Linking Genesis and the Resurrection

When many professing Christians are reading accounts of the bodily Resurrection of Jesus from the dead in, say, John 20, most are not likely considering the book of Genesis. It is rightly called the book of beginnings because it is the starting point for many things, not just the creation of the universe.

Study on this a spell. God the Son created the universe (well, all three persons of the Trinity were involved, but especially the Son), then he humbled himself and became a man. Jesus was born and lived in an unpretentious manner, then died a humiliating death on a cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb until he arose later.

Why go to all the trouble? We know it was because he loved us even though we had sinned — and we learn where sin came from back in Genesis. Adam had authority which affects all of us. We are sinners who need to be reconciled to God. Paul the apostle makes it clear that Jesus is the last Adam; he is one of us. The Crucifixion, death, burial, and bodily Resurrection of Jesus was the only way to make salvation for humanity possible.

As you go about your Easter observances and think about how we have hope for our own Resurrection (I will certainly be thinking about being reunited in Heaven with my beloved Charlene and others who have gone before), think a bit about Genesis as well. We learn about sin there, and God’s promise of the Redeemer.

The Resurrection accounts in the Gospels, while the most well-known, are neither the only nor the earliest evidence we have of Christian writing about the Resurrection. That honour goes to 1 Thessalonians; one of the earliest of Paul’s letters, which was written around AD 50. So about two decades after Christ’s death, there was a group of people who insisted He was raised from the dead, and had built a decent portion of their theology around that fact; and such theologizing does not happen overnight. But the Gospel accounts, while penned decades after the events they describe (circa AD 30–33), go back to early oral tradition and/or personal recollection. And this tradition lacks much of the theologizing that’s a major part of Paul’s letters, which is why we can tell that it goes back to very early accounts which were reliably recorded.

You can read the full article at “The Resurrection and Genesis.” Also recommended, “Creation’s Easter Message.”