First, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of every Christian. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that the bedrock of our faith was the veracity of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:12-19). He wrote to the Romans that one had to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead in order to be saved (Rom. 10:9-10). He preached so much about Jesus and His resurrection that the philosophers in Athens mistook the resurrection for a foreign god (Acts 17:18).  We must believe that the Father raised His Son from the dead—physically from the dead. 

Second, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is the hope of every Christian. His resurrection promises us that we will be raised from the dead—bodily. Both in First Corinthians and in First Thessalonians, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul promised that death was not the end for the believer. “The dead in Christ will rise” (1 Thess. 4:16) and “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51). Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is both the pattern and the promise to those who are in Him (1 Cor. 15:20-28). 

Third, the bodily resurrection of Jesus should be the life of every Christian. This thought is the one that freezes me in my tracks. Paul asks this question of the Galatian church: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh” (Gal. 3:3)? If we Jesus-followers examine our lives, teaching, and practices, would we look like spiritual people or flesh people? Does what passes for “Christian” teaching just hearken back to the rules and regulations of the first covenant? I’m afraid that the practice of our Christianity is still Old Testament shadow. So often I find myself trying to manufacture the “fruit of the Spirit” with my own flesh. 

Now, I’m no antinomian, mind you. I believe that the Christ-life we’ve been given manufactures fruit that looks like lawful living. It’s His life, however, that does this, not our own. Paul, again in Galatians, says “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:20-21). It’s all about Jesus’ righteousness given to us.