preface

contents

preface Thinking about Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . 5

one New Birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

two Living Hope through Resurrection . . . 15

three An Unfading Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

four Guarded by God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

EDITORS: Monica Brands, Tim Gustafson, J.R. Hudberg, Peggy Willison COVER IMAGE: © Shutterstock/Romolo Tavani COVER DESIGN: Stan Myers INTERIOR DESIGN: Steve Gier

INTERIOR IMAGES: (p.1) © Shutterstock/Romolo Tavani; (p.5) Jeff Baxter/Our Daily Bread Ministries; (p.9) Ronny Overhate via Pixabay.com; (p.15) Vu Manh Tien via Pixabay.com; (p.21) Itsuro Dry2 via PIxabay.com; (p.27) Katinka Haslinger via FreeImages.com; (p.31) Roni Broering via FreeImages.com. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

© 2018 Our Daily Bread Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI All rights reserved. Printed in USA

Preface

Thinking about Resurrection

When asked, Christians are pretty good at offering explanations of what the death of Jesus means. They might reply that Jesus died for our sins. That he died as a sacrifice. That he died in our place. Believers may know sophisticated theological terms that further explain the meaning of Jesus’s death— words like atonement, substitution, reconciliation, and

justification. Sure, not all Christians understand all these concepts, but many do have a grasp of the significance of Jesus’s death as the way our sin was defeated so we could be right with God.

Reconciliation describes how a holy God and sinful humans are brought together through the atoning and substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross . Through his sinless life and his death for us, we are justified . Jesus’s death atoned for our sins .

Strange then that it’s sometimes hard to relay the significance of Jesus’s resurrection. We’re not quite sure how to answer questions like, If Jesus’s death made us right with God, was His resurrection necessary for that restored relationship? Or, If Jesus hadn’t risen, what about our lives today would be different? Would anything?

Of course Jesus had to rise from the dead. The Bible says that if Jesus did not rise, we would still be in our sins (1 corinthians 15:17). The resurrection proves our faith is on a firm foundation. Without the resurrection, our faith would be nothing but a cruel

joke (v. 19).

But this reply still fails to answer the simple question why? Why was Jesus’s resurrection necessary? Why would we still be in our sins if Jesus did not rise? Didn’t He already defeat our sins on the cross? Why does the resurrection prove that

Christianity is true? Why would our faith be a cruel joke if Jesus had not risen?

These are the kind of questions many Christians cannot answer with confidence. We tend to have a strong We tend to theology of the cross, but a weak have a strong theology of the resurrection. theology of This is a big problem, because the cross, the New Testament says the resurrection of Jesus is supremely important. Like but a weak theology of the the cross, the truth of the resurrection. resurrection is central to our daily lives as believers.

Let’s consider 1 Peter 1:3–5, which describes key reasons why Jesus’s resurrection is central to our hope.

Questions

1. What role in your thinking does the resurrection of Jesus currently play? 2. What is the relationship between Jesus’ resurrection and our own resurrection? See Romans 6:4-5, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, Romans 8:11 .