Doubtless there were many sermons preached on Easter Sunday,
April 20. I did preach on
the theme from I Corinthians 15. While I think that recognized religious
holidays give pastors an opportunity to preach and that such holidays give churches
an opportunity to share the essentials of the gospel, I think there is great
benefit in the position that every Sunday is “Resurrection Sunday” and that the
Christian Sabbath is the great day of
week. It is a promise of the believer’s rest in Christ (Heb 4:1-10).
The idea of the Sabbath that Jesus taught that “…the Sabbath
was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,” relates to the promise of the resurrection
and our union with Christ Jesus by faith. I am referring to the immense and
often under rated benefit of the Christian believer’s union with Christ or, as
it is commonly referred to, one’s relationship with Christ.
John Calvin argues thoroughly in his commentary on I
Corinthians 15 that there is “a mutual and reciprocal result” established from
Christ to us and from us to Christ. Behind Paul’s argument in that chapter,
stands the reasoning that if Christ has risen then believers will be raised and
if Christ has not risen then believers will not be raised. Equally, if
believers are raised then Christ must be raised and if we are not raised from
the dead then Christ has not been raised. He even goes so far to reason that “Christ
did not die or rise again for Himself, but for us…” and he states further that
Christ’s resurrection finds its purpose not in himself but in its result of the
resurrection of his own members.
There is a connection or rather a union here. This is a
relationship but more than a relationship defined in the common sort of way of an
emotional connection. Nor is the believer’s relationship with Christ merely economical where we simply get things (salvation, justification, redemption,
resurrection, heaven, etc.) from Jesus. As real as emotional and economical benefits in Christ are, something more profound is expressed.
What we should understand is that our relationship with
Jesus by faith is one of union or identity. Christ’s death becomes the death of
the believer by faith. Christ’s resurrection becomes the believer’s
resurrection by faith. By this I do not mean to imply that ours is merely a
spiritualized death or resurrection. No, we must truly die to self and our body
of sin must die yet the penalty of death for sin is fulfilled by Christ for us
so that our death is not penal (see
Westminster Larger Catechism Q85). The essence of the substitutionary atonement
is that Christ bears the believer’s sin, its guilt, and its required punishment
for them. In this faith union believers are also sharers in his resurrection. As
surely as he was raised from the dead believers will be bodily raised from the dead
too. Indeed, the purpose of the resurrection of Jesus is the resurrection of believers
in him. Christ has entered into his glory. Believers, by their faith union in him,
enter into their share of his glory. The great Sabbath Rest is pictured and promised at every public Sunday/Sabbath worship. You see, every Christian Sabbath is Resurrection Sunday.
Christ was raised for us! (Romans 6:1-14)
