The Resurrection Effects

Oct 04, 2016
Richard Gaffin (from the book, Resurrection and Redemption)

Romans 4:25 declares that Christ “was raised again for our justification.”

The resurrection vindicates Jesus in His perfect obedience unto death. It reveals that He embodies the perfect righteousness that avails before God. In that sense, His resurrection is His justification (though He was laden with [the believers] iniquities), and so, by imputation, through union with Him, our justification. Without the resurrection, there would be no justification of the ungodly.

The new relationship between the exalted Christ and the Holy Spirit means that the presence of the Spirit with believers is the very presence of Christ with them. Notice the way God renders synonymous the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ and Christ Himself in Romans 8:9,10, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Having been justified by the resurrection of Christ, Christians will never be more resurrected than they already are at the core of their being—“the inward man.” But having been given the Spirit, they can also count assuredly on their outward man being resurrected on the Last Day.

God says in Ephesians 1:13,14: “…ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Additional Reading