The gospel tells of ‘hope laid up for [us] in heaven’ (Col 1:5).

The resurrection of Jesus embodies the real, objective presence in the world of Christ’s coming Kingdom — and its conclusive fulfilment, in history, of God’s purposes in creation and salvation.

His rising from the dead is the ‘living hope’ (1 Pet 1:3) and the sure ground upon which believers ‘wait’ for his eventual appearing ‘from heaven’ (1 Thess 1:10). The hopelessness that death imposes is answered — and set aside — by a resurrection-oriented gospel.

Give Up on Saving It

This hope is not for the rescue or improvement of the present world as it stands, but for something more radical still — its death and recreation, on the pattern already set by Christ’s own body:

‘Jesus did not come to earth to make the world better, but to make it new. We need to give up not on this world but on any hope that we can save it or ourselves. We should not want to indefinitely extend our lives nor the condition of the world under the curse. At some point we must die. This world in its present condition must die. It does not pass away. It does not get recycled into the circle of life. It dies so the very same body and very same world created by God can be raised in newness. After his resurrection Jesus ate fish, but he did not experience temptation and suffering, nor did he continue to bear the sins of his people. All of that he left in the tomb.’¹Horton, Recovering Our Sanity, 116.

Notice the precision of that last image. He ate fish — so the body is real, physical, continuous with the one that died. But temptation, suffering, sin-bearing: left behind in the tomb.

The same body. Not the same conditions.

Honest About the Delay

Yet this hope, real as it is, is not yet fully realised — and Scripture is honest about the tension that creates:

‘In light of the Old Testament expectation of the great resurrection at the end of the age (John 11:24), the resurrection of Jesus poses a problem. The end of the age does not immediately follow. All the dead are not raised immediately. All trace of suffering is not immediately removed. What has happened? An interim has begun, a pause in the great eschatological event of the resurrection. The old age and the new age exist side-by-side; a tension which waits to be resolved at the return of Jesus. Salvation has been made actual but is not yet complete. There is still a place for hope.’²Thompson and Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant,’ 2.

That’s worth sitting with if the gap between what Christians claim and what you can see has ever troubled you. The New Testament doesn’t paper over it. It names it: an interim, a pause, two ages running alongside each other.

Crucifixion and Resurrection Together

Paul’s core message concerning Christ moved — very naturally — between crucifixion and resurrection.³See Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Part I, ‘The Priority of Jesus’ Resurrection – Crucifixion and Resurrection,’ https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ-part-i/

Jesus’ resurrection was understood as God’s chosen means of restoring his humanity — and ours — to life and immortality. As Paul expresses it, ‘Jesus our Lord … was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification’ (Rom 4:25).

That justification is no bare legal fiction, but as real and substantial as the resurrection securing it: since his resurrection ‘is an actual event in the raising of Jesus Christ in the fullness of his humanity from corruption and death, then justification must correspondingly be [not merely legal but also] a creative, regenerating event.’⁴Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 63.

Or, put more strikingly still: ‘If death is the penalty for condemnation, then immortality and glorification are the prize for justification.’⁵Horton, Recovering Our Sanity, 115.

Where the Centre of Gravity Sits

Yet if asked to name the gospel’s centre of gravity, Paul’s answer is unhesitating. It is ‘the cross of Christ’ (1 Cor 1:17).

It’s ‘the word of the cross,’ Paul insists, through which works the saving ‘power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1 Cor 1:18, 24). To ‘preach the gospel’ is to ‘preach Christ crucified’ (1 Cor 1:17, 23).

Indeed, ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor 2:2) is to be the special emphasis if Christian ‘speech and … message’ is to bring about ‘a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that … faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God’ (1 Cor 2:4-5).

And, again, where does the message, the news about Christ’s resurrection fit in this centrality of preaching Christ crucified? In raising Jesus from death and elevating him to his right hand, God announced the inauguration of the long-promised transformation and glorification of all things. His death on the cross has been vindicated. The benefits of Christ’s death have come, and will come.

Which Raises a Question About Delivery

Paul is equally clear here.

The impact of the good news about the Lord Jesus relies not on rhetorical power, command of language, style of delivery, or particular forms of words — though the gospel’s effect need not exclude eloquence, nor every other ordinarily effective means of communication.

Certainly, the communication of the gospel ought never to be formulaic. But that isn’t to say there are no guiding principles, standards, checks or balances in its communication.

But, it is Christ-oriented, cross-centred content and substance that counts most. It’s the message of the crucified Saviour — moved, mediated and applied by the energy of God’s Spirit — which brings God’s saving work most powerfully to bear on the hearts and minds of individuals.

The goal is to share the gospel in such a manner that listeners are less struck by the style of delivery, the display of learning, verbal heroics or affected profundity — what Paul calls ‘human wisdom’ — and most arrested by the ‘faith’ element (1 Cor 2:5) and the actual substance of the message itself: God’s magnificent goodness and greatness in Jesus Christ.

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• 1
  Horton, Recovering Our Sanity, 116. ↩︎
• 2
  Thompson and Doyle, ‘Risen and Triumphant,’ 2. ↩︎
• 3
  See Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Part I, ‘The Priority of Jesus’ Resurrection – Crucifixion and Resurrection,’ https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ-part-i/ ↩︎
• 4
  Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 63. ↩︎
• 5
  Horton, Recovering Our Sanity, 115. ↩︎