Christ's resurrection was a strong vindication of His great success in all His achievements (Acts 5:30-31). In history there have been many great men. One of them was Alexander the Great, who lived about three hundred years before Christ. He conquered many countries while he was still under thirty-five years of age. Alexander came from Macedonia, the northern part of Greece. He built up and trained a strong army, and conquered Greece, Persia, and Egypt. But suddenly, at the age of thirty-three, he died. His death was a sign of his failure.
When the Jews put Christ to death, they thought that He was altogether defeated, and that His death was a sign of His failure. But after three days Christ came out of the tomb. So Christ's resurrection was a strong vindication of His great success. Many men have accomplished great things, but their success ended with their death. But although Jesus was put to death, God raised Him up. This raising up of Christ by God was a vindication of His great success. In human history there has never been another person as successful as Christ. His resurrection carried out His success, and His success is still continuing on the earth today. Confucius died, Mohammed died, and Socrates died. Many great men died and were buried. In human history, there has been only one exception. Only this One came out of the tomb and is still working today. He is moving, He is acting, and He is motivating all His people on the earth. He has obtained a great success, and this success was sealed by His resurrection.
Christ's resurrection was also the evidence that God has justified us (Rom. 4:25). Because He died on the cross for our sins, God has to forgive us. But if Christ had never been raised from the dead, how could we know that God has forgiven us, that He was satisfied by Christ's death? Christ's resurrection from the dead was the evidence that God was satisfied by His death. Because God was content with Christ's death, God released Him from death.
To illustrate this point, let us suppose that a brother owes a certain rich man ten million dollars. The rich man holds a note for that loan which states clearly that the brother owes him ten million dollars. Now, let us suppose that I have the ability to pay his debt, and that I pay ten million dollars to the rich man. However, although he accepts my payment, the rich man will not give me a receipt. Without a receipt as evidence that I have repaid the loan, the brother has no way to prove that the rich man has been satisfied by my payment. But if the rich man gives me a receipt, I now can tell the brother the good news that I have paid his debt. I have the receipt as evidence that the rich man has released him from obligation because he has been satisfied by my payment.
In the same way, we know that God was satisfied by Christ's payment because God raised Him from the dead. Romans 4:25 says, "Who was delivered because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." The first part of this verse indicates that Christ died on the cross for our sins, and the second part tells us that because God was satisfied with Christ's death for our sins, He released Christ from death. Christ's coming out of death was a great proof that God was satisfied with His death for us. This resurrected Christ is the "receipt" of His full payment for our debt, issued by God to us, proving that all our sins have been forgiven and that God has justified us.