Message Seven

The Resurrection of Christ
and the Believers’ Experience of Christ
in His Resurrection Life

Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:3-4; 4:17, 24-25; 6:4-5, 8-9; 7:4; 8:9-11, 34; 10:9; 14:9

Rom. 1:3-4 Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;

Rom. 4:17 (As it is written, “I have appointed you a father of many nations”) in the sight of God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being.

Rom. 4:24-25 But for ours also to whom it is to be accounted, who believe on Him who has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification.

Rom. 6:4-5 We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Rom. 6:8-9 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death lords it over Him no more.

Rom. 7:4 So then, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.

Rom. 8:9-11 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

Rom. 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Rom. 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Rom. 14:9 For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

I. The book of Romans reveals the intrinsic significance of the resurrection of Christ—4:17; 6:4; 14:9; 1:3-4:

Rom. 4:17 (As it is written, “I have appointed you a father of many nations”) in the sight of God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being.

Rom. 6:4 We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.

Rom. 14:9 For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

A. God is the One who gives life to the dead; this is God’s great power of resurrection—the power that Abraham experienced when he offered Isaac according to God’s command—4:17; Heb. 11:17-19.

Rom. 4:17 (As it is written, “I have appointed you a father of many nations”) in the sight of God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being.

Heb. 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac; indeed he who gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten, of whom it was said, “In Isaac shall your seed be called”; counting that God was able to raise men even from the dead, from which he also received him back in figure.

B. Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, that is, through the manifestation of divinity—Rom. 6:4; 1:4; 8:34:

Rom. 1:4 Who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;

Rom. 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

1. Considering Christ as God, the New Testament tells us that Christ Himself rose from the dead—14:9; John 10:17-18.

Rom. 14:9 For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

John 10:17-18 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment I received from My Father.

2. Regarding Christ as man, the New Testament says that God raised Him from the dead—Rom. 8:11, 34; Acts 2:24; 3:15.

Rom. 8:11 And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

Rom. 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Acts 2:24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

Acts 3:15 And the Author of life you killed, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.

C. The Lord Jesus was raised from the dead for our justification—Rom. 4:25:

Rom. 4:25 Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification.

1. Christ’s resurrection proves that God’s requirements were satisfied by His death for us, that we are justified by God because of His death, and that in Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God—3:24.

Rom. 3:24 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

2. As the resurrected One, He is in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God—8:10; Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:9.

Rom. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

2 Cor. 5:9 Therefore also we are determined, whether at home or abroad, to gain the honor of being well pleasing to Him.

D. Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living; we live to the Lord, and we die to the Lord; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s—Rom. 14:8-9.

Rom. 14:8-9 For whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s. For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

E. Christ was designated the Son of God out of the resurrection of the dead, and His resurrection was His birth as God’s firstborn Son—l:4; 8:29; Acts 13:33:

Rom. 1:4 Who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

Acts 13:33 That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.”

1. Before His incarnation Christ already was the Son of God, the only begotten Son—John 1:18; Rom. 8:3.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Rom. 8:3 For that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,

2. By incarnation Christ put on an element, the human flesh, which had nothing to do with divinity; that part of Him needed to be sanctified and uplifted by passing through death and resurrection—John 1:14; Rom. 1:3-4.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

3. By resurrection His human nature was sanctified, uplifted, and transformed; hence, by resurrection He was designated the Son of God with His humanity, and now, as the Son of God, He possesses humanity as well as divinity—Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5.

Acts 13:33 That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.”

Heb. 1:5 For to which of the angels has He ever said, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me”?

4. By incarnation Christ brought God into man; by resurrection He brought man into God, that is, He brought His humanity into the divine sonship—Acts 7:56; Matt. 26:64; Dan. 7:13.

Acts 7:56 And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

Matt. 26:64 Jesus said to him, You have said rightly. Nevertheless I say to you, From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Dan. 7:13 I watched in the night visions, / And there with the clouds of heaven / One like a Son of Man was coming; / And He came to the Ancient of Days, / And they brought Him near before Him.

5. In this way the only begotten Son of God was made the firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity and humanity—Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:5.

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

Heb. 1:5 For to which of the angels has He ever said, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me”?

6. God is using such a Christ, the firstborn Son, as the producer and as the prototype, the model, to produce His many sons—Rom. 8:29-30.

Rom. 8:29-30 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.

F.In resurrection Christ is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit—vv. 9-10:

Rom. 8:9-10 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

1. Christ’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit in order to enter into the believers—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:18; John 14:16-17.

1 Cor. 15:45b The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

2 Cor. 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.

2. The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:3-4, 20, 45b.

1 Cor. 15:3-4 For I delivered to you, first of all, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He has been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures;

1 Cor. 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Cor. 15:45b The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

3. Not only has Christ become the life-giving Spirit, but when He comes to us, He comes as the Spirit, the pneumatic Christ—John 20:21-22.

John 20:21-22 Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

4. When we receive Christ today, we receive not only the redeeming Christ but also the life-giving Christ; now we enjoy the redeeming Christ, the Lamb, and the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit—1:29; 20:22; Rom. 8:3, 9.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Rom. 8:3 For that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,

Rom. 8:9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.

5. If we know and experience Christ as the pneumatic Christ, we will be brought into resurrection and live in resurrection—John 11:25; Phil. 3:10.

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;

Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

6. The pneumatic Christ is the indwelling Christ; in resurrection Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in the believers—Rom. 8:9-10; John 14:16-17; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27.

2 Cor. 13:5 Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?

Col. 1:27 To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,

II. The book of Romans unveils crucial aspects of the believers’ experience of Christ in His resurrection life—4:24; 10:9; 6:4-5, 8-9; 7:4; 8:11:

Rom. 4:24 But for ours also to whom it is to be accounted, who believe on Him who has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

Rom. 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Rom. 6:8-9 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death lords it over Him no more.

A. We believe on God who has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead; the faith that is accounted to us as righteousness is our believing on God, who righteously judged Christ for our sins, righteously put Him to death in our place, and righteously raised Him from the dead—4:3, 9, 22, 24-25.

Rom. 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.”

Rom. 4:9 Is this blessing then upon the circumcision only, or also upon the uncircumcision? For we say, Faith was accounted to Abraham as righteousness.

Rom. 4:22 Therefore also it was accounted to him as righteousness.

B. If we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved—10:9:

Rom. 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

1. Christ’s being raised from the dead was invisible; hence, it requires our believing.

2. Although Christ’s death has redeemed us, it is His life in resurrection alone that can save us—3:24; 5:10.

Rom. 3:24 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Rom. 5:10 For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled,

3. Only when we believe in the great miracle that God performed in Him in raising Him from the dead can we be both redeemed and saved—6:4; 10:9.

Rom. 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

C. After baptism we become a new person in resurrection, and we walk in newness of life—6:3-4:

Rom. 6:3-4 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.

1. Resurrection is not only a future state; it is also a present process—8:11.

2. To walk in newness of life is to live today in the realm of resurrection and to reign in life—6:4; 5:17.

Rom. 5:17 For if, by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

3. Living in the realm of resurrection is a living that deals with all that is of Adam in us until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God—12:2; 8:29.

Rom. 12:2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

D. Romans 6:5 says that we will be in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection; this does not refer to a future, objective resurrection but to the present process of growth:

1. Just as the element of Christ’s death is found only in Him, so the element of Christ’s resurrection is found only in Christ Himself; He Himself is resurrection—John 11:25.

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;

2. After experiencing a proper baptism, we continue to grow in and with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection; this is to walk in newness of life—Rom. 6:4-5.

E. In His resurrection Christ is transcendent over corruption and death; since we are one with Him in this resurrection, we also are transcendent over corruption and death—vv. 8-9.

Rom. 6:8-9 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death lords it over Him no more.

F.We have been joined to Him who has been raised from the dead, to the resurrected Christ as our Husband; this joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection—7:4.

G. If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal body and to our entire tripartite being so that we may carry out God’s will to have the Body of Christ—8:2, 6, 10-11; 12:1-2, 4-5.

Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

Rom. 8:10-11 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

Rom. 12:1-2 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

H. The church as the Body of Christ is absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ—8:11; 12:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; Matt. 16:18; cf. Gen. 2:21-24:

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

1 Pet. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Eph. 2:6 And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,

Matt. 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Gen. 2:21-24 And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said, This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called Woman / Because out of Man this one was taken. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1. The church is a new creation in Christ’s resurrection—2 Cor. 5:17.

2 Cor. 5:17 So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.

2. To be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ—John 11:25; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 1:9:

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;

1 Cor. 15:45b The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

2 Cor. 1:9 Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead;

a. The Body of Christ is in resurrection, that is, in the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit—Rom. 8:9-10; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17.

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

1 Cor. 15:45b The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

2 Cor. 3:17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

b. The Body of Christ is the issue of our living by the resurrection life of Christ—Rom. 6:4-5, 8-9; 8:11; 12:4-5.

Rom. 6:8-9 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death lords it over Him no more.

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

3. In order to live the Body life in the local churches, we need to live in the organic union with the resurrected Christ—vv. 4-5; 16:1, 3-5, 7-13, 16.

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Rom. 16:1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a deaconess of the church which is in Cenchrea,

Rom. 16:3-5 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles; and greet the church, which is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Asia unto Christ.

Rom. 16:7-13 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved sister, one who has labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother as well as mine.

Rom. 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.