“We often excel at understanding and teaching the meaning of Christ’s death—its significance for accomplishing our salvation. Sometimes, we are less adept at grasping the significance of Christ’s resurrection, at least beyond how it signals retrospectively the effectiveness of the cross. We may struggle to explain why Christ’s resurrection itself matters, what the resurrection specifically contributes to our salvation.”
How did Paul think about resurrection, and what role did it play in his overall theological understanding? Kirk sits down for a conversation with retired professor, Dr. Richard Gaffin, about Paul’s theology of resurrection. We explore questions like, what is the connection between Christ’s resurrection and ours? What is the relationship between Christ’s resurrection and the ministry of the Spirit in our lives? What does Paul mean when he says that Jesus was “raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25)? And how does Christ’s resurrection empower us for our mission as a church?
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
Resurrection Life in Christ (Colossians 2:16-3:4)
CrossWay Community Church
September 11th, 2022
The following sermon was preached at South City Church on January 1, 2017. It is a Christmas sermon exploring the theme of Christ’s incarnation utilizing the work of the Athanasius (296-373).
This is one of my favorite portions in Luther’s writings and one of my favorite illustrations.
The following is from Luther’s short work Freedom of a Christian.
The third incomparable benefit of faith is that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom. By this mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul become one flesh [Eph. 5:31–32]. And if they are one flesh and there is between them a true marriage—indeed the most perfect of all marriages, since human marriages are but poor examples of this one true marriage—it follows that everything they have they hold in common, the good as well as the evil. Accordingly the believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has as though it were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own. Let us compare these and we shall see inestimable benefits. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers?
Kirk E. Miller 