Confirming Faith Week 4 Jesus Death and Resurrection

Confirming Faith - Week 4.                Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

(A) HIS DEATH
Why Jesus Had to Die: There are several ways of looking at what Jesus achieved by his death and resurrection. All of these are true. Some Christians emphasize one over the others.

1. Atonement: this means to “make one” (at-one-ment). God made us for a relationship with him.  We are estranged from God through our rebellion against him. (sin). Christ came to restore that relationship. Only someone who was both fully man and fully God, and who was himself without sin, could bridge that gap between us and God.

Read Eph 3:16-19. The cross is a picture of the lengths to which God was willing to go to reach out to us and of the depth and breadth of his love. The vertical part of the cross represents restoration between us and God; the horizontal beam represents the ministry of reconciliation he has given us (Romans 5:6-11, 2 Cor 5:18-20).

2. Substitution: This means that Jesus took our place. He received the punishment we deserve so that we could go free. We are justified (declared righteous and not guilty) because he has taken our sin on himself. (2 Cor 5:21).  We exchange our sinfulness for his righteousness. The righteous wrath of God against evil was borne by him. Jesus experienced separation from God the Father so that we might be re-united with him and become his children. Essentially, he traded places with us. That is why he cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” All the sacrifices of the Old Testament are pictures of the one final sacrifice of Jesus.

3. Victory over Death and Evil:
Man was created immortal. Death entered human experience after man rebelled. Jesus experienced death for us. His resurrection overcame the power of death.

4. Ransom: This metaphor is that of paying a ransom price to set free a kidnapped victim or a slave (man is enslaved by sin and under Satan’s influence). Jesus purchased our liberation with his own blood. We therefore now belong to him. (Matt 20:28, 1Tim 2:6)

5. Rescue: Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection represent God’s rescue mission to planet Earth. He rescued us from Satan’s dominion and transferred us to God’s dominion, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. (Col 1:13).

6. Example to follow: Jesus’ death was an example (1Peter 2:21) of self-less love and devotion, of willingness to lay down one’s life for others and of loving one’s enemies. We are called to follow in his footsteps. His death, however, was not simply one of a revolutionary dying for a good cause.

Think of different examples from history, your own experience or the news which illustrate these different ways of looking at the cross, eg. someone risking his/her life for someone else.

Through his conception, birth, life and death, Jesus identified fully with all that it means to be human. He assumed our nature so that we could become by adoption and grace, what he is by nature, namely sons of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

(B) HIS RESURRECTION
1 Cor 15:1-20 and 50-58) Christians believe, as we say in some liturgies, that: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

• Jesus died; he did not merely swoon or appear dead.


• He was buried in a known and guarded tomb


• The tomb was empty on the first Easter morning.


• Jesus appeared to numerous people during the forty days before his ascension. They saw, touched and talked with him. He ate with them.

The significance of the resurrection:

• His predictions came true.


• His claims were vindicated by God. i.e. his resurrection proved him to be who he claimed to be.


• He has power over death.


• We can have confidence that we too shall rise.


• The same power which raised Christ from the dead is alive in us through his Spirit.


• We can experience the risen Christ.


• If he kept his promise to rise from the dead, we can rely on his promise to come back again.

Easter is thus the central feast of the Christian year. Each Sunday is a mini-Easter as we gather around the Lord’s Table to remember and receive him in the bread and wine.

What should our response to this be?

One of the paradoxes of the Christian faith is this: when we think we are free to do whatever we want by rebelling against the God who made us, we are actually enslaved by sin. When we voluntarily submit to the Lordship of Christ we are truly free to be all we were meant to be.

Acknowledgement: As with the other sessions in this series, this topic is based substantially on Faith Confirmed by Peter Jackson and Chris Wright (published by SPCK), supplemented with other material.