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From: homeier@aero.UUCP (Peter Homeier)
Newsgroups: mod.religion.christian
Subject: Re: The significance of the resurrection
Message-ID: <6690@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sun, 2-Nov-86 02:12:00 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.6690
Posted: Sun Nov  2 02:12:00 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Nov-86 00:48:43 EST
References: <6129@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
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Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
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Approved: christian@topaz.UUCP


   From Dave Hatcher:

>   I am wondering what significance (spiritualy speaking) the resurrection
>	   has on our salvation.
>	
>   What is the resurrection saying compared to the crucifixion, in response
>	   to our salvation.

The crucifixion shows the death of our old nature, the resurrection shows
the birth of our new life.  Just as Jesus will never die again, so also our
new nature is eternal and can never die.

The resurrection shows the triumph of God over Satan, life over death, grace
over law and sin.

And the resurrection is the first fruits of mankind to God, the first
example of the resurrection of all who believe in Jesus.  When the end of
the age appears, all who have trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior will
arise from the dead, just as Jesus arose from the dead first.  He first
forged the path that we shall also walk, and by His own blood purchased the
price of our redemption.  By the power of His sinless life and submission to
the Father's will, even to the humility of death on a cross, Jesus broke the
power of the Devil over mankind to keep them enslaved by their own failures
and weaknesses.  Then by the power of His resurrection, Jesus exemplified
and released to us that same power to come up out of all that we were, into
the light and strength of His glorious life.

In the Old Testament, the crucifixion is like the plagues that descended on
Egypt while they were holding the Israelites as slaves.  These plagues, and
especially the last one, the death of the first-born, broke the will of
Pharaoh to keep them enslaved.  The resurrection then is like the total
destruction of the Egyptians in the waters of the Red Sea, and the release
of the Israelites to complete freedom and newness of life.

We can share in the power of Jesus's resurrection in many ways.  First, when
we are saved, we gain eternal life and the promise of a bodily resurrection
when Jesus returns.  But also as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, we
gain increasing dimensions of His power visibly evident in our lives here
and now.  Such things as God's provision of power to give us guidance and
direction in the choices of our lives, to hear our prayers for grace in time
of need, to enable us to love others purely, even the unlovely ones, to heal
the brokenhearted of grief and depression, and to heal our bodies in many
cases of physical ailments, all together proclaim God's delivering,
restoring, renewing and resurrecting power in our lives.

Paul said that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then our faith was
empty and foolish and that we were still in our sins.  But Jesus was indeed
raised from the dead, and that resurrection is the "proof of the pudding"
that Jesus was indeed who He said He was, the Son of God.  If Jesus had died
on the Cross without any resurrection, then there would be no evidence that
He was anything other than a very good man with a wonderful philosophy.  But
the resurrection is first of all God testifying to man that Jesus was the
Messiah, the One who was promised who would deliver His people from their
sins.  And the resurrection is then a promise to all who would believe in
Jesus, that they can also share in that glorious life forever, if they will
but submit to the indignity and foolishness, by the world's standards, of
simple, childlike faith.

---------------------------------
Peter Homeier                                  ______
Arpanet:    homeier@aerospace                 / o    \_/
UUCP:       ..!ihnp4!trwrb!aero!homeier       \___)__/ \
The Aerospace Corporation, M1-108
El Segundo, CA 90245
Disclaimer:  Anything expressed above is my personal opinion, and not
             the position of the Aerospace Corporation.