Christ’s resurrection was also a sign of the success of His achievement. Suppose Christ had remained in the tomb after He died. If such had been the case, then what Christ did would not have been a success. But the Man-Savior’s resurrection from the dead is a strong sign of His great success in His universal achievement.
Christ’s resurrection was also His victory over the world, Satan, death, Hades, and the tomb. These five things caused the Lord Jesus to be put into the tomb. But when He came forth from the tomb in resurrection, this was His victory over the world, Satan, death, Hades, and the tomb. As Peter says in Acts 2:24, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Because Christ is resurrection (John 11:25), death could not hold Him. It is impossible for death to hold resurrection; resurrection overcomes death.
Christ’s resurrection was also His glorification. Christ’s resurrection brought Him into glory (Luke 24:26; 1 Cor. 15:43a; Acts 3:13a, 15a).
The Lord’s divine nature, His divine being, was concealed and confined within His flesh. Through death the confinement of His humanity, His flesh, was broken, and then in resurrection He was released as the very God with His nature and riches. Because He was released from the confinement of His flesh in resurrection, He was glorified. This was the reason the Lord said to the disciples on the way to Emmaus that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory (Luke 24:26). It was through His resurrection that He entered into glory.
Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). He was Christ in the flesh, but He has been transfigured into the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who essentially is the life-giving Spirit. Resurrection was His actual transfiguration. Before His death and resurrection, He was transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. However, that transfiguration was only temporary. His actual transfiguration was His resurrection, for in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who imparts life into us.
Christ’s resurrection was also the germination of the new creation. Just as His death was the termination of the old creation, so His resurrection was the germination of the new creation. What He terminated in His death He germinated in His resurrection. This germination includes us; we were regenerated through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). Hence, His resurrection is our germination and regeneration. In this way we have become the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). We are regenerated people in His new creation.
Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection produced the church as His Body, even as His reproduction (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17). Therefore, the church is Christ’s reproduction in resurrection. When the Lord Jesus was incarnated, He was an individual. But when He was resurrected, He became corporate, a corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), the Christ who is both the Head and the Body.
We need to understand these seven aspects of Christ’s resurrection. Resurrection was God’s vindication of the Lord’s life and work, resurrection was the Lord’s great success in His universal achievement, resurrection was His victory over all enemies, resurrection was His glorification, resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit essentially, resurrection was the germination of the new creation, and resurrection produced the church, the Body, as Christ’s reproduction. These matters are clearly revealed in the Acts and Epistles. We all need to know Christ’s resurrection to such an extent.