7. Chapter One
Chapter One C hrist's resurrection bolsters faith in two ways:
1. By serving as evidence of our justification; 2. By influencing our justification. The necessity of Christ's resurrection for securing our justification.
The next aspect of Christ to examine, as the focus of justifying faith and from which our faith can draw support and comfort in the matter of justification, is Christ's resurrection. The apostle places particular emphasis on this, stating, "Yes, rather, that is risen again." Therefore, there must be something unique about Christ's resurrection, something it contributes to our faith and justification, that warrants such emphasis, even in comparison to his death. To understand this, consider how Christ's resurrection serves a dual purpose in the matter of justification.
First, it serves as evidence to our faith that God is fully satisfied by Christ's death; his resurrection can give us complete assurance of this.
Secondly, it had, and continues to have, an influence on our justification itself; indeed, as great an influence as his death had. In both these respects, it deserves the emphasis placed upon it, and Paul had both these aspects in mind when he wrote these words. So, firstly, if you ask for an explanation of his faith and a reason for his triumphant assurance, he cites Christ's resurrection to confirm it, "Christ is risen." Or, secondly, if you seek a reason for why we, as believers, cannot be condemned; "Christ is risen," he says. He cites it as a cause that has such an influence on justification itself, that it makes everything certain about it.
1. As evidence. Although Christ's obedience in his life and his death provide the entire basis for our justification, and make up the total payment made for us (as has been demonstrated), faith can find a comforting sign and evidence to affirm itself in the belief of this from Christ's resurrection after his death. It can fully assure our faith that God himself is satisfied, and that he considers the debt as paid. So, our faith can confidently approach
God, and demand the bond, having Christ's resurrection as proof that the debt is discharged. Hence, the apostle proclaims victory over sin, hell, and death, upon the occasion of, and as the culmination of, his extensive discourse about Christ's resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, "O death, where is your sting?" that is sin, and the power of it; for so it follows, "the sting of death is sin;" and "O grave, where is your victory? Thanks be to God who has given us victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord," namely, as risen again; for of his resurrection, and of that primarily, had he spoken throughout that chapter.
2. But surely this is not all, that it should only argue our justification by way of evidence. This alone would not have warranted such emphasis if Christ's resurrection had not had some further real causal influence on
justification itself, and been more than simply an evidence of it to our perceptions. Therefore, secondly, in justification, although the material, or substance of it, be entirely the obedience and death of Christ. Yet the act of declaring us righteous by that his obedience (which is the formal aspect of justification), depends upon Christ's resurrection. Typically, no more has been expressed concerning this dependence than that the resurrection of Christ justifies by producing actual faith, to grasp what Christ has done in his life and death, which is called the application of it, of which more later.
But that statement of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:17, seems to suggest more, "If Christ be not risen again, you are yet in your sins, and your faith is in vain." That is, even if you could suppose faith to be generated in you based on the merit of Christ's dying, yet it would be in vain if Christ were not risen again; for your claim to justification itself would be null, "you were yet in your sins." This is said because his resurrection was the means by which sins (though satisfied for in his death) were removed and they were absolved from them; which I take to be the meaning also of that in Romans
4:25, "He was delivered for our sins, and rose again for our justification."
When the apostle says, "for our sins he was delivered," he means his offering of that which was the price for them, a satisfaction for them, which his death was. And in that sense, "he died for our sins," that is, his death stands in place of our death and so satisfies for sin. But yet still that upon which the act of God's justifying us, and his discharge given us from our sins, and whereby he considers us justified, that depends upon his resurrection. "He rose again for our justification." Note that justification there implies the act of imputation, and considering us just, which he had spoken of in the verses immediately preceding, Romans 4:22-24.
In summary, for the full discharge of a debt, and freeing the debtor, two things are required:
1. The payment of the debt; 2. The tearing or cancelling of the bond, or receiving a discharge for the freeing of the debtor. Now the payment was accomplished by Christ's death, and the discharge to free from the debt was at, and by, his resurrection.