The Effects of the Resurrection

For many Christians around the world, the remembrance of the Resurrection was last weekend. But Christians should be careful not to just move on to, "What's next in the calendar?" 

Christ has been raised!

When Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 15, he doesn't say, "Christ was raised." Rather, he uses the perfect passive tense which means that an event happened for which we are still feeling the results! Subtle but important distinction. 


For Paul the point of the resurrection is not simply that the creator god has done something remarkable for one solitary individual (as people today sometimes imagine is the supposed thrust of the Easter proclamation), but that, in and through the resurrection, ‘the present evil age’ has been invaded by the ‘age to come', the time of restoration, return, covenant renewal, and forgiveness. An event has occurred as a result of which the world is a different place, and human beings have the new possibility to become a different kind of people.[i]

That's good stuff for a Monday morning! 

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[i]Ciampa, R. E., & Rosner, B. S. (2010). The First Letter to the Corinthians (p. 756). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.