Dennis Tuuri

The Lord is risen. Amen. You know that salutation and response comes from Luke 24. Luke 24 begins at the women assembling at the tomb. And when the angel the messenger appears from the messengers of Jesus, they bow down. They fall. They repent of their sins. And the angels raise them up with the message that he has risen. They tell other disciples. Jesus meets with disciples then in Luke 24 the road to Emmaus and he teaches them about the scriptures and he’s revealed to them in communion in the breaking of bread with his disciples and they then go back to that assembled host that we had read about earlier in Luke 24 and say he is risen indeed.

That’s where it comes from. Lord God moves us through the liturgy of the church, through the call to worship, the confession of sin, being raised back up, the sermon of Jesus’s messenger, speaking to you, Jesus himself, we can say, bringing his word to us every Lord’s day, the power of the spirit, and then him having a meal with us, revealing to us who he is, so that we can say at the end of our worship day, he is risen indeed.

It’s interesting Luke 24 concludes with the ascension story. It doesn’t say we’re moving on as if it’s the same day, last few verses of Luke 24, but it’s the ascension of Christ. Why? I think so that Luke 24 can place the benediction of Jesus at the conclusion of the typical worship service that’s portrayed for us there. May the Lord God grant today that Jesus, his messengers might speak to us from his word that we might indeed live our lives saying he is risen indeed.

To that end, let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea. And we are found false witnesses of God.

Because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for your scriptures. Write them upon our hearts. May our hearts be caused to rejoice this day in the fact of the resurrection and its importance to us. In his name we ask it. And for the sake of his kingdom, not ours. Amen. Please be seated.

The resurrection. So what? So what? Jesus is raised from the dead. What’s the importance of that to us? What’s its importance to you? What’s its importance in the terms of the history of the world?

Well, it’s of great importance. The text for us tells us explicitly first of all that if Christ is not risen from the dead then we are still in our sins. The resurrection from the dead is the validation the accomplishment of the full atonement for sins that Jesus Christ made in his death on the cross. The resurrection and the death of Christ on the cross are inextricably linked. And if there’s no resurrection, there is no atonement.

In Romans 4:25, we read that Jesus was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Now, this is one truth delivered over to make atonement for our sins and raised up for our justification. But don’t think that somehow the resurrection is explicitly tied to justification in a one-to-one relationship that doesn’t bring into it the atonement. Because in Romans 5:9 we read, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” The resurrection, the crucifixion are both seen as the basis for the justification of sinners. If Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, then you are still in your sins. The resurrection is this proclamation of atonement completed.

I want to talk today about atonement. You know, we’re working through the Canons of Dort. And the second head of doctrine is of the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby later sloganized as limited atonement, and then later rearranged in the order of things into the third point of TULIP, the points of Calvinism, limited atonement. And we’ll talk about that. Atonement is an absolutely inescapable fact. Next week I’ll be speaking more about this.

By the way, praise God for your prayers over the last few days relative to the affairs going on in the legislature in Salem. I can report to you that the pastors met on Wednesday. We meet the first Wednesday of every month. It wasn’t a special meeting, the pastors of Oregon City. But praise God that the end result of that meeting was a commitment to two things.

One, to see homosexuality not as bringing judgment, but God’s judgment upon a nation and upon a church that has failed in many ways to faithfully proclaim the gospel of Christ. The churches of Oregon City have agreed to set a meeting in the next month or so for the pastors at some length to talk about what it is specifically we need to repent of and the failure of which God has brought this judgment upon us. That is a tremendous thing that has happened. You may not understand the significance but it is highly significant.

The second highly significant thing that happened last Wednesday and the reason I bring it up at this point in the sermon is that the pastors of Oregon City agreed to preach on the Bible and homosexuality on April 29th. You’ll remember that when the pornography shop opened up, the first one in Oregon City, the churches met together and agreed to preach against it, to pray against it on the Lord’s day until it was gone. And we had signed one Sunday where all the churches were to preach on pornography and the sinfulness of it. And then to pray every Lord’s day to follow up that preaching of the word and then to move into action in the week and pick that place and pray etc. And the Lord God gave us victory.

He will not give us victory over the chastisements that he’s bringing upon us unless the word is proclaimed faithfully and the prayers of the saints ascend on the Lord’s day and then that results in action in the context of the week. So praise God that the pastors of Oregon City have as a group decided to preach on April 29th. So the next few weeks I’ll be talking about the atonement and then on April 29th we’ll speak about the atonement and its relationship to Romans chapter 1.

The atonement is an essential fact of mankind. Someone once said that there’s two kinds of people in the world. You probably heard lots of two kinds of people, but this particular guy said there’s two kinds of people. There’s the people that when faced with an insurmountable obstacle and problem in their lives, their first reaction is to try to kill somebody, want to kill somebody. And the other people that are the other kinds of people in the world are those who when faced with that same intractable obstacle and great difficulty in their lives want to kill themselves.

Well, that’s mankind apart from the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When problems happen, we want to have atonement. And it’s either going to be through killing somebody else or through killing ourselves. It’s either self atonement or making somebody else pay for our sins. And this is the root of sadism and masochism. And I’ll talk more about that next week. The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to that.

In terms of the old humanity, the man was right. There’s two kinds of people. But ultimately in the context of the new humanity, we’re defined by the people that in response to an unsurmountable obstacle look for the sovereignty of God and look to him for salvation, receiving, meditating on the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I want to talk a little bit now about false views of atonement. The resurrection is a fact. It is an important fact pointing us to other facts about atonement and unfortunately, in the early years of dispensationalism, the higher life movement drank deep from the waters of revivalism, Charles Finney specifically, and it affected the church’s view of atonement. You know, I hate to kick a man when he’s dead, but I need to talk about this a little bit. We need to understand this in contrast to what the text tells us.

See, for Finney, the resurrection So what the atonement so what? Well, he thought it was important. You see, he believed in what became known or what was known previous to that to the moral government theory of the atonement. He said that no, people aren’t born with original sin from Adam. He denied that, of course. He said that no, our problem is that we imitate people in their sinfulness and then we enter into sin which brings death from God. And that Jesus Christ didn’t die on the cross for the sins of mankind to remove them judicially.

No. Jesus Christ died on the cross as an example of the wrath of God against sin and more than that as an example of how we’re to submit ourselves to God. Jesus Christ didn’t do anything on the cross effectually for anyone Finney held, but he gave all men an example that we’re supposed to look to and as a result put away the sinful things we’ve learned from bad examples. Then we can live our lives in relationship to this good example of Jesus who obeyed God, died on the cross. He was so committed to God. This is what Finney taught and believed. And it’s a radical difference from what the Bible teaches about the fact of the atonement.

Finney was the thinking man’s or thinking woman’s theologian. They said he was the one that would appeal to kind of the thinking people and really in the same way to all kinds of other people. This same theory of Finney’s was also held by Hugo Grotius, who you will see commented upon by various Christian political people as being some of the foundational political thought of our country. But Grotius as well rejected the scriptural teaching of the atonement and went for this moral government theory of atonement instead.

Finney said, “No, no, no. We don’t sin because we’re sinners. We’re sinners because we sin.” You see the difference? Finney said, and Finney in this declaration that we sin because of example followed Pelagius. Pelagius was a fifth century heretic. We’ve mentioned him before in reference to the Canons of Dort who was condemned by more church councils than any other person in church history. This is Pelagius. And why? Because he denied the doctrine of original sin.

So to Finney, he thought human beings were capable of choosing whether they would be corrupted in terms of their sinfulness. So he saw, and this is a quote, he saw the concept of original sin as an anti-scriptural and nonsensical dogma. That’s a quote from Charles Finney about original sin. He denied the notion that human beings possessed a sinful nature. Rather, he said their problem was a bad example. And so Jesus Christ, the second Adam, he’s the second Adam because he’s a good example whereas our father Adam was a bad example.

He says it’s that Christ could not have died. And also in relation to that, Finney denied that the atoning work of Jesus Christ was for anybody in particular. Finney says that Jesus Christ could not have died for anyone else’s sins other than his own. His obedience to the law and his perfect righteousness were sufficient to save him, but he could not legally be accepted on behalf of others. Or rather, his righteousness could not be legally accepted on behalf of others.

His whole theology was driven by a passion for moral improvement, not for the full atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration. Finney wanted moral improvement. He said this, “If he Christ had obeyed the law as our substitute, then why should our own return to personal obedience be insisted upon as a condition of our salvation?” He denied the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ for your sins.

Now, this is the root from which much modern fruit in evangelicalism has blossomed, and that’s why I’m talking about it here. Finney did believe that Jesus died for something. But he didn’t believe that Jesus died for someone in particular. And the some thing was to reassert God’s moral government to lead us to eternal life by example. Even as Adam’s example excited us to sin.

Why did Christ die? And this is a quote from Finney. “God knew that the atonement would present to creatures the highest possible motives to virtue. Example is the highest moral influence that can be exerted. Yet the benevolence manifest in the atonement does not subdue the selfishness of sinners, their case is hopeless.”

Well, that’s right. If the atonement is not an accomplished fact, and if all we’re going to get out of Jesus Christ and his resurrection is some sweet example story for us, it is hopeless our state and our affair. You see, we’re still in our sins if someone didn’t pay the price for those sins.

No, Finney denied the biblical truth as such led much of modern evangelicalism often to a that end. Now hope now thankfully dispensationalism has not been consistent with the higher life movement although it comes back now and then but you understand the forces at work in evangelicalism that are moving in terms of moral government better moral nature really downplaying the full factual atonement of sins affected by our savior validated by the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

What do people get together today for? So what to Finney the so what was well it’s a good example but it didn’t really accomplish anything for anybody. He explicitly denied the substitutionary atonement. He said this assumes that the atonement was a literal the assumption that the atonement was a literal payment of a debt which we have seen does not consist with the nature of the atonement. It is true that the atonement of itself does not secure the salvation of anyone.

Then he said the atonement itself does not secure the salvation of a single person. Now that’s the view of ultimately of a man who espouses unlimited atonement. Unlimited in terms of its example, but more limited than ever in terms of its actual accomplishment of anything for anybody. Highly limited, ineffectual.

So Finney Finney taught Finney asserted and I’m quoting now that regeneration consists in the sinner changing his ultimate choice, intention, preference, or in changing from selfishness to love or benevolence as moved by the moral influence of Christ’s moving example. Quoting again from him, “original or constitutional sinfulness, physical regeneration, and all their kindred and resulting dogmas are alike subversive of the gospel and repulsive to the human intelligence.”

So taught Charles Finney. Having nothing to do with original sin, the substitutionary atonement, and the supernatural character of the new birth, was also rejected by Finney. Finney believed that the new birth was a result of manipulation of people. You can make anybody make these right choices. You see, it doesn’t take a miracle. It doesn’t take the gracious act of the Holy Spirit to regenerate someone. No, it took a lot of techniques to move people through emotional states to particular choices of moral improvement for themselves. And this is what much of evangelicalism continues, at least by way of how their worship services are focused, etc. This is why it happens that way.

This is the root from which the horrible fruit that we see in our country came from referring to the framers of the Westminster confession of faith now and their view of an imputed righteousness. So now we’re talking about our standard and documents here. Finney says he wonders if there is not antinomianism. He says rather that if this is not antinomianism I know not what is. So Finney accused the reformers of being antinomian because they thought that Jesus kept the law for them instead of them having to keep fulfillment of the law.

Finney believed that man could uh save himself. He could come to ultimate perfection and actually that he had to do that. So Finney taught that the Westminster assembly he says this the relations of the old school view of justification to their view of depravity is obvious. They hold Westminster people they hold as we have seen that the constitution in every faculty and part is sinful. Of course, a return to personal present holiness in the sense of entire conformity to the law cannot with them be a condition of justification.

They must have a justification while yet at least in some degree of sin. This must be brought about by imputed righteousness. The intellect revolts at a justification in sin. So a scheme is devised to divert the eyes of the law and of the lawgiver from the sinner to his substitute who has perfectly obeyed his law. And Finney said that this teaching of justification by faith by imputed righteousness.

I’m quoting now. He said that this doctrine of the Westminster confession is another gospel. Another gospel for Finney.

The so what of the resurrection was we have a great example. We’ve got a wonderful Easter story to tell each other that hopefully will be able to move us all to make the right decisions and eventually the right decisions will lead us to moral and sinless perfection and then we’ll be fit for heaven. Thus, Charles Finney and his horrible perversion of the atonement.

In Finney’s theology, God is not sovereign. Man is not a sinner by nature. The atonement is not a true payment for sin. Justification by imputation is insulting to reason and morality. The new birth is simply the effect of successful techniques. And revival is a natural result of clever campaigns. Thus, Charles Finney.

Now, I was reading a commentary on 1 Corinthians 15 this week by Barclay and you’ve heard me quote from him sometimes in the past. Barclay has a little commentary on this text. It says if Christ be not raised. So what’s the what if so what of resurrection the resurrection of Christ to Barclay? Well Barclay says in his commentary on if Christ be not raised. He says four things about the resurrection.

First he says the resurrection proves that truth is stronger than falsehood. Well truth is stronger than falsehood. But see, he’s saying that is what the resurrection, that’s the what so what of the resurrection? Well, it’s a proof that truth is stronger than falsehood. Secondly, he said the resurrection proves that good is stronger than evil. Third, he said the resurrection proves that love is stronger than hatred. And then finally, his last point on this text is that the resurrection proves that life is stronger than death.

Well, all right. So, for Barclay, Again, not wishing to focus upon the substitutionary atonement verified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the text says that if Christ be not raised, the so what is we’re still in our sins because his resurrection proves he made an actual real atonement for the sins of his people. Barclay doesn’t want to believe that. And so for Barclay, resurrection Sunday is a nice time to get together in the backyard and say truth is more important and life is more powerful than death.

He turns it into moral platitudes. Now, they sound good to you. They sound good to me because there’s some truth to them. But you see, if that’s what we’re left with is those kind of moral platitudes as the so what? Why? It means nothing to us. Because we’ve denied the very heart of things that produce these messages, which is the fact of the resurrection verifies the fact that Jesus Christ has actually really and fully made full atonement for us from our sins.

So that we are no longer in our sins because of the work of Jesus Christ. And if we deny that truth, then so what of the resurrection means so what really because there’s no power left to it. If it’s just a nice moral tale with some nice platitudes, some nice moral statements that we can take from it. That is not the meaning of the resurrection from the scriptures.

The resurrection Paul says by implication means that we are no longer in our sins. That’s the so what of it? We’ve been freed from sin. The atonement is not limited in its efficacy, but it is certainly limited in its application to the ones that Jesus had in mind on that cross. Lord Jesus did not make salvation possible for everybody in general and nobody in particular when he came out of the grave.

No. No. That is not the message of the resurrection making salvation generally possible for everyone and not actually affecting salvation for anybody in particular. No, Jesus Christ’s resurrection means that he actually produced the justification and full release from all the demands of the law for all of his people. It is a real and effectual atonement that the resurrection demonstrates has happened.

And Paul says the real fact is now that those for whom Christ died are no longer in their sins. Jesus Christ is not died for a potential. He did not die for a possibility. The resurrection is not a potential or possibility for you as a moral creature. The resurrection is a fact and the atonement is not a potential for you to somehow get through your works to apply to your account. The atonement is a fact that Jesus Christ has fully accomplished and his resurrection is the great demonstration of that.

The idea of some sort of universal atonement means that there’s no atonement for anybody in particular. Do you understand that? You see, if it’s just a possibility and a potential, how do you know if it’s for you? But the Lord Jesus Christ, the scriptures say he came to seek and to save the people that the Lord God had given to him. And Jesus Christ on that cross as he made atonement had the church, his church, his elect people in mind and that includes every one of you individually as well. He had you by name in mind on the cross and he did not have those who are outside of the people that he came to save.

Jesus Christ atonement was certainly not limited in its efficacy or value. Sometimes people get messed up about this. Well, there must be a certain amount of atoning work he did because we have a certain amount of people and they have a certain amount of sin. No. Over and over again the reformers said not. Calvin said that Jesus Christ died sufficiently for all but effectively for the elect only. The Canons of Dort said the same thing.

The death of the son of God is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin. It is of infinite worth and value abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world. So there’s no question as to its value but its implication. You see we Jesus didn’t die for a possibility. Gary North puts it this way.

The author sees no purpose, benefit, or comfort in a redemption that does not redeem, a propitiation that does not propitiate, a reconciliation that does not in fact reconcile, neither does he have any faith in a hypothetical salvation for hypothetical believers. Rather, he has faith in a redemption which infallibly secures the salvation of each and every one for whom it was designed, namely the children of God. That’s the truth. That’s right. There’s no value to it otherwise.

Move away from the atoning work of Jesus Christ for his elect only. And what you end up with is his atoning death on the cross for nobody in particular. You end up with Finneyism. You end up with Barclay ism denying the imputation of our sin to him and the imputation of his righteousness to us. Men move in terms of moral government. A good example. And isn’t it a sweet Easter story?

The resurrection. So what? Well, not really much. much as it turns out.

But for us, Paul says that since Christ is raised from the dead by fact, you are no longer in your sins. That’s the implication, the logical implication of his sentence. Jesus Christ did not come to make salvation possible, but to make salvation sure for his elect people. John Owen says it this way, “The death and bloodshedding of Jesus Christ has wrought and doth effectually procure for all those that are concerned in it eternal redemption consisting in grace here and glory hereafter.”

Jesus Christ died as our substitute and did in his resurrection prove that for us he has effectually secured our atonement, our reconciliation.

If so the Lord Jesus, what did he accomplish? Well, he accomplished propitiation. Big word. I just said it. What does it mean? Well, propitiation means to take someone and to make them propitious, blessed in their relationship to you. So Jesus Christ, we need to be propitiated to a God who we’ve in our sinfulness despised. And the Lord Jesus on the cross with his atonement made full propitiation for our sins. He turned God’s favor to us through his work on the cross as our substitute.

Secondly, he secured definitively our redemption. Redemption. the scriptures say this over and over again that you’ve been bought with a price. The church of God has been bought with his blood. Jesus Christ has redeemed us. He paid this price for our disobedience to the law that we might be saved not from the law. We’re not saved from the law. We’re saved from the curse of the law due to lawbreakers.

The law is a reflection of the character of God. Right? So we’re not we’re not saved from the law. We’re save from the penalty of the law, the curse of the law. Jesus paid the price for that on the cross that we might actually be redeemed and put in right relationship to God and to his law once more. We’re saved from the penalty of the law. But we’re saved unto the power of walking a life in obedience to that law by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus Christ has made propitiation. He’s made redemption for us. And he’s made reconciliation between us and God. He’s reconciled that all that’s what we mean by the atonement. The atonement is a word that means at onement. I mean it really does is a middle English or medieval English term. Some people say that Wycliffe or Tyndale I think came up with it himself. because there wasn’t a good word to translate some of the words of the Old Testament and it just means we’re made at one with God which means he’s propitious toward us.

He’s removed us from the curse of the law, the penalties of the law. We have reconciliation to him. We have relationship through him. All this is meant by the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the at one work. Jesus Christ has produced a full and factual atonement for those people for whom he died, which is us. And for those people, he’s brought us into obedience to the law. He’s made reconciliation, propitiation, redemption.

All of these things come together in our use of the term atonement.

Now, let me read a few scriptures that talk about this atoning work. In fact, for his particular other people in Luke or in what is this? Oh yeah, Luke 19:10. The son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost. Jesus Christ didn’t come to didn’t come to seek and make possible the salvation of those that were lost. He came to seek and save those who are lost.

Do you see the difference? Then he would want it moral improvement. People would want it. People that deny the fact of the atonement, the fact of the resurrection, verifying the facts of the atonement, they’d say, “Well, he came to seek and to make possible salvation.” But no, the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

Romans 5:8. God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Doesn’t say he died for everyone. It says he died for us. If while we were yet enemies. We were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. His work on the cross is for us and his work effected past tense us being reconciled to God. Those two things are bound together. Do you understand?

2 Corinthians 5:21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him, death and resurrection. raised for our justification on our behalf. So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And that is been an accomplished fact. That’s the what so what of the resurrection. Those things have happened. We’ve been saved. We’ve been reconciled. We’ve been atoned for.

Galatians 1:4. He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us out of this present evil age according to the will of the father. He gave himself for us that he might have accomplished and has accomplished our deliverance through the deliverance of Jesus. Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, not from the law. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Past tense, it’s happened. It’s not a potential for people. Is an accomplished fact of the elect of the Lord Jesus Christ. This has happened in him.

Paul says, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. That’s the so what. It’s not we hope to have it. It’s not that he made it possible for us. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. It is an accomplished fact. That’s the joy of the thing. That’s the great jubilant cry of Easter resurrection Sunday is that truth that Jesus Christ has given his life for us.

Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Who did he give himself up for? Everyone indiscriminately and nobody in particular. No, Jesus Christ gave himself up for her. That is the church of Jesus Christ. So, the scriptures teach a definite full satisfaction and atonement for his people.

Isaiah 53, same thing. He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people. My people. God had a particular mission or purpose in mind. Jesus Christ said he came to do the will of the father and the will of the father is that he might save those that the father had given to him and give them eternal life. John 17 Jesus comes through the will of the father and the will of the father was to give eternal life to those particular individuals you dearly beloved that god the father had given to him and he said he didn’t lose a one of them he didn’t lose a one of them looking forward to his atonement he knew it would be an accomplished fact in his resurrection as well.

John 10 I’m Good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Not for everyone indiscriminately and no one in particular, but particularly for the sheep. And he accomplishes their full atonement, their resurrection. If we’re raised with Christ, if we’re united rather with Christ in his death, then we’re united in his resurrection. Amen. This is the powerful truth of God’s word. Not a possibility, but an actual accomplished fact.

I could go on. Scripture after scripture affirms the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the resurrection, so what? Well, the so what of it is that you are no longer in your sins. Dearly beloved, God doesn’t give you an opportunity to choose for him and make decisions whether they’re once for all or whether it’s you know the modern-day Arminian palsy Pelagian message that he makes it possible for everyone to choose and it’s up to you ultimately whether you get to die or not and Jesus doesn’t know as he’s on the cross whether he died for you or not some particular thing waiting for your choice or even worse the Finney view that Jesus died so that you could moment by moment make a good decision based on his example become sinlessly perfect and then go to heaven that’s not the so what of the resurrection.

The so what of the resurrection first and foremost is that Jesus Christ has made full atonement reconciliation redemption propitiation affected your salvation as an accomplished fact is Jesus died the fact is the historical fact is he raised again our spirituality is not based upon a set of moral lessons or some nice stories about good triumphing over evil or life being more powerful than death or goodness being better than badness.

No, it’s founded upon the historical fact of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that his resurrection demonstrated that. That’s the first truth from 1 Corinthians 15. You’re no longer in your sins because Jesus is raised from the dead. Praise God.

The second truth is that you’ll go to heaven. You’ll be raised up in your body and go eternally to be with him. And final state will all be reconciled together and raised up. And this is Paul’s primary point in 1 Corinthians 15. He’s supposed to be trying to comfort people that thought that those that had died in the Savior wouldn’t be raised. And he says, “No, no, no, no. We have hope in this life. But beyond that, we have hope for those that sleep in Christ, those who have died in Christ.” Because the resurrection is a demonstration that all those wonderful people, and we know more and more, do we not, that die in faithfulness to Christ, all those wonderful people have been raised up from the dead, and we will join with them.

Eternal life is the great blessing, the second blessing, the resurrection. So what? Well, what it means is definitively you’re going to be in heaven. You’ll be raised up from the dead to eternal life with God. John 6:39, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. That’s why we pray to the father normally. By the way, Jesus came to do the will of the father. We’re here to do the will of the father.

That’s why the Lord’s example prayer to us says we direct our prayers to the father. Right? In the name of Jesus, Jesus by his authority. And it’s okay to pray to Jesus. We did that Friday night. We do that occasionally. But in general, Jesus says that ask the father things in my name. Be like Jesus. Imitate his example. Do the will of the father and pray that the father would enable you to do those things in the name of Christ, looking for the power of the holy spirit.

But Jesus Christ came not to do his own will. The spirit doesn’t come to testify to himself. The spirit comes to bring us things of Christ. And Christ empowers us to do the will of the father in heaven. That’s That’s the way the three persons of the trinity work. But in any event, I came not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. This is the father’s will which has sent me that all of which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise them up again on the last day.

That’s the second great so what. We’re going to be raised up on the last day. Jesus Christ has finished his work.

Now, there’s a third blessing. There’s a third so what. Because what I’ve said so far may or may not impress you in terms of your own particular life. Now, You’ve been saved from your sins. You get to go to heaven. But the third so what is that Paul says you’re no longer in your sins and you’re not in stasis now until you die and then raised up. You’ve been saved from the condemnation of the law so that you might indeed obey that law and the power of the spirit.

The third so what is that we’ve been raised out of our sins to service to Jesus Christ. That’s the so what of it. You see we’re not here just because we’re we’re not dog paddling until we die and get to go to heaven. That’s not the emphasis at all in the scriptures. The, you know, there’s not a whole lot about heaven, but there’s a whole lot about how to live to Jesus Christ.

Now, is, you know, Dearis this morning, every bit of her is consecrated to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That happened as a result of the fact of the atonement for Dearis and the fact of his resurrection, saying that that she now has been raised in him and she’s supposed to use every bit of her faculties and power to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We are those who have moved away from self-government to God’s government.

That’s what the resurrection is about for us. We have moved away from self-made laws to God’s law. From talking to ourselves to praying to God and talking to other Christians to God through Christ. And from the covenant with death and hell to a covenant of life through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everybody wants atonement. But everybody thinks of it differently. The people don’t want to kill somebody else or put themselves out of their own misery. They want atonement released from guilt or fear as a terminal point, as an end point. They want to get rid of guilt. You see, get rid of the difficulty. So atonement for them is a terminal point. But Paul makes it quite clear that the atonement for us is a beginning point, not an end point.

The atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection was the beginning of the new creation, not just the death of the old creation. We’ve been saved to serve. We’ve been saved to see the resurrection affirming the fullness and particularity of the atonement to the end that our lives would begin with that and then move in relationship to the saving work of the Lord just Jesus Christ.

You know, we just sang this song. What did we sing here? We sang Christ Jesus lay death strong for our offense is given. But now at God’s right hand he stands brings us life from heaven. Excellent theology of course in Luther’s songs. Jesus’s work didn’t he needed to be raised up to ascend to the father. He needed to take the blood of the saints and make full atonement at the temple in heaven. He needed to go to the right hand of the father to make intercession for us.

And Hebrews says that’s where he is. He ever lives. He was raised Ed, he ascended for the purpose of making intercession for you. Now, is he doing it over and over again for your salvation so that you can go to heaven? No. He’s making intercession to bring life through the power of the Holy Spirit to you.

So, the resurrection and ascension of Christ was certainly to secure our final resurrection from the dead. But secondly, his priestly work is at the right hand of the father in heaven, not just on the cross on earth. At the right hand of the father in heaven, pleading for you that you might indeed be empowered by the Holy Spirit and be more than conquerors through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through his life.

Jesus says that the atoning the atonement is a fact but it’s a starting point fact for us who have been atoned. We don’t look for release from guilt as an end point. We look at the atonement as a starting point. Jesus Christ continues to apply the merits of his sacrifice at the right hand of the father. He makes intercession for us that we might indeed live in relationship ship to him.

his ascension is the evidence of acceptance of his satisfaction on our behalf as Hodge said in his commentary and as a necessary step to secure the application of the merits of his sacrifice. The application of the merits of his sacrifice. That’s the so what of the resurrection Jesus is at the right hand of the father ever to make intercession for us to empower us not being redeemed away from all the keeping of the law, but from the curse of the law.

Instead, we see not release. We seek not release through the atoning work of Christ. We seek power to be effectual for the person and work of Jesus. We’re delivered from the innervating power of guilt into strength and energy of freedom through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is as Rushdoony said, the break with the past which is also in profound continuity with it. The justice of God is satisfied. Accomplish fact. The law of God is again made the life of man. Accomplish fact for his people. The earth is made the kingdom of God and progressively brought under the sway of God’s law and purpose.

And man grows in grace and righteousness in Christ his redeemer.

Well, so what? The resurrection. So what? Well, what it means is the new world has come and that God will through history continue to manifest the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We say, “Well, that’s nice words, Pastor Tuuri, but we understand that they’re going to pass this bill on Tuesday, and the best you pastors hope for is to put sandbags around the church and religious organizations. It sure seems like times are tough. Sure seems like those are nice, easy words, but I don’t know. Things look pretty bad, and my kids, their wages aren’t going to keep up the way mine did. Their wages are going to go down as the other countries in the world wages come up. We got real problems, Pastor Tuuri. We got real problems in the legislature. We got real problems in the marketplace. We got real problems everywhere we turn. We have problems.

Well, Calvin said he did too. Calvin said that in his time there were great problems, great difficulties that made it look not that God was in control, that the resurrection was this wonderful fact of the kingdom accomplished. Calvin said that his time was like Abraham’s time, who also didn’t see things in such a good way. Quoting Calvin, he said, “Let us also remember that the condition of us all is the same with that of Abraham. All things around us are in opposition to the promises of God. He promises immortality. We are surrounded with mortality and corruption.” He declares that he counts us just and covered with sin and but and in however he says we are covered with sins.

He testifies that he is propitious and kind to us but outward judgments threaten his wrath. What then is to be done? We must with closed eyes pass by ourselves and all things connected with us that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true.

Now the resurrection is that can you think of a darker hour than when the full power of the Roman state and the full religious system that God had established all combined as Psalm 2 says against the Savior against God’s very anointed to kill the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus the son. Can you think of a darker hour?

Well, I can’t. The world is ripped in two on the cross. That’s what that earthquake, the rending of the veil of the temple was all about. The only thing that Jesus had going for him was the power of God.

We look at a world filled with difficulties from economic competitors and from sodomite lobbyists and from weakwilled you know, the legislature, I hate to say this, but there are people in the legislature that are far less intelligent than you. And the problem is they think they’re far more intelligent than you. It’s just a prideful group. I’m sorry to have to say that, but it is.

And these men don’t have your best interest at heart. Now, I think we did good at the hearing on the private school bill and the home school bill. I was amazed. I couldn’t think of a better hearing. If that bill is not dead then a doornail, then it’s going to be the sheer obstinacy of that committee on education innovation that tried to stamp out the educational innovation of homeschooling, private schools, classical schools, homeschools, etc. This is the kind of ridiculousness that we live in the context of.

So, we’ve got economic great difficulties. We’ve got the Middle East, we’ve got Russia, we’ve got Europe gone soft. They can’t do a darn thing, as evidenced by this last problem, the EU not even be able to speak up on behalf of England or England not speaking up on behalf of itself. We got difficulties in Iraq and what’s going on there. We got difficulties in the legislature. We got a sandbag the doors of the church and hopefully Christian schools and benevolence organizations from the full oversight of the state and what we’re supposed to be doing.

It looks pretty bad, but just like Good Friday got all this arrayed against us and all we’ve got going for us is the God who created it all, who’s most sovereign, most powerful, who can remove the whole thing with the word of his power. Why would we worry about it?

Well, we don’t the resurrection. So what we say that yeah the importance of the resurrection is we can say to all the powers of Jesus Christ, so what? Bring it on. God is powerful. He will bless us. We don’t look at the external circumstances. We look past ourselves and those oppose us to the joy of Jesus Christ interceding at the right hand of the father. That’s the sword of the resurrection bringing life to his people power to do the simple things that transform the world.

One last little thing before we close. We were down there at the home school and private school hearing and there were these mothers, you know, you always have the statisticians and the legal experts and state reps and all this stuff. And then you have these simple women who are talking about how they’re educating their kids at home or in a private school and you know for Jesus and they give their simple testimony and You know, in my experiences, that’s what changes things.

In 1985, when Howard L. and I and the Cudases and others introduced the homeschool bill here in Oregon, I remember this hearing, the first hearing and the Republic, you know, the Democrats were in control of the House and Senate in 1985. Did you know that? Yeah, they were. And still, we got our bill passed. God’s arm is not shortened. He doesn’t need Republicans.

We were in a hearing and there was a liberal moderate Republican from Beaverton. His name was Ted Collari and he was pretty grumpy and didn’t like homeschooling much and wasn’t going to vote in favor of it. And then this small, frail woman sat down and began to testify that she was a teacher and had decided it’d be best for her to homeschool her particular child. And I don’t remember why, but she had and was doing really good. But back then, you had to go to the county school superintendent and ask permission. He told her no. And he said, “You keep homeschooling your own child.” And I think because she was doing it at all, he fired her. She lost her job as a public school teacher.

And she was She didn’t stay with any ranker or any you know quiet spoken just telling her story faithful as a Christian woman to tell her testimony to the governors of the state. And that story that simple life of simple obedience to Jesus told very simply is what turned Ted Corey’s heart. You watch I could watch him and his face softened as he looked at her began to smile and then he decided to vote in favor of the homeschool freedom bill.

You See, that’s the power of simple lives lived in obedience, faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and what we’re called to do. That’s the so what of the resurrection, not only are we fully atoned for, that’s been accomplished. Not only do we get to go to heaven, but the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father dispensing power through the Holy Spirit to you.

You’re no longer in your sins and you can move in the power of righteousness and the Lord God in his own way that is not our way chooses to use the simple act of obedience in your family at your workplace if necessary testifying to some legislator or talking to them one-to-one he uses those simple acts to move us forward you see the resurrection is also the declaration Romans 1 says that Jesus Christ is the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness.

This declaration has been made by the resurrection from the dead. Good ones know that the resurrection, the so what of it finally is a death nail to all opposition of the powers of Jesus Christ. Because the scriptures say in Psalm 2, Romans 1, various places that the resurrection is the demonstration to you and to the world that Jesus Christ is the son of God with power. His kingdom has been established.

The gates of hell will not prevail against it. The resurrection is the death nail sounding out against all those that raise themselves up against a king who can use the simple weak women testifying at public hearings in front of strong, prideful, arrogant legislators to accomplish his purposes of letting his people be free to educate their children according to the work of the Lord Jesus. Christ.

God, grant us faith today to look beyond ourselves. The fact of the atonement, the fact of the resurrection, the fact of our salvation, and the fact of the empowerment of God to his people, that his kingdom shall indeed grow and be manifest in all the world. Amen.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for these truths. Help us as we come forward to commit ourselves afresh to live out the power of the resurrection because of the work Jesus has done. In his name we ask it. Amen.