The first point of the objective aspect of the Man-Savior’s resurrection is that it was God’s vindication and approval of the Man-Savior and His all-inclusive redemptive work. By resurrection God vindicated and approved the Man-Savior; God also vindicated and approved the Lord’s redemptive work. In other words, God vindicated the Person and work of the Man-Savior.
With each one of us there is the matter of both person and work. Our person is what we are, and our work is what we do. The criticism of others is always related either to their person or to their work.
This certainly was the situation with the Lord Jesus. According to the four Gospels, there was much criticism, especially from the Jewish leaders, of Christ’s Person and deeds. Concerning His Person, some said that He was a Samaritan (John 8:48), that He was beside Himself, that is, mentally ill (Mark 3:21), and that He was demon possessed (John 8:49). Furthermore, His works were condemned by the Pharisees as a blasphemy to God. The religious leaders surely denied, rejected, and condemned the Man-Savior. They sentenced Him to death and had Him crucified. This was the attitude of the leaders of the Jewish nation, those among whom Christ was born, lived, and worked.
The religious leaders regarded the Man-Savior as worse than a criminal and a murderer, as someone worse than Barabbas. They condemned both Him and His work; they rejected both His Person and His deeds. Their rejection of the Man-Savior was to such an extent that they sentenced Him to be put on the cross.
Suppose the Man-Savior had not been resurrected. Suppose His body was left in the tomb. If so, then the Jewish leaders would have won the case. However, God resurrected Christ and thereby vindicated Him. This kind of vindication was extraordinary. After the Lord was crucified and buried, God raised Him up from the dead.
In the book of Acts we are told a number of times that God raised up, resurrected, the Lord Jesus. For example, referring to the Lord Jesus, Acts 2:24 says, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death.” Acts 2:32 says, “This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses.” Acts 3:15 speaks of “the Author of life...whom God raised from the dead,” and 4:10 tells of “Jesus Christ the Nazarene...whom God raised from the dead.” Other verses in Acts that speak of God raising up Jesus from among the dead are 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 33-34, 37; 17:31 and 26:8. The reason this is repeated so often is that the entire book of Acts is a book of the testimony of the resurrection of Christ. The apostles’ testimony was that of the resurrection of the Man-Savior. God vindicated Christ by raising Him up.
The Man-Savior’s Person and work were both rejected and condemned. The religious leaders thought that they were through with Him and that they could now joyfully be at rest. But God came in to resurrect the Lord Jesus. God did not argue with the religious leaders; He did not have a conference to negotiate with them. Instead, God seemed to say, “I don’t care to talk to you foolish ones. I shall do one thing—I shall raise up the very One you crucified. My raising Him up is my vindication of Him and His work, but it is a shame to those who condemned Him.”
The Lord Jesus was the turning point of human history. What He did has affected the whole world. Through resurrection, God, the supreme Judge, vindicated the Man-Savior and His redemptive work.
The resurrection of Christ was not only God’s vindication, it was also God’s approval of Him and His work. In resurrecting the Lord Jesus, God seemed to be saying to the Jewish nation with its leaders, “I approve what you condemn. You say that Jesus was blaspheming Me. But I approve what He did, what He said, and what He was. You thought that you could put Him to death. On the cross He suffered your persecution, and then He accomplished My redemption. I approve of His redeeming work. He accomplished the redemption I had planned in eternity past. I not only vindicate Him and His work—I also approve Him and His work.”
According to John 10, the Lord Jesus laid down His life and took it again by God’s commandment. God commanded Him to lay down His life. Therefore, God came in to vindicate and approve the Lord Jesus and His work. Again God seemed to be saying, “If I did not approve Jesus of Nazareth, I would leave Him in Hades. After He was buried in the tomb, He went to Hades. But I have raised Him both from Hades and from the tomb to declare to you that I approve what He did and that I vindicate Him.” Thus, by raising up the Lord Jesus, God silenced those who condemned the Man-Savior.
The resurrection of Christ, as God’s vindication, is a proof of our justification by God. Romans 4:25 says that Christ “was delivered because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.” The death of Christ fully satisfied God’s righteous requirements so that we may be justified by God through Christ’s death (Rom. 3:24). His resurrection is a proof that God is satisfied with His death for us and that we are justified by God because of His death. In Him, the resurrected one, we are accepted by God. Therefore, Romans 4:25 says that Christ was raised because of our justification.
Suppose Christ died for us and our sins and was buried in the tomb, but was not resurrected by God. If this were the situation, could you still believe that His death was accepted by God? Could you believe that His death satisfied God’s requirements and fulfilled His desires? We could not believe this if Christ were still in the tomb. However, the Man-Savior is not in the tomb. God raised Him up from the dead and He came back in resurrection. This is a strong proof that God has accepted His death for us, that His death satisfied God’s requirements and fulfilled whatever God wanted Him to do for us.
Let us use the paying of a debt as an illustration. Suppose you owe someone a very large amount of money and are not able to pay the debt. However, a wealthy friend of yours intervenes to pay the debt for you, and then gives you the receipt as proof of payment. When you see the receipt with your creditor’s signature on it indicating that the debt has been paid in full, you will be happy, knowing that you have been released from the debt.
As sinners, we were in debt to God. But Christ died on the cross for our sins. How do we know that God has forgiven us? We know it by the fact that God raised Christ from the dead. Christ’s resurrection is for our justification.
How do we know that God has justified us, that He has accepted us? We know this by the fact that God has resurrected Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the proof of our justification by God. The resurrection of Christ is a strong proof that God’s requirements have been satisfied by Christ’s death and that God has accepted Christ as our Redeemer. Christ’s resurrection is the receipt, the proof, that our debt has been paid. Praise the Lord for the “receipt” of the resurrected Christ!