The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 11)—The third day he rose again from the dead

by on April 15, 2025 | Comment

The Trojan Horse is the classic example of a bait and switch. Legend says that, for ten years, the Greeks waged war on the city of Troy. This war went so long because Troy was so well fortified. One morning, the Trojans woke to find the beach outside their city empty and the Greeks apparently gone. The only thing remaining from a decade of war camp was a giant wooden statue of a horse.

This horse was key in ending the Trojan war. The Trojans thought it was some sort of tribute either to the pagan gods as the Greeks traveled home or for the Trojans themselves to signal surrender. So, they brought it into their city as a token of victory. Despite the Trojans’ perception, the Greek army was hidden inside. As night fell, the Greeks slipped out and ransacked Troy. What looked like certain victory turned out to be its pivotal defeat.

Much the same happens when we consider Christ’s death and resurrection. Many perceived Christ’s death on the cross as his final defeat. Even his own disciples scattered in fear, afterwards huddling together in hiding because they thought that Christ’s death meant that he could not have been the true messiah bringing salvation. The Romans thought that he was simply dead. The Jewish leaders had mocked him on the cross as if they had the last laugh.

In truth though, Christ’s death was concealed victory. His death was the destruction of death for his people. It was his covert way into the structure of death to demolish its power. When a honeybee stings, its barbed stinger stays in the skin. Since its stinger is attached to its digestive tract, flying away after stinging actually disembowels the bee.1

Hence, Isaiah 25:8 says, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.” Hosea 13:14 says, “I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?” And in 1 Corinthians 15:54–47, Paul finds the fulfillment of these promises from God in Christ’s death and resurrection: “‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ ‘The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As death aimed to sting us all and leave us each in the grave, so Christ took its stinger into himself upon the cross. But like the honeybee’s stinger is torn out once it stings, death stung the wrong person, because Jesus Christ’s death disemboweled death itself. His death was his infiltration of the enemy city to ransack and raze it from the inside out.

The resurrection is Christ bursting forth from the Trojan horse in full victory. It is his glorious enthronement. It is his declaration that the city of death has been ransacked and plundered. It is his tearing the stinger out of death and dragging all its vital organs out with it so that death is dead for all who belong to Christ.

An indissoluble link binds together Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is the culmination of the war he waged on sin and death, beginning in the incarnation, hitting its direst moment on the cross, flowering in victory as Christ burst forth from the grave having trashed every last ounce of power that sin as the sting of death could hold against his people. The main point is that Christ’s resurrection demonstrates his victory over sin and death.

The Kingly Coming

Although Romans 1:1–6 serves simply as Paul’s greeting at the beginning of this epistle, it contains a substantive description of the gospel and Christ’s work in history. In verses 1–3, he began, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (emphasis added). The “gospel of God” is the key, governing idea for this section. As Paul tells us, this gospel was “promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy Scriptures” (emphasis added). Hence, we see again why we have been talking about the Apostles’ Creed with its emphasis on the Trinity as a summary of the whole Bible. The Old Testament Scriptures given through the prophets were about the gospel itself. We might then ask how that connection to the gospel directly means that the Old Testament, and therefore the whole Bible, was about the Trinity.

Paul tells us that answer. The gospel set forth in the holy Scriptures given through the prophets was “concerning his [God’s] Son.” Paul was clear then that the whole message of the Bible was about Christ. As we studied about the incarnation, God’s eternal Son assumed a human nature, and the line into which he was born, as Paul highlighted, was David’s. According to the flesh, speaking in terms of Christ’s human nature, he descended from David.

Why? Because the Bible is about God’s kingdom. David was the king over Israel, to whom God promised an heir who would sit on the throne forever. To fulfill that promise, God the Son came to earth in David’s line so that David’s kingdom would be God’s kingdom directly and the heir to David’s throne would be God himself.

The perceived problem in the story as such so far is that Jesus was crucified. The king who was supposed to reign forever died. How then could he be the true fulfillment of this promise for an everlasting Davidic king? How could he be the true king come from God if he ended up in the grave? The kingly coming was Christ’s arrival on earth in the incarnation to keep God’s promises of the gospel and his renewed kingdom. But at the crucifixion his kingly coming left questions about how those promises could be true in him.

The Kingly Coronation

The resurrection answers these questions. The resurrection resolves the tension in the fulfillment of God’s promises caused by Christ’s death. That is what Paul explains in the following part of Romans 1: “And [he] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Rom 1:4–6).

The second half of this section is how we come into blessing and everlasting life because of Christ. It is grace received through him that we belong to Christ and know the blessings of the gospel. But we have to note super carefully that we receive grace from the risen Christ. He stands victorious over sin and the grave and ever lives triumphant, so he is able to apply that victory and its saving effects to all who belong to him. The phrase that helps us see this fundamental point is in verse 4: “And [he] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”

There are a few questions to unpack here. First, the Spirit declared something about the Son by raising him from the dead. So, the resurrection announced something about Christ. What did it announce? That he was the Son of God in power. This is where we need to reflect the most to see the resurrection’s significance regarding the kingdom of God.

Sometimes people get confused about this phrase because it says that the resurrection declared Christ to be the Son of God. We need to see two things: 1) this was the public announcement making clear to everyone that he is God’s Son. Given all the confusion people throughout the Gospel narratives had about who Christ is, the resurrection clarifies Christ’s identity in showing that he as God has life in himself and so cannot be contained by death. To be clear, Jesus was always God’s Son but was shown to be so at his resurrection.

We might think of the great cases of revealed identities in cinematic history. In The Fellowship of the Ring, when we find out that Strider the Ranger is actually Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor, we have to rethink this character’s role in the saga. When Darth Vader revealed in Star Wars that he is Luke Skywalker’s father, we rethink the whole plot. When each monster in every episode of Scooby Doo turns out to be not a real ghost but a greedy character we already met, well, we should have seen that coming. But in every case, the unmasking reveals the character’s true identity. So it is with the resurrection. When it was not clear to all throughout his earthly ministry, his resurrection “unmasked” Jesus publicly as God the Son.

2) The resurrection declared more specifically that Christ is God’s Son in power, which is the emphasis in this sentence. He had in principle defeated all his enemies, since his rising from the grave conquered death itself. As he burst forth from death, Jesus claimed all authority in heaven and on earth as his own. The risen Christ is the reigning Son of God, enforcing the kingdom of God through his Word and Spirit throughout this age until he returns to clean up the last vestiges of our final enemy, death itself.

Not long ago, the news reported the coronation of King Charles III. Was Charles king before his coronation? Yes, upon the Queen’s death, he became king. But his coronation ceremony some months later officially installed him into that office. It recognized and formalized the role he had.

So too with Christ’s resurrection. The Son of God was recognized and installed into his office of king by his resurrection. It was his kingly coronation declaring to the world that he is the one reigning in power throughout this age. Only God could have power over death itself, and Christ strode out of the tomb thereby being declared to be God the Son, descended from David according to his humanity, and so entitled to rule God’s people as king. As risen from the dead, he is installed into his everlasting royal capacity as the reigning Savior over us.

The Kingly Comfort

One of my favorite questions in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is question 26: “How does Christ execute the office of a king?” The answer is, “Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all of his and our enemies.” What strikes me is how Christ wields his kingly power for the benefit of his people.

He first subdues us to himself, which is about making us his. As Paul put it in Romans 1:6, he acts for the sake of his name among the nations in how we “are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” He makes us his people. He calls us to faith. Christ’s kingship is then saving.

But he also rules and defends us. The great king of the ages, ancient of days, ruler of God’s kingdom has tied his glory in with our good. He is active to help us. He wields his kingship to guide us in sanctification and wisdom and to protect us from spiritual and worldly dangers. We are always safe in Christ’s kingly hands, whatever befalls us. Even when we go to the grave, it is with Christ’s protection and defense.

Finally, he conquers all of his and our enemies. It is striking how we confess that Christ conquers not just his own but also our enemies. That is because he has so joined himself to his people that our enemies become his. When Christ appeared to Paul on the Damascus Road, he asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” Paul’s acts against the church were against Christ.

So, Christian, remember that Christ is not an aloof king, but one near to us for help and encouragement. He literally came near to us in the incarnation to be our redeemer king. He had natural authority over all creation as God. He stepped into creation to claim and earn kingship as the incarnate Son so that he could save us. He wanted kingship to bless you and exercises kingship to bless you.

Note

  1. Anna Christiansen, “Why Do Honeybees Die when they Sting?” PBS Newshour, October 1, 2014.

©Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find the whole series here.

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