Truth Unites - What We MISS About Easter

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

In this video Gavin Ortlund explores what Christians often miss about Easter and the nature of Christ's resurrection. See the McNutt's Know the Theologians book: https://www.amazon.com/Know-Theologians-Jennifer-Powell-McNutt/dp/0310114411 See my article on Christ's Resurrection: https://truthunites.org/mypublications/ Truth Unites exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville. SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunites FOLLOW: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlund Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/ Website: https://truthunites.org/

We often think about Christ's resurrection as a point of apologetics. We want to prove that it's true and I love that. But sometimes we don't think about what it means. Sometimes we don't appreciate just how earth-shattering this doctrine is. Here's how I like to put it. At creation, reality fundamentally changed, because now you have something other than God that exists. Easter morning is a comparably significant change to reality.

Something completely new comes into the picture. Jesus' resurrection body is without precedent in history or eternity, this physical body that's indestructible, a new kind of physical reality. It is physical. You know, when the disciples in Luke 24, Jesus appears to the disciples and they think he's a ghost. And he says, basically, you know, touch, you know, see my hands in my feet. And then he eats. He basically says, look, I have flesh and bones.

and then it's interesting, the fact that he eats fish tells us that he has a stomach and he can digest food. So this is a physical body, but never before has there been any physical reality like the resurrection body of Christ. Other people who were raised from the dead had to die again. You think of Lazarus, for example, who had to die twice. Jesus rose to a new kind of life. Hebrews 716 calls it the power of an indestructible life. that's a good word to get at the newness of this body, indestructible. The New Testament uses the word glory a lot for this.

And here's the cool thing. Jesus' resurrection body is a prototype or the first installment of what we will have if we trust in Jesus. When our bodies are raised on the last day, this is why Paul calls Jesus the second atom or the last atom. This is like humanity 2.0. This is what's going on with the metaphor of the first fruits. 1 Corinthians 1520.

That's a farming metaphor. That's like the first batch of the crop that tells you what the rest of the crop will be like. And not only, so Jesus's resurrection body is like the spear point of the kingdom of God. It's like the first installment of what we will have, but not just those of us who trust in Jesus. All of creation will somehow participate in that glory

that we will inherit. You see that in Romans 8, for example. Jesus is going to come back and make all things new. So what all that amounts to is Easter morning is a foretaste of heaven. Jesus' resurrection body is the future proleptically thrown back in time. It's like going out into the future, into heaven, plucking out, a little bit of what heaven will be like in giving us the first installment now. I've written an article on this, and I found the best possible ways to put this.

I like, here's how theologians have spoken of Christ's resurrection. of Easter morning, the beginning of the new creation, the emergence within history of the life of the world to come, the embryonic principle of cosmic transformation, the womb of the new eon, the beginning of the new and final world order. I just find this is so wonderful to think about. I think we neglect the resurrection a lot. I think a lot of times we, you know, Christians will commonly affirm the necessity of the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 1517, for example, if Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain, but we less commonly think about the meaning of it, the significance of it. The resurrection of Christ, think of it like this.

It's not just proof of the gospel, it's part of the gospel. It doesn't just confirm our salvation. It contributes to our salvation. We can truly say Jesus saves us by rising from the dead. Romans 425, our justification is through the resurrection of Christ. and I could say a lot more about that. But just to flesh this out a little bit, and by the way, the goal here is never to downplay the crucifixion of Jesus

because that's the climactic moment in his saving work for us. But in the New Testament, the crucifixion and the resurrection stand together at the center of Jesus' great saving work for us. So in this video, to celebrate Easter, you might be watching it after Easter, but that's fine. I want to just extend this a little bit further by explain. exploring how Jesus saves us by rising from the dead. And I'm going to cash it out in terms of his messianic offices of prophet, priest, and king. These were the three offices that were anointed in the Old Testament.

And Jesus, the word Messiah means the anointed one. So I'm going to show how from the New Testament, Jesus saves us by rising again to be a prophet, a priest, and a king. Before I dive in, just a couple things. first of all, you might notice the new background. This is my first time trying it out, so it'll probably keep changing. But I'm just so grateful to God and to a few friends who've helped me kind of get set up here. So let me know what you think.

And if it looks like I'm a little disjointed looking different directions, I'm kind of still getting used to it. And I'm just grateful to be finally kind of a little bit more set up here. Lots of work getting me to this point. Those of you who helped me with this, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. and yeah let me know what you think though but it'll keep getting tweaked and changing i'm sure also wanted to do a quick book recommendation before i dive in uh this is know the theologians by jennifer mcnutt and david mcnutt so that's kind of cool as a as a married couple to write a book together let me hold this up this is a fantastic book people are often asking me about you know

where do i start with church history they want to get going but they don't know where to start this is a great resource uh it's really readable uh really accessible and it has discussion questions at the end of each chapter. It is further reading suggestions. And if you're brand new to church history, it will help you get started. It'll introduce figures. But it also, for people who already know church history pretty well, it has some more neglected or overlooked, overshadowed people, like Menno Simons, for example, fascinating person, lots of others too. So I want to recommend this book really well written to that'll serve you well if you're wanting to get more into church history. A lot of people ask me about those things. All right.

Let me, let's talk through priest, then king, then prophet. And in each case, this is all drawn from an article I wrote. I'll link to the article in the video description so you can read further. I'll just give you the bullet points here. But here's the interesting thing. It's not just that Jesus sort of continues to be the same kind of prophet, priest, and king that he was during his earthly incarnate life. but it's that his resurrection and as an extension from that his ascension to heaven 40 days later

appoints him to a specific kind of priestly, kingly, and prophetic activity and ministry on our behalf. So how does Jesus save us as a priest through his resurrection? Okay, that's kind of what we're asking first here. The great Puritan theologian John Owen, I forgot to bring his, he's got a great seven volume. I'll put a picture up. Seven volume commentary on the book of Hebrews. Amazing work of scholarship. Seven volumes, just on Hebrews. And someone needs to write a doctoral dissertation on it. It's so rich. But one of the things he says is Christ's priestly work, like that of the Old Testament priests,

consists of two components, atonement and intercession. And he points out that in the book of Hebrews, Jesus' resurrection and ascension is the occasion for his appointment to a specific priestly office that is intercessory. And this is based upon the typology with Melchizedek. So basically he's saying, I'll read from chapter 7 first. Actually, I'll give you a John Owen statement. Here's how strongly he puts it. Christ ascended not into heaven to be made a priest, but as a priest, yet.

His ascension, exaltation, and glorious immortality or the power of an indestructible life were antecedently necessary to the actual discharge of some duties, longing unto that office as his intercession and the continual application of the fruits and benefits of his oblation. You got to love the Puritan's old language. Oblation means atonement. Basically, what he's saying there is, yeah, Jesus was always a priest, even throughout his earthly life, his atoning death is a priestly act. But when he rises from the dead, ascends to heaven, this is the appointment to a specific kind of priestly activity, an intercessary priestly ministry

for us. By the way, if you're curious about Christ's intercession, I have a video on that. This is what the thumbnail looks like. You can search for that to learn more about that. That's a beautiful... I think Christ's intercession is the most nourishing doctrine I've ever studied in my life. It really, I'll put it this strongly. That doctrine is in some respects where the gospel really lands upon us in real time. And we understand what Jesus is doing for us now, to apply his death to us. But John Owen is saying basically Christ's resurrection and ascension appoint him to this specific priestly office. And the language that he used here,

which is drawn from Hebrews 716, which we've already seen. Throughout Hebrews 7, there's this contrast between two different orders of priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, the Melchizedeacon priesthood, and the argument is that the priesthood of Malkisodic is the superior one.

And in verse 16, the basis for that is that it is everlasting. And that is based upon Jesus' resurrected body and life. fact that he has perpetual life. And he's, the author of Hebrews is emphasizing this from Psalm 110. So, and this comes up a lot. All throughout Hebrews, I'll put up some examples where basically we have a priest forever. Okay. We have an everlasting, perpetual priest. And the basis for that is Jesus's resurrection and then exaltation into heaven. So think of it like this. Jesus rose to be our priest who will intercede for us. And, uh,

technically the appointment to that office in the book of Hebrews is that his ascension to heaven or exaltation which is 40 days after his resurrection but what Jesus is in his ascended life he he is already in his resurrected life Easter morning is the crucial change that Jesus goes through into this new kind of life the power of an indestructible life so pretty cool I mean here's how boving puts it to be truly a priest he had to be a priest in heaven not on earth not in a madmane temple but in on the throne of the universe. So Jesus rose from the dead to be our priest who intercedes for us endlessly. Wonderful thing. Second, Jesus rose from the dead to be our king and to be the king of the

world. Now, again, Jesus has always been a king. So during his earthly incarnate ministry, Jesus has identified as a king both by others and by himself. We'll put up two examples of that. However, in the preaching of the book of Acts, the Apostles' sermons in the Book of Acts, the emphasis is that it's not at the incarnation that Jesus steps into his kingly rule, but it's his resurrection and ascension. That's the occasion for him to step into the operation of his kingly office, where he's fulfilling all of these Psalms and all these other prophecies that are predicting this coming Davidic king. Think of Easter morning as a sort of coronation service.

think of this as the moment at which Christ sits down upon the throne, takes up his scepter, marshals his troops, and begins his great conquest of this world. I'll give two examples from Acts and the one from Romans. Acts two, the Apostle Peter is preaching a Pentecost. He's quoting Psalm 16, and he's drawing a connection between the resurrection and the promise of a Davidic king. And basically, he's saying David foresaw that the Messiah would be a resurrected Messiah because the promises for an everlasting throne. So David is associating the reign of the Messiah with the resurrection of the Messiah. And then Peter goes on to announce again from Psalm 110, the exaltation of Christ to God's right hand is the appointment to this seat of divine authority. This is when the great conquest of our world begins and the king takes his seat on the throne and it starts exercising

his kingly rule. Acts 13 is another great example. Paul Paul says in his speech at Antioch, we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And then in verses 34 and 35, he identifies the resurrection as the fulfillment of two other Old Testament passages, which are about the Davidic promise. And so you have these three passages about the Davidic covenant that are identified by Paul has fulfilled it on Easter morning. And you see this most clearly in the Psalm 2-7 quote. Psalm 2 is a

royal Psalm, the decree that's cited here, you are my son today, I have begotten you. This is God's declaration to the king during a coronation service. This is a messianic claim. When we hear the words, son of God, we're used to thinking in terms of God's triune relationships, like the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, but all throughout the Old Testament and actually in other Canaanite and ancient Near Eastern thought, the title, Son of God, was a royal title. It was how kings would be spoken of. And so when Paul is quoting Psalm 2.7 in relation to Christ's resurrection, he's following Peter in identifying the resurrection as the moment at which Jesus steps into his kingly office.

Here's NT right. The resurrection means that Jesus is the messianic son of God, that Israel's eschatological hope has been fulfilled, that it is time for the nations to be brought into submission to Israel's God. Another example of this, by the way, is Romans 1, 3 to 4. And in the article I wrote, I go through this and just show, this seems to be talking about, again, not that Jesus somehow becomes the Son of God at his resurrection. No, the word does mean appointed or designated,

but the Son of God title is not an ontological title. It's not saying he's like, now he's the Son of God in the sense of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit. the Son of God is a messianic title there. So a lot more to say about that. But, you know, if that seems odd to think that the resurrection is the moment at which Jesus really steps into his royal or kingly office in its full operation, just think about all throughout the New Testament. You know, Acts 2.36, it's on Easter that Jesus is appointed, Lord and Christ. Think about him saying, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Hebrews 1-3, he sits down, the right hand of the majesty on high. Think of it like this. On Easter morning, the true king of the

world takes the throne that is rightly his. Jesus is now installed in his kingly office. It's like in the Narnia books when the witch's long winter is starting to come to an end and the snow is melting and spring is coming quite happy. Here's last verse. Ephesians 1. God has raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in in the one to come. Easter means Jesus has been exalted to kingly authority and rule. All right. The last one. There is in Christ as our prophet. Now here what people will often think of in relation to this point is this is, is the nature of the event itself, that the resurrection is

revelatory. It shows who Jesus really is. And that's certainly true. You think of Bovink saying that the resurrection is the amen of the father to the it is finished. of the sun. You think of Paul in Acts 17, referencing the resurrection as assurance to all about the reality of future judgment. But I want to go a step further, and what I'm exploring here is how the person of Christ in his risen life is now a prophet, how he rises to do prophetic activity. And the way we can get into this is just by think of how incomplete the prophetic revelation of God that Jesus brought into the world would be if he didn't rise from the dead. I'll put up one example of the definition of the prophetic ministry of Christ from the Westminster

Larger Catechism, and you can just think about how woefully short Jesus would have fallen in executing this office if he had just had his earthly ministry. During his earthly ministry, of course, Jesus' life was quite obscure. He's often misunderstood even by those closest to him. He often will even guard the full reverendment. of his identity and his mission until his resurrection. For example, after the transfiguration, Jesus says, tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.

So it's at that point that then you pull back the curtain. Now Jesus' identity and his revelation of God is like, fully let the light shine out, you know. You could even say if Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, he'd be a false prophet because his prediction of his resurrection would be not true. So, okay, so then you think, okay, so what is Jesus doing now to, in his risen life, to further reveal God and execute his prophetic ministry? You might think of the 40-day gap, of course, where Jesus is teaching the disciples more at the beginning of the book of Acts, but the most significant way is by sending the Holy Spirit throughout the church age to enlighten believers and to convict unbelievers of the truth of the gospel.

And this is what you see all throughout the upper room discourse in John 14 to 6. Jesus is essentially saying he's emphasizing the continuity between his earthly teaching ministry and the ministry of the Holy Spirit whom he will send after he leaves this world. And it's always amazing to me to think he says it's good for you that I go away. You know, we're in a better position now with the Holy Spirit than we would be with the incarnate Christ. So powerful is the ministry of the Holy Spirit among us. It's not just wonderful?

I mean, I could pause right there and just, we could just marvel at that. So suddenly you say, okay, fine, what does that have to do with the resurrection? Well, it is Christ as risen and exalted who then sends the Holy Spirit into the world. John 16.7, if I do not go away, the help will not come, but if I go, I will send him to you. You see this at the end of Luke. Jesus says, I am sending the promise of my father upon you in context. The promise is the Holy Spirit. and this language gets picked up by Peter in his sermon at Pentecost,

and the word, therefore, in this verse I've put up on the screen, gives you an example of where there seems to be this relationship between Jesus's exaltation and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and then moving forward throughout church history. You see it in Paul's epistles as well, Ephesians 4, for example, spiritual gifts, okay, when we exercise our spiritual gifts, this is a manifestation of the exaltation of Christ because it is Christ as exalted who sends the Holy Spirit.

Jesus goes up and the Spirit comes down. And I could say a lot more about this in my article. I talk a lot about this amazing verse, 1 Corinthians 1545, where it says Christ became a life-giving spirit. And that word Spirit there means the Holy Spirit. And Sinclair Ferguson and this fantastic book has a lot of discussion about that. But the simple point is this, when Jesus rose from the dead, he ascended to heaven and then sent the Holy Spirit into the world to complete the very yet

incomplete work of revealing God and testifying to the truth of the gospel. So to sum up, Easter is really important because it's not just the continuation of Christ's priestly, kingly, and prophetic offices, as though they just pass without change from his earthly life to his heavenly life. No, it's the occasion for an appointment to a sort of expanded execution of each of those three offices. It's when Jesus is raised up that he inherits the power of an indestructible life and is exalted to heaven to be our high priest and intercessor forever. It's at his resurrection that Christ assumes the throne of David and begins to subdue the foreign nations that are hostile to God and spread his kingly rule. And it's the risen and exalted Christ

Christ who sends the Holy Spirit to continue his revelatory activity of testifying to the truth of the gospel for believer and unbeliever alike. So you could say his Christ's resurrection is as much a resurrection to saving activity as it is a resurrection to life. So, I don't know, short and simple video I guess but happy Easter and I could just say you know what a joy it is what what an incredible joy we have a perfect savior Jesus rose from the dead to be and he is perfectly suited to save us so whatever the needs are I mean I think about this every all the time I'll finish by saying this I pray almost every day I used to say every day then I realized well sometimes I forget a day I pray almost every day for revival because

I think the younger generations are hungry for God. If you're watching my videos and you're like 18, I have people who are like 16 who watch my videos. I feel really honored by that. But I really like young people. I think Gen Z, the culture of these younger people, I like people who are young. They're just to have a fun, different kind of culture.

But I think there's a lot of spiritual hunger and spiritual need. And I'm praying for a new movement of God on college campuses and elsewhere. We need that right now. The resurrection of Christ means why not just pray for that? Why not dream big? Why not hope for big things? So often we're so pessimistic and alarmist about the world, and I understand that. I feel that at times.

I have five kids. I worry. You know, what's our world becoming like? But the resurrection of Christ means we are never without hope. But what Jesus has done is so great that it is, we do not need to live in fear. Rather, let's, I really think the resurrection of Christ gives us this sense of ballast. Like, let's move forward. Let's pray for big things.

We should never just, as Christians who believe in a resurrected Messiah, we should never just be on our defenses all the time. You know, let's press forward. Let's pray for revival. Let's pray for the advance of the kingdom of God. Tumultuous times are great times for revival because a lot of times we look around and we see we have no other hope but to look up to heaven. So anyway, I hope this video will be an encouragement to you as you celebrate Easter. Happy Easter, let me know what you think about the new studio. Lots more videos to come. I'm excited about the rest of 2024. Thanks for watching, everybody. Let me know what you think in the comments.

We'll see you next time.