Without Christ’s resurrection, Christian hope disappears. Among many indispensable articles of our faith, Christ’s resurrection crowns the list. Part of the reason for its critical role is because we worship the risen Christ, who is God the Son in power with all authority in heaven and on earth (Rom. 1:4; Matt. 28:16–20). He is the risen, reigning king, and the truth claims of our religion come to naught if Christ is not the living God who conquered death (1 Cor. 15:17–19). So, Christ’s resurrection is crucial due to its significance as the historical foundation of our faith.
Christ’s resurrection is nonnegotiable also because of its theological significance. It is not only the historical foundation in the sense that our beliefs and practices flow downstream from when the apostles saw and proclaimed the risen Christ. It is also the reason that salvation comes to us and that we can trust God with full assurance. As Peter explains,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet. 1:3–5, emphasis added)
The blessings of our new life in salvation and the guarantee of incorruptible life in glory all come through Christ’s resurrection.
This essay focuses on the two aspects of hope flowing from Christ’s resurrection that we have already highlighted. Our personal reception of Christ’s benefits, often called the “order of salvation” or ordo salutis, comes from how Christ earned those blessings for us. The fulfillment of all that God long promised his people that he would do, known as the “history of salvation” or historia salutis, comes to a head in Christ rising from the grave. Christ’s resurrection is pivotal for the ordo and historia salutis.
Both aspects of hope connect to our covenant theology. Christ earned those saving benefits for us specifically as the last Adam, the covenant head of all his people. Christ also fulfilled the promises that God had made throughout redemptive history to his covenant people. Christ’s resurrection is, then, the ground of covenant blessings and the fulfillment of covenant promises. Read more»
Harrison Perkins | “Christ’s Resurrection as Covenantal Fulfillment” | April, 2025
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Harrison Perkins
Harrison Perkins (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC), a member of the of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a Senior Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, associate online instructor in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary, a visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction.
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