number five, believed on in the world, that is, in the days of his resurrection before his ascension and then throughout this age in the advance of the gospel. And then number six, taken up into glory. That’s his ascension and enthronement. Wonderful summary of the person and work of Christ.

I want to focus on number two. He was manifest in the flesh and two, vindicated by the Spirit. Does anyone here have a King James Bible? You do? The rendering there, “justified in the spirit,” that’s our word, justified. The word translated justified everywhere else in the New Testament, here it’s translated vindicated. I suppose not to confuse us with how do you say Jesus is justified. But that’s exactly the point Paul is making here. He was justified by the Spirit. And almost certainly what he’s saying here is that in his resurrection he was vindicated or justified by the Spirit. So here’s the Holy Spirit’s activity in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s another prominent theme in the New Testament. Jesus’ resurrection is consistently spoken of in the passive voice. He was raised. God raised him. God raised him by the Spirit. He didn’t raise himself. God raised him from the dead. And the Spirit raised him from the dead.

And here’s part of the significance of that. It was God’s vindication of him in raising him from the dead. God declaring his vindication. So Jesus’ resurrection is God’s public declaration of Jesus’ righteousness—vindicated or justified by the Spirit, that is in his resurrection. Paul talks about this just briefly in Acts chapter 17 on Mars Hill. By the resurrection of Christ, God had given notice that one day he would judge the world in righteousness. This is Acts 17, verses 30 and 31: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” There’s again a reflection of this idea that in his resurrection, Christ was vindicated by God himself.

So Christ’s resurrection is his vindication. It’s a reversal of the curse. It’s a reversal of the sentence against him. It’s his vindication. That’s what resurrection was in its Old Testament hope. Israel looking forward to the resurrection in which they would be vindicated. You find that in the book of Daniel. Israel chased and persecuted by the various rulers, taken away from their homeland, and then finally at the end of Daniel, persecuted by this horrible man by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. He’s chasing against Israel and just wreaking havoc on them. And then you get chapter 12: “And in those days to come, many who are asleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. These to everlasting life and those to shame and everlasting contempt.” That is their resurrection would be their vindication. At last, these who have been persecuted and trampled underfoot will now stand in glory with God vindicated.

Well, that’s Jesus’ resurrection also. He’s the first to experience that resurrection into the age to come, and it was God’s declaration of his righteousness. Jesus had been condemned by the Jewish authorities, and now that sentence is reversed. He’s been vindicated. By raising Jesus from the dead, Jesus reverses the verdict that was rendered on Jesus by the human authorities. The Jewish authorities had condemned him as a blasphemer. The Roman authorities had condemned him as a criminal. But now all of that’s been reversed and he is vindicated from all the charges against him. He’s also vindicated with regard to the claims that he made about his death. Dying in behalf of sinners, laying down his life for the sheep, being the one who pays the penalty of their sin, giving his life a ransom for many. Vindicated in all of that because God has raised him from the dead.

So in light of all of his death claimed to be for sinners, in light of the condemnations against him by the human authorities, all of that is reversed and Jesus is vindicated in his resurrection. Now, there’s something very important to recognize here before we go on as well. Jesus’ justification differs from ours in one very important way. Can you think of what it is? Our justification entails imputed righteousness, right? Not his. The ground of Jesus’ justification is his own righteousness, and he’s declared to be so in his resurrection. Raising him from the dead, God declared to the world that Jesus is a righteous man.

Raised for Our Justification

All right, that’s background. What did Jesus’ resurrection mean to him? Answer: It was his vindication or his justification. Now all of that informs for us Romans chapter four, verse 25. Look at it again. “He is delivered up on account of our trespasses and raised for our justification.” In both his death and his resurrection, Jesus acted as the representative of his people. His death was the condemnation of our sin. His resurrection was his vindication for us. He was cursed in death in union with his people. He was raised in justification in union with his people. In his death, he identified with us in such a way that our punishment became his. And in his resurrection, he is so identified with us that his vindication becomes ours, raised on account of our justification. That is, the resurrection of Christ was God’s announcement of Jesus’ vindication, and because it was an announcement of his vindication, it was an announcement of our vindication as well, because we are his.

When Jesus emerged from the tomb that Sunday morning, he brought our justification with him, because we are joined to him and we are his. And that Sunday morning in Jerusalem, when they found Jesus’ tomb empty, a new era began. It was an era marked by the proclamation that sinful men and women can be righteous before God by union with this one who has been vindicated. And all of the passages in the New Testament that speak of our having the righteousness of Christ—all those passages speak of our having the righteousness of Christ—assume all of this. Christ has made unto us righteousness. We are made the righteousness of God in him, found not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. All of that assumes all of this that we see: Christ delivered over for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

I want you to see one more thing before we close, and I want you to see how Paul expands on this further in his argument here in the epistle to the Romans. Look across the page at Romans 5. Let’s look at verses 9 and 10:

Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.

I want you to follow his thinking here carefully. Verse 9, we have this “since now” and then “much more” kind of an argument. Verse 9: If already we are justified by his blood, well then it’s a given that we shall be saved from wrath through him. Wonderful verse. The terror that faces every human being: What happens after death when I face God in judgment? Paul answers that. I’ve already been justified. The divine pronouncement has already been made. And if he has pronounced me righteous while I was an enemy, well, it’s a given that in that day, I don’t have to fear the wrath of God.

All right, that’s verse 9. Verse 10, he elaborates: “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” All right, a couple of levels here. First, we’re reconciled. That’s the benefit of justification that we’ve seen earlier. We’re reconciled to God. And when were we reconciled? Answer: We were reconciled, he says, when we were enemies, while we were enemies. Well, if we were reconciled to God, made his friends when we were in fact his enemies, well, then it’s a given that we will be saved in the end by his life. The hard part’s been done. That’s his argument so far.

But also notice, he refers here to some implications of Christ’s death and resurrection. We shall be saved by his life. “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Now we have some implications being drawn here. If by his death we are reconciled, well think of the implications of his life. He’s resurrected from the dead now. If we are justified by his death, what are the implications of his life? Somehow his intercessory work is being alluded to here—that if he died to save us and to justify us, do you think now that he’s alive, he would let us go? That’s the argument.

Now to take that, let’s look at more fully in Romans chapter eight, where he refers to it again. This is the verse we read earlier, Romans 8:34: “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus, the one who died? More than that, who was raised? Who’s at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us?” You see how he’s unpacking the implications now of Jesus’ resurrection? He’s been raised. Who’s gonna bring a charge against us? Christ has died. No, wait, it’s more than that. He’s been raised. No, more than that, he’s been ascended to the right hand of God. No, more than that, while he’s there, he’s making intercession for us.

And so the scene is something of a courtroom scene, that kind of imagery. And Paul is saying here simply: Can you imagine anyone going to the throne of heaven and leveling a charge successfully against any of God’s elect when Jesus is standing there? You see that? Isn’t that great thinking? Somebody comes, brings a charge against God’s people, and Jesus is there on the throne of heaven, and he said, “No, no, no, these people are mine. I was raised for their vindication, and they belong to me.” Someone brings a charge against Kristen Stiles to the throne of heaven, and Jesus says, “No, no, no, you don’t. She’s with me.” Someone brings a charge against Joe Horchuk before the throne of God in heaven; Jesus stands there: “No, no, no. He’s with me. I was raised for his justification.”

You see the implications of that? This is the strongest ground of assurance that you can possibly imagine. Our standing with God, the judge, depends in the first place on nothing to do with us. It has in the first instance to do only with Jesus. Our whole confidence is grounded in what he has done for us. When Jesus went to the cross, in a very real sense, he took us with him. And when Jesus was raised from the dead, in a very real sense, he brought us with him. And today, he is seated on the throne of heaven to make advocacy for all of his people and to answer any charge that is brought against them. And he is there as the vindicated Christ saying, “No, these people are mine. I brought them with me in my resurrection from the dead.”

This, then, is why the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is so central to the apostolic preaching. You see it everywhere in the book of Acts. When Paul comes to define the gospel for us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it is not just that Jesus died; that Jesus died for our sins according to the scripture, that he was raised again the third day according to the scriptures. This is essential to the gospel. This is the gospel in which we stand. This is the gospel by which we’re being saved, he says: that Christ died and was raised, or as we have in Romans 4:25, “delivered over for our trespasses, raised for our justification.”

And once again, then we’re back to where we have come so often in these studies, and that is to see the exclusive value of Jesus Christ. If you don’t have Jesus, if you are not united to him by faith, you are on your own, and you stand before God to answer for your own sins, and you have no one to stand and argue for you. You’re on your own. But this is the whole ground of every Christian’s hope. I have a savior who has taken my place in condemnation for my sins. God has raised him from the dead in vindication, and I share in that with him. And he then makes intercession for us. This is the ground of a Christian’s hope forever. Jesus and Jesus only. Amen.

Let’s pray.

Our father, what a wonderful gospel this is. What a wonderful truth that we have such a qualified, such a wonderful savior who bore our condemnation and then was raised in vindication with us as well. Lord, give us a good grasp of this so that it reaches our hearts that we may, as you’ve commanded us, rejoice in the Lord always. This gospel ought to put a kick in our step. It ought to give us joy every day. We pray that you would grip the hearts of your people with it and give us joy in it. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.