***"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
***"Paul, in line with a major theme throughout the Bible, understood sin and death as bound together in a tight nexus. If Jesus had defeated sin, death could not hold him. If (conversely) he rose again from the dead, it meant he had indeed dealt with sin on the cross--in other words, that God had achieved at last what he had promised to Abraham and the prophets...As far as Paul was concerned, the most important eschatological event, through which the living God had unveiled (or if you like, 'apocalypsed') his plan to save the whole cosmos, had occurred when Jesus rose from the dead. --N.T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said
***"Jesus' resurrection demonstrated his victory over death (Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:54-57), vindicated him as righteous (John 16:10), and indicated his divine identity (Rom. 1:4). It led on to his ascension and enthronement (Acts 1:9-11; 2:34; Phil. 2:9-11; cf. Isa. 53:10-12) and his present heavenly reign. It guarantees the believer's present forgiveness and justification (Romans 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:17) and is the basis for the resurrection life in Christ for the believer here and now (John 11:25-26; Rom. 6; Eph. 1:18-2:10; Col. 2:9-15; 3:1-4). --J.I. Packer, Concise Theology
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1 comment:
Great posts Eric! I appreciated reading them all.
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