Chase / Ortlund Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4335-8043-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 176 Seiten

Reihe: Short Studies in Biblical Theology

A Biblical Theology of Resurrection Hope from Genesis to Revelation  Death is a powerful and sobering reality. While everyone must face death, it is not the end for those united with Christ. Followers of Jesus Christ have resurrection hope-the proclamation that Christ has defeated death and the promise that believers shall share in his victory. The resurrection is essential to the Christian faith and is rooted in the faithfulness of God.  With scholarly insight, Mitchell L. Chase traces the theme of resurrection hope throughout Scripture, walking through each section of Scripture from the Law to Revelation. Having a proper understanding of death and resurrection will not only stir up our soberness for the reality of sin and death, but it will also motivate our praise to God.  - Founded on Scripture: Highlights the interconnectedness of the Bible  - For Learners: Ideal for students or anyone looking to grow in their knowledge of God and the Scriptures - Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology Series: Other volumes include The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture, The Lord's Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, and The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross

Mitchell L. Chase (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is an associate professor of biblical studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the preaching pastor of Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author of several books. He blogs regularly at Biblical Theology on Substack.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chase, Mitchell L.

Ortlund, Dane

Leseproben

Introduction

What kind of life were you made for? Before you answer that question, here’s another: what was life like before the rebellion of our first parents? The state of their existence provides a clue, a pointer, to answering the first question.

Embodied life. Adam and Eve experienced life and God’s good creation with bodies. From the beginning it was this way. They didn’t exist before their bodies. And this pattern is affirmed and vindicated at the end of Holy Scripture, when death is done because the dead have been raised.

Death the Disrupter

Looking at the beginning and the end of divine revelation, we can see that an embodied life is good, desirable, and coming. Death is the disrupter. For now, we experience embodied life temporarily because the effects of sin and the curse will not permit unending life. Outside Eden, we outwardly waste away. Our breath of life will, at some near or distant moment, cease.

Yet the biblical authors essentially say to death, “You shall surely die.” Those wrapped in death’s cords will be raised, and the saints will dwell in immortal bodies to experience the life they were made for, an existence surpassing even the glories of the garden. We might consider this world to be the land of the living, but the reality is more complicated than that. We can just as well consider this world to be the land of the dying. We’re breathing now in the valley of the shadow of death. Under the sun nothing lasts, not even us.

Risen Hope

The sinner’s only hope in life and death is Jesus Christ—a hope that is grounded in his victorious person and work. He is the Savior of sinners because he lives and reigns. He has broken the cords of death, and he lives as the firstfruits of the life that will be fully ours. For Jesus, the valley of death’s shadow led to vindication and exaltation, and that is the path we walk.

The good news about Jesus includes his virginal conception, his sinless life, and his sin-bearing death, but the gospel is incomplete without the empty tomb. If Jesus remained defeated by death, his perpetual entombment would call into question everything he said and did before the cross. The resurrection of Jesus on the third day is crucial to the good news, and the good news is emptied of its power without it. Paul says that if Jesus hasn’t been raised, then we’re still in our sins, our preaching is powerless, and our hope is in vain (1 Cor. 15:12–19).

When Jesus rose from the dead, the perishable put on the imperishable; and because he did, we will. Our hope is risen, so our hope is sure. He died never to die again.

The Biblical Landscape

Jesus’s resurrection is announced in the New Testament, but the hope for resurrection is older than the empty tomb. To consider such a vibrant topic as resurrection hope, we will need the whole Bible. All its genres will help us. Many biblical authors will weigh in as we construct a vision of how resurrection hope unfolds across the sweep of Scripture.

When you think of resurrection hope, you might naturally turn to the New Testament. And that’s understandable, because that hope is loud and lively there. But the volume was getting loud already in the Old Testament, and we will begin there.

The Old Testament of Jesus’s day was divided into three parts: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. This book will treat each part in chapters 1–3. Then chapters 4–7 will investigate the New Testament, treating the Gospels, Acts, the Letters, and Revelation. The biblical landscape is vast, but that’s appropriate to the vast nature of resurrection hope.

Resurrection Sightings

The resurrection of Jesus, and the hope for our own liberation from death, is foretold and foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The prophet Daniel says that people will rise from death, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting judgment (Dan. 12:2). The prophet Ezekiel depicts the exile and return of the Israelites as a corporate death and resurrection (Ezek. 37). Jonah descends into the depths in a fish before ascending to the shore after three days (Jonah 2; cf. Matt. 12:40).

The psalm writers sing about being brought out of the pit, about being taken from the clutches of death. They herald their hope to see God and to stand before him. These songs are from the lips of those who live in the land of the dying, and they write with their gazes fixed on the future land of the living. The suffering and sorrowful psalmists write as if death is not the end and something greater than earthly life is on the way.

Pushing deeper into Old Testament history, we remember that the Lord used both Elijah and Elisha to deliver people from death (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 4). These are historical narratives where the power of death faced the power of God. And let’s not forget that Elijah himself ascended to God without dying first (2 Kings 2). A whirlwind of fire carried him above the earth, and suddenly—as with Enoch many generations earlier—death didn’t seem so inevitable.

Even individuals who had not witnessed a physical resurrection could still hold out hope that God’s power was greater than death. Two thousand years before Jesus was born, Abraham and Isaac left their traveling companions and climbed a mountain for sacrifice (Gen. 22). Abraham told them that he and the boy were going to worship and would return. The aging patriarch knew he could trust God, that God would keep his promise of bringing offspring through Isaac even though Isaac had not yet fathered a child (21:12). If God’s plan was for Abraham to offer Isaac, then God’s plan must also be to raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham’s resurrection faith was reasonable because he knew from experience that God is serious about promises and has the power to bring them to pass (21:1–2).

An Everlasting Remedy

The Old and New Testaments testify that the solution to the problem of death is resurrection. The storyline of Scripture takes us from the embodied first couple in Genesis to the glorified saints in the new creation. But we do not raise ourselves. The victor over death is the one who has command of death. The tombs will open when he says so (John 5:28–29).

In the Old Testament, no one experienced an immortal existence. What Jesus accomplished through his resurrection was something new, as well as a kind of life that earlier biblical authors only anticipated. The accounts of resurrections were stories of people brought back to earthly life only to die at a later date. Stepping out of the empty tomb on the third day, Jesus embodied the everlasting remedy to the problem of death: glorified immortality.

While the first Adam did not exist as a glorified image bearer, the last Adam does. We may be image-bearers who are born in Adam, but we will be raised in Christ because we are alive in Christ by faith already. Because he lives, we live and will live.

Why Resurrection Hope Matters

There are many worthy books to read and worthy topics to consider. Why should you read about resurrection hope? Here are five reasons.

1. Individual: you are going to die. I know this isn’t news to you, but you might not ponder it often enough. Resurrection hope affords you the opportunity to think about death clearly and without delusion. You are not invincible. As you age, you will face the aches and afflictions associated with getting older in a fallen world. And since you are going to die, shouldn’t you have a clear understanding of your hope in the face of death?

2. Relational: people you know are going to die. You may even be at their bedside when it happens. You will know people who die old and others who die young. The healthy and the sick will die. The wise and the fool will die. All in all, we should count it a great privilege to point others to truth and hope in Christ. And resurrection hope is part of what we should share. The more we know about it, the more sound and helpful our instruction will be.

3. Christological: Jesus has been raised from the dead. He is the object of our faith and hope, so we must commit ourselves to learn about what he has accomplished. His victorious resurrection and glorified body are not bonus facts for an otherwise solid faith. If you negate the resurrection hope that Jesus embodies and promises, there is no gospel worth preserving or preaching.

4. Theological: resurrection hope intersects with other biblical doctrines. In thinking about resurrection hope, we must think about—for example—the goodness of creation, the nature of man, the problem of sin, and the final state of all things. As we strive to understand the Bible and to hold together its many teachings, a study of resurrection hope will prove necessary and profitable.

5. Doxological: the hope of resurrection should stir joy and praise to God. The promise of resurrection extols the power of God and showcases the faithfulness of God, all to the glory of his name. Since Christians want to be those whose...