The Crucified Messiah

The covenant with Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, including the possession of the Earth, the gift of the Spirit, and our Resurrection - Romans 8:1-30. In his Epistle to the Romans , Paul presents Abraham as the great exemplar of faith. God accounted the Patriarch’s faith as righteousness when he was still uncircumcised. This means that he was declared righteous without the deeds and rituals required by the Torah .

Through Jesus, we become heirs of Abraham and the promises, and the gift of the Spirit is the guarantee of our participation in the inheritance . God’s plan of redemption always envisioned something larger than the nation of Israel and the land of Canaan. With the arrival of Christ, “ the seed of Abraham ,” and the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the fulfillment of the promises began.

The Son of God gives the Spirit to men and women, without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life . “ The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The declarations I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life. ” Christ’s statement echoes the biblical principle that life and the Spirit of God are inextricably linked – (John 6:63).

Jesus has come in these last days to provide salvation for men, women, and children of all nations, and everlasting life in the age to come . After his resurrection, Jesus declared, “ All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me! Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations .” Christ sent his disciples to announce the salvation accomplished by his death “ to the ends of the Earth .” The promise of the Abrahamic Covenant to bless all nations is now being fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

The return of Jesus in great glory will result in the resurrection of the righteous dead, and the end of Death itself - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. Paul responded to believers who denied the coming resurrection of the righteous by stressing the necessity of resurrection for our salvation and life in the new creation. He pointed to Christ’s past Death and Resurrection as the precedent for and guarantee of our own resurrection.  We will be raised bodily when Jesus arrives from the heavens.

Foundational to our future hope is bodily resurrection when Jesus arrives in glory to gather and meet his saints . Paul’s description of the “ arrival ” or ‘ Parousia ’ of Jesus in his first letter to the Thessalonians was written to comfort believers over the fate of their compatriots who die before Christ’s return. We need not sorrow “ like the others ” since the righteous dead will be resurrected when the Lord “ arrives ” from Heaven. This hope is based on the sure foundation of Christ’s past Death and Resurrection.

The arrival of Jesus will be an event of great victory and utter finality. That day will include the resurrection and the New Creation . The return of Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament as a singular event, one of great finality. His “ arrival ” or ‘ Parousia ’ will be accompanied by celestial and terrestrial upheaval, the appearance of the New Creation, the resurrection of the righteous dead, the judgment and punishment of the ungodly, “ the gathering of his elect ,” and the end of Death.

Paul explains the Gospel in detail in his Letter to the Romans . He wrote to the Assembly in the city of Rome to deal with conflicts between Gentile and Jewish members, and to prepare the ground for taking the Gospel to the western provinces of the Empire. In doing so, he touched on key topics, including death, redemption, the Law, resurrection, and New Creation. Believers are justified through the Nazarene’s death, and they are saved and receive immortality through his resurrection.

In the opening thanksgiving of Philippians , Paul prepares his readers for his discussion on going on to perfection in Jesus in Chapter 3, meaning the future resurrection of believers. That must occur to complete their faith and consummate their salvation. Bodily resurrection is foundational to the Apostolic hope of salvation, which believers receive when Jesus appears in glory.

Paul responded to false teachings about the resurrection of believers in his second letter to Timothy. Certain voices in the Church were denying this essential truth. “ God did not give us a spirit of fear but of a sound mind ,” including our anxieties about death. Jesus overcomes death and gives life “ through the Gospel .”

Salvation includes the bodily resurrection of the saints and life in the New Creation, which will occur when Jesus arrives . Central to the doctrine of salvation is the promise of  redemption . God will not abandon what He first created, and both the term and the concept mean the  recovery of what was lost . The universe is enslaved by sin and condemned to decay and death. In God’s redemptive plans, the end state of redeemed things and persons is vastly superior to their original state, and this principle is epitomized in the promises of bodily Resurrection and New Creation.

In his letter to the Laodiceans, the “ Son of Man ” is called the “ Beginning of the Creation of God ,” and the “ Amen, the faithful and true witness .” In his Death and Resurrection, the long-promised “ New Heavens and New Earth ” had commenced. Jesus is called the “ faithful witness ” in the Book’s opening paragraph, a reference to his faithfulness in death on the Roman cross.

Paul links the start of the “ Last Days ” with the death and resurrection of Jesus. The time of fulfillment arrived, and all God’s promises now find their “ Yea and Amen ” in the risen Savior. Similarly, the  Letter to the Hebrews  declares that “ in these last days ,” God has “ spoken ” His definitive “ Word ” in His Son who now sits at the “ right hand of the Majesty on High .” History reached its pivotal point in the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God.

In  Colossians , Paul stresses the exaltation of Jesus following his Resurrection. Some members of the congregation were confused about his authority over the spiritual powers that were hostile to God and His people; therefore, Paul reminded the Assembly of just how highly God exalted the One who became the “ Firstborn of the Dead .”