Christ’s Resurrection Is More Than “Coming Back to Life”; It Is, In Fact, The Present Assurance of Our Future

I have not yet finished N.T. Wright’s new book, Surprised By Hope – Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. But I’ve already gained an incredibly wonderful perspective on our future.

In the book, Bishop Wright meticulously takes us through Hebrew, Jewish and early Christian views of life, death and the hereafter. And, of course, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to a clear understanding of what New Testament writers are talking about as they lay the foundations of our faith.

Here, in my opinion, is one of his most crucial fulcrums in what I have read thus far:

“The whole point of what Jesus was up to (in his resurrection) was that he was doing, close up, in the present, what he was promising long-term, in the future. And what he was promising for that future, and doing in that present, was not saving souls for a disembodied eternity but rescuing people from the corruption and decay of the way the world presently is, so they could enjoy, already in the present, that renewal of creation which is God’s ultimate purpose—and so they could thus become colleagues and partners in that larger project.”

Wow. Just think for a bit of the ramifications of Wright’s implications. Wow.

Happy Easter!