by Paul Ponchot
The Restoration Herald - Apr 2025
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:1-7, ESV throughout)
In 1972, my dad, Bob Ponchot, traveled to the holy land. While there, he visited the traditional place of the tomb where Jesus was buried. He entered and saw the stone slab where the body of Jesus is said to have been laid. He placed his hand on the bare stone, fixed his eyes on the emptiness of the tomb. There was no visible evidence Jesus had ever been there.
When Dad returned home, he wrote a song titled “The Empty Tomb.” The second verse and chorus say, “I walked in a garden, saw a tomb cut from stone, where once the Savior lay. Put my hand where He rested, and my eyes could not see that Jesus had ever been there. The tomb is empty praise God He’s alive, victory’s mine because He arose. Now I know when I die new life will be mine, because of the empty tomb.”
I do not believe we are overstating the importance of the bodily resurrection of Jesus when we say it is the single most important event in the history of mankind. All spiritual roads converge on the fact of the resurrection of Christ from the grave. I am not in any way trying to downplay the primary and foundational work of God in creation, nor am I relegating the cross from its essential position in the work of redemption. What I am saying is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (along with His ascension and exaltation) is the event that completes and validates the saving work of Christ. Leon Morris states, “The resurrection is rooted in the same divine necessity as the death of the Lord.”i
It is the resurrection of Jesus from the grave that defeats death in all its forms: physical, spiritual, and eternal (Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Dr. Jack Cottrell notes, “Through His resurrection from the dead Jesus makes available to us a power that is able to reverse the condition of death and restore us to life.”ii It is the resurrection of Jesus that provides spiritual life now and eternal life in the age to come. As Christians, we should glory in the biblically attested fact that Jesus is alive. The eyewitnesses (1 Corinthians 15:5-8) give ample, beyond a reasonable doubt, testimony to the reality of the resurrection. All that we are and ever hope to be rests in the fact that Jesus is alive.
Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:17–18)
God has raised Jesus from the dead and His resurrection has an impact on the entirety of our lives—past, present, and future.
Impact on the Past: Salvation
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead impacts our salvation since there is no salvation without the resurrection.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Paul tells us the salvation we have is made possible because of the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I think of this as the “Gospel Proper.” We often use the concept of preaching the Gospel to include whatever we proclaim from the Word of God. Strictly speaking, Paul tells us the essence of the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. This, and whatever explanation is given as to the full meaning of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, is the Gospel Proper.
This Gospel message of salvation through the redemptive work of Christ is passed on as of first (primary) importance. This includes that Jesus died for our sins. There is no forgiveness if there is no cross (Romans 3:21-26; Colossians 1:19; 1 Peter 2:24). Praise God for sending Jesus, our Redeemer, to die as a propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:25). His death on the cross satisfied God’s wrath at sin—but the cross is only part of the salvation provision.
The resurrection of Jesus is also of primary importance and is a part of the Gospel Proper. The sacrifice of Christ for our sins is of no real effect without His resurrection from the dead. The salvation package we receive from God through Christ includes both the forgiveness of our sins and new spiritual birth/regeneration. The resurrection impacts both aspects. First, it completes the work of the cross for our forgiveness. In writing of the faith of Abraham that was counted to him as righteousness, Paul says in Romans 4:23-25:
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Notice, Jesus was “delivered up (died) for our trespasses” and was “raised” up so that we might be acquitted of our sin and its guilt and declared righteous in Christ. If Jesus remains in the grave, we are not forgiven.
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:13-17)
But there is more. . .
Second, the new spiritual life/regeneration we receive at conversion is also made possible by the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.
In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. (Colossians 2:11–13)
At conversion, the Holy Spirit gives us a new spiritual nature that is fit and able to please God in holy living (Titus 3:4-6). When we were baptized into Christ, the Holy Spirit created us anew spiritually, and came to live in us, that we might have strength and power to start living for the Lord in accordance with His Word. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The spiritual life-giving power of Christ comes to us because He lives. There is no salvation without the resurrection and our faith that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9). The resurrection of Jesus impacts our past for salvation. The tomb is empty! Praise God, He’s alive!
Impact on the Present: Sanctification
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)
It is impossible to read the New Testament without concluding how we live matters to God. When we were baptized into Christ, we not only were baptized into His death, which makes forgiveness of sin possible, but we were also raised from the waters of baptism in the likeness of His resurrection to live a new life for Him. In Christ, we are dead to sin. What follows in the rest of Romans 6 has to do with the importance of living the sanctified life. Here is a summary:
In baptism, our old self was crucified, so that the body of sin might be made of no effect so we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Sin is no longer the dominating influence in our lives; Jesus is.
Since Christ lives and we have been raised up with Him, we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, we must not let sin reign in our bodies, nor offer the members of our bodies to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.
Instead, we must present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness. The new life we have in Christ manifests itself in Godly living.
The grace of God in Christ is a motivation not to sin rather than a license to sin.
The wages of sin is death, but in Christ we have the gift of eternal life.
That which makes living the sanctified life possible is the resurrection of Jesus which provides for the new life we are now living and the strength we receive from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (Romans 6:22)
The resurrection of Christ impacts our present in sanctification. The tomb is empty! Praise God, He’s alive!
To Be Continued....
The solution to MY problem is the one that I propose for others to consider: COMBINE your physical and spiritual discipline.
With apologies to Ms. Siegel, perhaps those with spiritual eyes and ears might more aptly rephrase her line to read: Behold, Play-Doh. Behold, God.
For a long time, I thought if we were going to sing a “praise” song, it was going to have a speedy tempo and some catchy words to it. Recently I’ve expanded my understanding to include special moments like spectacular sunrises, lunar eclipses, and personal victories. But alas, this Hebrew word (‘hallel”) teaches me a different story. I’m no grammarian and I’m not offering a class in Hebrew vocabulary, I’m seeking transformative truth, and worship that transcends the run of the mill worship experience.
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