The Apostles’ Creed: The Third Day He Rose Again

February 5, 2020

Irreducible parts. All of nature, from the grandeur of the mighty mountains to the smallest of all cells, is composed of irreducible parts. Everything we see around us can neither exist nor function unless the most basic of elements work in tandem with each other.

Similarly, the Christian Faith is irreducible. The gospel message cannot be true if Christ was not fully God and fully man, come in the flesh, having borne our sins, laying down his life for us in perfect substitutionary atonement, and being raised to life, so giving us life.

The Apostle Paul summed up his logical argument for the historical resurrection of Christ in 1 Corthinthians 15:17. “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

In other words, if there was no actual resurrection from the dead, no trampling down of Death by the death of our Lord Christ, there is no substantial salvation onto which we hold. There is no confident expectation, no hope, save in the active obedience of Christ to finish the work of redemption—God’s plan to save his people which he undertook from eternity past in what we Reformed folk call the Covenant of Redemption.

The entirety of the Christian Faith hangs upon the reality of the resurrection. Since the inception of Modernism in the late 19th century, a popular teaching began to arise among biblically illiterate churches that downplayed the resurrection of Christ. Have you ever heard the following truth claims from such circles? “Christ has been merely raised in our hearts, spiritually-speaking.” “The message of the incarnation of Christ is for our encouragement—it’s still meaningful to us even if it’s not true.” “Jesus merely died for us in the sense that he set forth an example of sacrifice unto God that we should also follow.”

Such talk has pervaded Broad Evangelicalism in the Western World for nearly two centuries. Denominations such as our own have split from the mainline ones over this. (Hence why there are many smaller, Bible-believing Presbyterian denominations like the PCA, OPC, and EPC that are separate from the mainline PCUSA denomination.)

In the Apostles’ Creed, the early church affirmed the resurrection of Christ—along with the rest of the creed—as being rooted in history. The event of the resurrection was not merely spiritual or immaterial. It actually happened! There were witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead who saw him post-crucifixion and burial and laid down their lives and reputations to share the news. And the news of Christ’s resurrection has real implications for us who believe.

Belief itself is no good apart from the object of one’s faith. While there are certainly spiritual implications of being raised with Christ on the last day, knowing that our souls will be with him in glory, the bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead proves to us that we who have faith in Christ for salvation will too be raised bodily from the grave. There is a real, holistic resurrection of our bodies we anticipate. Just as Christ suffered, conquered the grave, and was raised to glory, so we too who suffer now for his sake, in union with him, can have this assured hope: we will be raised to the newness of life everlasting. Our bodies will be healed. Our pain will be comforted. The aches within our souls will be consoled by Almighty God.

So may our eyes be turned heavenward when we experience pain and suffering as believers. May we long for his salvation to come, as we experience the fellowship of Christ by his Spirit even now.

In the words of Paul, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). BUT if we in Christ hold fast to the hope that transcends this life—that touches and tastes glory—we are, of all people in the world, most blessed.

So believer in Christ, take heart in this: your Savior has indeed overcome the world.