Resurrection

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer interview posted as Adrian Warnock and the Resurrection

If you're online and read blogs then you probably know Adrian Warnock. Adrian is a Christian writer, preacher and part of the Jubilee Church, London, UK leadership team for more than ten years. His new book, Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything, addresses the great hope of the Christian faith; that Jesus died-- and rose from the dead! ...

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Do you think we need to mention the resurrection to effectively preach the gospel?
To be honest, I would go so far as to say that the resurrection is the gospel. Gospel means good news, it would hardly be good news if Jesus was rotting in a tomb somewhere in Israel! Without the resurrection we would still be dead in our sins. If we only preach the cross and not the resurrection we have failed in our duty to declare the full gospel. We will not know power in our preaching unless we do a whole lot more than just mention the resurrection. Perhaps this failure is precisely why so few people become Christians in the average evangelical church today. Maybe the people never rejected the gospel of Christ's victory over death but instead they never heard it.

Are you saying that the cross is overemphasized?
Not at all. In fact, we do probably need to emphasize the cross more than we do. It's just that if we want to be truly cross-centered we must also learn to be empty-grave-centered.

Why do you think Christians tend to neglect the resurrection?
There seems little doubt to me that preaching in the average church today tends to stress the cross and assume the resurrection. The exact opposite is true of the preaching of the Apostles in the book of Acts--they stressed the resurrection and assumed that their hearers already knew about Jesus' death. This has to be part of the reason for our neglect. But then, we must ask why preachers do this. I believe this is largely because there has been so much controversy surrounding the cross.

Do you want us to emphasize the resurrection rather than arguing about theories of atonement?
In the last few years we have seen a renewed attack on penal substitution. This same attack has been repeated many times over hundreds of years. I am certainly someone who has been very firm and clear in my defense of this doctrine. It is absolutely vital.

But we must never forget that without the resurrection Paul tells us we would still be dead in our sins. Without the empty grave, Jesus' death would have been just another pointless waste. I am not aware of any group today who are arguing about the doctrinal implications of the resurrection. But that does not mean we should neglect to build that part of our doctrinal wall. We cannot afford to let the enemies of the gospel define our agenda entirely. We must fully explore and preach the implications of both the cross and the resurrection. It need not be either/or--rather it must be both/and!

What are the implications of neglecting the resurrection?
First of all, we will not be as confident of our salvation, for it is only to the extent that we are sure that Christ rose that we will be sure that we are saved.

Secondly, we can miss out on the joy of our salvation. For the gospel to be good news it has to include the triumphant resurrection of Jesus! If we constantly talk about his death for us, but never mention that he rose again, we could almost find ourselves feeling sorry for Jesus! The gospel is the announcement of the enthronement of the risen King with all its implications for us today. In particular, this gives us a hope that goes beyond the grave.

Thirdly, we will never understand the gospel fully if we don't understand the resurrection's role in justification.

Finally, we may miss out on fully experiencing the benefits of the life-transforming power that the resurrection releases inside each of us.

Why is the resurrection so important for understanding our justification?
Paul tells us that Jesus died for our sins, but it was his resurrection that obtained our justification (Romans 4:25). If you have been raised on the average preaching that statement will be as shocking to me as it was to me when I first began to unpack it. I spend a whole chapter on this crucial idea.

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