Why Was Jesus Resurrected?
Finding Freedom in Jesus’ Victory over Death
BY KRYSTAL OHUABUNWA
Growing up in church, I always heard that Jesus died for our sins and rose again three days later. I could understand why Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sins, but up until recently, I never truly grasped the reason for His resurrection. Wasn’t the work of salvation already finished when Jesus said “It is finished” and took His last breath? Was His atoning death not enough? Why did He need to be resurrected, and why do Christians have an entire holiday dedicated to it? After all, didn’t Lazarus [1], the widow of Zarephath’s son [2], Tabitha [3], and several other people in the Bible die and live again? Why was Jesus’s resurrection important and necessary?
Jesus paid our debt on the cross, but His sacrifice means nothing if He has no power over the grave. Christians would waste our time trusting and putting our hope in a dead Savior. Any hope we had or good work we accomplished would be meaningless because it would ultimately end in death.
Jesus’ resurrection gives Christians the assurance that we can trust Him because all of His promises come true. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” [4] But thank God, the gospel story did not end in death! Jesus died and rose again three days later and is alive! His resurrection has allowed us to be justified before God and is the assurance of the eternal life we have in Him.
Because He is alive, He is at the right hand of God actively interceding for us [5]. Because He is alive, we can approach His throne boldly knowing we will receive whatever we ask according to His will. [6] Because He is alive, there is strength available for us today and a bright hope for tomorrow. Because He is alive, we too will one day be resurrected and live forever with Him in glory! Not even our sin can condemn us. Because God is for us, no one can be against us. It is such good news!
Jesus’s resurrection has granted us so many things—eternal life, reconciliation to God, friendship with Jesus—but what I have been focusing on during this lent season is freedom. As Cornell students, and even just as humans in general, we are constantly faced with a lot of stress. Not only academic stress, but peer pressure, wanting to fit in, guilt and shame for things we’ve done wrong, the burdens of others’ opinions of us, and so much more. But rather than being laden and defeated by these things, Jesus’ resurrection has provided us victory.
When we feel anxious about school, in God we can find peace that surpasses understanding [7]. When we don’t know what the next step to take is, we can trust that we were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do,” [8] and that He has a plan for us. When we feel overwhelmed with pressure from our parents or peers, we remember we no longer have to be concerned with human approval, because we belong to the Lord! [9] When everything feels pointless we can remember to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward,” [10] and that “nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” [11].
And in all of these things—academic stress, fear, loneliness—we are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” [12] because Christ has already conquered death. We are only able to overcome these things because He is alive! For no matter how many promises God has made, the answer is always “Yes” in Christ. These promises the word of God makes are not merely suggestions but represent the truth and the freedom we are called to live out because we are in Christ!
What an incomparable gift it is to receive such freedom and grace! Let this Easter season of hope and new beginnings be a reminder that every day we are called to live a life of freedom. God never called us to live as slaves to academic success and human validation or to our worries and fears. The resurrection has given us access to freedom from all these things because of our living Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who carried these burdens to the cross with Him and rose again in victory over them.
Now, if not even death can conquer us, what in this world can? I pray that knowing this good news, we would be inspired to share this freedom to the enslaved world around us. The Gospel includes Jesus’ sinless life, atoning death, and His life-giving resurrection. Let’s not stop at His death, but every day remember that our Savior rose again and has won the victory over sin, and so have we!
SOURCES
John 11
1 Kings 17:17–24
Acts 9:36-43
1 Corinthians 15:17
Romans 8:34
Hebrews 4:16
Philipians 4:6
Ephesians 2:10
Galatians 2:10
Colossians 3:23-24
1 Corinthians 15:58
Romans 8:37