Jesus Saves By His Victorious Resurrection

For the last few weeks we’ve been considering the three atoning aspects of Christ’s work of redemption: that Jesus saves by virtue of His perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law, His substitutionary death under God’s wrath, and His victorious resurrection over the powers of hell and death.
As we noted last Friday, Jesus came to earth not only to die on our behalf under the righteous wrath of God for our sins, but also to obey God’s righteous requirements on our behalf. Thus, those who trust in Christ are given the same right standing with the Father that the Son obtained by His obedience.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the first two aspects of Christ’s atoning work (His righteous life and substitutionary death) that we forget the ultimate reason for His coming to earth. It was, like everything God does, primarily for the sake of His own glory. The resurrection is the clearest evidence of this: after dying in our place under the Father’s wrath, Christ rose from the dead to declare God’s victory over all the powers of death and hell (Romans 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 54-57).
Now Christ is alive forever, to live His life in union with all who trust in Him. One goal of His coming to earth is that you would be united to Him and He would be united to you, with the result that His life flows through you and produces His character in you.
The central text that teaches about union with Christ is John 15, where He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4). The life of Christ flows in and through the believer, so that His life “takes over,” and bears the fruit of Christ’s life. (This process of “taking over” the believer’s life is how Christ accomplishes the believer’s sanctification; but that’s another series of articles!)
Because Christ rose from dead to live His life out in His followers, Christians are blessed to enjoy all of the blessings that are in Christ (Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 1:20). God loves the Son, and so He loves us, because we are united with Christ. Because Christ lives in believers, everything He accomplished for us is counted as ours: we died with Him, we were raised with Him, and we have a place in heaven with Him (Ephesians 2:5-6; John 14:1-6). Because Christ was resurrected and lives in His followers, His presence with us is not temporary or transient, but permanent and constant (Matthew 28:18-20; Hebrews 13:5).
If you are a believer, Christ is not somewhere “out there.” He came out of the tomb to come into your life and live His life out in you and through you. As the song puts it, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!” It is my earnest prayer that those words are more than song lyrics to you, but rather that they are the genuine testimony of your salvation!