The vindication of the Son of God is of ultimate importance to God the Father. For God to require that you believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to require that you affirm his vindication. When you believe in his resurrection, you affirm his vindication.
What does the bodily resurrection of Jesus teach us about God? Last week I wrote that his resurrection is a Linchpin of the Gospel. Given that God has designed gospel reality this way, and that he has required belief in this full, gospel reality, what does this imply about God?
God has vindicated his Son
From the hours between his capture in the Garden of Gethsemane to his final breath, Jesus suffered utter shame, humiliation, and rejection. He was arrested and bound before his friends, roughed up, falsely accused and condemned in a kangaroo court by the Jewish Sanhedrin, chained to a post and whipped with a brutal scourge, repudiated by a mob of his own people yelling in public for his crucifixion, condemned by Pilate the official governor of the land, spit on, mocked, and beaten by Roman soldiers, stripped and nailed to a cross in public, laughed at by passers-by and religious leaders who made mouths and wagged their heads at him, reviled by the crucified criminals on his left and right, and worst of all even forsaken by God for a time (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Mark 15:34]).
What people thought
All this meant one thing for those who believed that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people: Jesus was a bad person. God had rejected him. He was not who he and his followers claimed, not the Son of God, not the King of Israel, not the Savior of sinners.
“We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4, ESV). In other words, people thought God himself had given Jesus what he had coming. It was his own fault.
What God was actually doing
Ultimately it was indeed God who sent his innocent Son to the Cross and ordained that he suffer such shame—but as a substitute for us, not for any fault of his own. As Isaiah 53 also says, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
The vindication of the Son of God
Nevertheless, be sure of this: God had no intention of leaving him in that disgrace. God’s eternal plan was for his righteous, innocent Son to be completely vindicated. And the first glorious step in that vindication was the resurrection.
As Isaiah 53 also says, after his suffering for our sakes, “He shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
When God raised Jesus from the dead in an eternally strong, undying, immortal body, he vindicated him before Satan and his demons, before the evil spiritual principalities of this world, before Pilate and the Roman army, before the Jewish religious leaders, before all mankind of every generation, before heaven and the angels and earth.
The resurrection proclaimed, “This is God’s Son! Everything he said and taught is true! You cannot defeat him! Neither death nor the grave can hold him! Nothing you can do can dethrone him! All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him! For he is God’s beloved, unique Son!”
The vindication of the Son of God is of ultimate importance to God the Father. For God to require that you believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to require that you affirm his vindication—by none other than God himself, for no one else could raise him from the grave in an immortal body.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Fallen sinners do not comprehend the zeal of God the Father for the glory of his Son Jesus (see Ephesians 1:9–10; 19–23; Colossians 1:15–20). For sinners, Jesus is a stumbling block (Matthew 11:6; 1 Peter 2:7–8); his cross and death were unnecessary; his resurrection is a laughable myth.
God’s way: The Father has fully vindicated his Son by raising him from the dead in an immortal body. The resurrection has proven the sinless innocence of Jesus. This vindication is so important to God that he requires sinners to believe in it if they want to be saved.
Scripture says, “‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.’” (Romans 10:8–10)
For this reason, the earliest confession known in the church—the Apostles Creed—included confessing the resurrection of Jesus.
Life principle: When you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, you affirm his vindication.
Next week we will look at the second of four implications of the resurrection of Jesus.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)