Christ’s resurrection and mediation

Christ and His saving work

If Jesus remained dead, Christianity would have a courageous martyr and an unfinished claim. The apostles make a much stronger assertion: God raised Him, and the risen Lord continues to act for His people. Resurrection and mediation belong together. The Savior who died is alive, and access to God rests on His continuing life as well as His completed sacrifice.

Read Luke 24:25-35

25 He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”
27 Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
28 They came near to the village where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.
29 They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.” He went in to stay with them.
30 When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them.
31 Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight.
32 They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them,
34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”
35 They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

The travelers have facts about the crucifixion and reports about the empty tomb, but they do not yet understand the whole event. Jesus explains the Scriptures concerning Himself. The resurrection doesn't erase the cross as an unfortunate interruption. It vindicates the saving work carried out through suffering. Later in the chapter, bodily evidence makes clear that the claim is not simply that Jesus' influence continues. The disciples are being confronted with the living Jesus, whose death they had good reason to regard as final.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

Paul is unusually direct. If Christ has not been raised, faith is empty and believers remain in their sins. He does not suggest preserving Christianity as a useful moral system after removing its central event. The resurrection is doing real work in the argument. Christ is also the firstfruits, the beginning that guarantees a coming harvest. His resurrection is unique in saving significance, but it is not meant to remain an isolated exception to the destiny of His people.

The distinction between completed sacrifice and continuing intercession is helpful. Intercession does not mean Christ must persuade the Father each day to reconsider an otherwise revoked acceptance. The sacrifice has established the basis of reconciliation. The risen Priest continually represents His people in the efficacy of that completed work. That is why a believer can approach God after failure without pretending the failure was insignificant. Confession is necessary, and the Advocate is sufficient. Repeated repentance does not require repeated atonement. The Christian returns to the same finished work and the same living Savior, rather than searching for a new means of access every time conscience is troubled.

Read Hebrews 7:20-28

20 Inasmuch as he was not made priest without the taking of an oath
21 (for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’ ”
22 By so much, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
23 Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death.
24 But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.
25 Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
26 For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

Human priests died and were replaced. Christ's priesthood does not pass to a successor because His life does not end. His intercession is therefore not an emergency arrangement with an approaching expiration date. Nor is He repeatedly sacrificing Himself. The chapter joins a permanent priesthood with a once-for-all offering. A Christian's failures are serious, but they do not reveal a defect in the Priest. The proper response is honest repentance and renewed reliance on the One who lives to intercede.

Read Hebrews 10:19-31

19 Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh,
21 and having a great priest over God’s house,
22 let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water,
23 let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.
24 Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.
28 A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay,” says the Lord. Again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Access to God produces responsibilities toward other believers. Draw near, hold fast, and encourage one another. Confidence is not isolation, and grace is not permission to treat Christ lightly. The warning in the passage is severe because abandoning the only sufficient sacrifice leaves no substitute waiting in reserve. Its purpose is to call hearers to perseverance. The invitation to approach remains rooted in Christ's work, which is why the response can be both confident and deeply serious.

When praying, remember who provides access. Confidence does not come from producing the correct emotional atmosphere or finding a more sympathetic mediator. Christ is sufficient. And when facing death, remember that Christian hope rests on a risen person, not merely on the survival of an inspiring idea.

Consider your perspective

The risen Christ gives Christian hope an objective foundation beyond a mood or memory. His continuing mediation means believers approach God through a living Savior whose sacrifice does not need repeating.

Put it into practice

Bring a burden to God explicitly through Christ rather than waiting until you feel worthy. Encourage someone who is struggling by pointing to His resurrection and continuing care.

Reflect and respond

• What would be lost if resurrection were only a symbol?
• How does Christ’s permanent priesthood shape assurance?
• Whom can you encourage to hold fast this week?

Passages and further study

• Scripture: Luke 24:13-35. https://ebible.org/engwebp/LUK24.htm
• Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-22. https://ebible.org/engwebp/1CO15.htm
• Scripture: Hebrews 7:11-28. https://ebible.org/engwebp/HEB07.htm
• Scripture: Hebrews 10:19-39. https://ebible.org/engwebp/HEB10.htm
• Second London Baptist Confession (1677/1689), chapters 8, 31. Historical Reformed Baptist comparison; its first-day Sabbath teaching in 22.7-8 is not adopted here. Original text: https://1689confession.app/
• WEB text and public-domain notice: https://ebible.org/details.php?id=engwebp.

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.