Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Ross Hastings W.

Description

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the best-attested facts of history. But believing in the resurrection is one thing. Knowing what it means is another. Although much has been written about the apologetics of the resurrection, little has been written about its theological meaning. This book reveals the hidden depths of the theological significance and ongoing relevance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our being, our salvation, Christian life, ethics, and our future hope.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 08 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781493434800
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2022 by W. Ross Hastings
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3480-0
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations labeled The Message are taken from THE MESSAGE , copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
Dedicated to the memory of J. I. Packer, Supervisor, Mentor, Friend, Fellow Consumer of Hot Food
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. The Resurrection as Good History 1
Part 1: Christ’s Resurrection Has Saving Efficacy 15
2. The Resurrection as the Seal of the Atonement 17
3. The Resurrection as the Substance of the Atonement 33
4. The Resurrection as the Ground of Participation in the Life of God 43
5. The Resurrection as the Ground of Vocation and Mission 55
6. The Resurrection as the Ground of the Bodily Resurrection 77
Part 2: Christ’s Resurrection Has Ontological Significance 95
7. The Resurrection Declares Jesus’s Unrivaled Supremacy 97
8. The Resurrection Signals Christ’s Entry into His Office as Great High Priest and King 117
9. The Resurrection as the Reaffirmation of Creation 133
10. The Resurrection and the Nature of the Second Coming 151
Conclusion 171
Bibliography 177
Subject Index 183
Scripture and Ancient Sources Index 189
Back Cover 192
Acknowledgments
This book had an unusual birth. On a summer day in 2020 I turned the radio on between the grocery store and home, and it just so happened that an oratorio called The Resurrection , composed by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), was playing. It is a magnificent piece. I had listened to Handel’s Messiah many times but had never heard this piece before. It suddenly lifted my spirit, and the brain cells started to come alive. When I arrived home, I went to my desk and in ten minutes or so wrote a ten-chapter outline of a book on the theology of the resurrection. This is the book, and the chapter titles have more or less stayed intact. So, I am grateful first to God for his gracious work in giving me the vision for this book and enabling its completion.
I am thankful also to Regent College for the gift of sabbatical time in which to write. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world in March 2020, just as I was about to go on sabbatical, I offered to postpone my sabbatical, given the challenges the pandemic brought. However, our dean, Paul Spilsbury, urged me to move forward with it. I am grateful for his urging and his constant, selfless encouragement and work on our behalf as a faculty at Regent College. I am grateful also for a number of theological influences that have helped shape this book. Their names will be apparent in the text and the bibliography. I wish to express thanks also for the help of my teaching assistants, Jacob Raju, Chris Agnew, and Noah Collins. I am grateful also to Robert Hosack and Tim West of Baker Academic for their expert editorial assistance, and for the work of copyeditor Melinda Timmer.
My wife, Tammy, has been a huge source of emotional support during this summer and fall season of writing and has also helped with proofreading and welcome breaks walking around this beautiful Ladysmith area of Vancouver Island. FaceTime calls during this pandemic with our grandchildren, Ada, Carlos, Jayden, Keiden, Lucia, Makayla, Mario, and Rhys, have also brought great joy. This book has special significance for both Tammy and me. We both lost our first spouses to cancer in 2008. The hope of resurrection grounded in the bodily resurrection of Jesus is more than academic for us. He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Introduction
Christians everywhere value the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead two thousand years ago. Often they do so because they have heard that it is a historic fact and therefore a sound foundation for their faith. The first chapter of this book certainly confirms all of this to be true. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the best-attested facts in history. Many books have been written on this theme. This book, however, is not really about that. It is not apologetics. Rather, it is theology. It answers the question, So what? What did and what does the resurrection mean? What does it mean for God? For Jesus? For humanity? For creation? For science? For the arts?
I recently traveled in a small plane piloted by my bonus-son 1 Brandon Carrillo. When I told him what this book was going to be about—that we know and value the fact that Jesus rose from the dead but that we don’t often think deeply about its meaning—he said, “You mean it’s like the buttons on the cockpit of my plane? You can’t just flick one of them on without knowing what it does, what it’s going to do to the engine or the wings. You have to know its meaning.” “Exactly!” I responded. “We Christians flick the switch of the resurrection because we know we have to believe it (Rom. 10:9) or because it makes for credible witness to our faith, but we often don’t know its meaning, all that it has done, what it continues to do now, for us and for creation.”
Chapter 1 briefly revisits the question of the historicity of the resurrection, emphasizing that it was a bodily event and looking at the distinct emphases of the Gospel writers. Chapters 2–6 as a whole focus on what the resurrection has accomplished—that is, what it means for our salvation . Chapter 2 begins the exposition of the meaning or theological significance of the resurrection by exploring the question, What does the resurrection have to do with the atonement, our salvation, and, in particular, our regeneration and our justification? Chapter 3 asks the question, What does the resurrection of the person of Christ and his personal history have to do with our history, and so with our salvation? This chapter focuses on the significance of the resurrection for three great themes of the Christian tradition: Christ’s participation in humanity, recapitulation, and the Christus Victor (Christ the Victor) model of the atonement. Chapter 4 asks the pertinent question, What does the resurrection have to do with our actual transformation as persons—that is, our progressive sanctification? This chapter includes a discussion of the relationship between justification and sanctification as theosis , or deification, a term that has been used for centuries to speak of our transformation to become like God in character as a result of being in union with Christ. Chapter 5 moves to the question, What does the resurrection of Jesus have to do with our vocation or mission as humans, as the church, and as individual Christians? In light of who Jesus is as resurrected in a body and as the last Adam, we will gain a sense of the integral depth and width of what mission really is, including the role that our everyday work plays. Chapter 6 moves on from consideration of what the resurrection means for us in the kingdom that has come to ask the question, What does the resurrection mean for the kingdom when it is fully come? What is the future of Christians after we die, or when Christ returns? This chapter involves discussion of the glorification of the believer, bodily resurrection, and what we can know about resurrected bodies in light of Jesus’s postresurrection body.
In chapter 7, the theme of the book shifts from an emphasis on the saving efficacy of the resurrection to questions regarding being —sometimes called ontological ( ontos = being) matters. The saving nature of the resurrection is grounded in who the risen Christ was and is. So what does the resurrection have to say about the person of Christ, his identity? In other words, what does the doctrine of the resurrection contribute to Christology, the doctrine of the person of Christ? Chapter 8 explores what the resurrection means for his office as our Great High Priest, who is also King-Priest-Prophet, leading to a discussion of the importance of the resurrection for the worship of the church, including its preaching, seen as a participation in Christ’s preaching. Chapter 9 poses the crucial question, What does Jesus’s resurrection in a body mean for creation? Does it perhaps reaffirm God’s commitment to his creation? If this is so, what does this means for ethics, and what does it mean for the study of science and the arts? The final chapter explores the nature of the second coming of Christ in light of the resurrection. Here we look at the literal, personal nature of that coming and what the new creation might bring.



1 . This term seems better to me than the formal “stepson.” My wife and I lost our spouses to cancer in 2008 and married three years later, and we determined we would call each other’s kids bonus-dau