Christ: The Source of Life, Died and Resurrected

Reformed Evangelical Church Indonesia / Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia

Event: SPIK (Seminar Pembinaan Iman Kristen)
Topic: Christ: The Source of Life, Died and Resurrected / Kristus: Penghulu Hidup, Mati dan Bangkit
Speaker: Rev. Billy Kristanto

Good morning, brothers and sisters, I will use the help of slide presentation to help us follow this session. Let us enter into prayer:

LORD, we give thanks, for in You we gain the true meaning of our life, we can live our days, even we could tread our days since we were born, for You were too born in this world. As we grow to be more mature, we also witness You growing. In this world, we learn as You also learn. We learn to obey God as You are also learning to obey the Father. When we see that one day we are going to die, we see that You have also died on the cross for us. Thank you, LORD, for Your presence in all aspects of our lives, that we may believe, consoled, and understand what it means to be in union with You. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

The church father, Irenaeus, said that Jesus went through all stages of human life when He came into this world. This is an interesting view because when comparing this to the Reformed or Protestant soteriology, we emphasize the aspect of substitution. I do not mean to compare here, but to enrich our understanding. But in such concept, in the Christology as taught by Irenaeus, what is discussed here is not merely on death, lived side by side with us ever since Christ’s birth. We are born, Jesus was born, we grow and so is Jesus, et cetera. Until at one point, we die as human and Jesus too died on the cross. There is not a single aspect in our life which God is not present. There is none. You may say, “I think there is. I got married and Jesus is not married. Jesus does not understand the difficulties of marriage.” People say this about marriage: Those who are in the outside wish to enter, but those who are in the inside wish to escape. We then claim that Jesus does not understand the difficulties of marriage. But according to the Scripture, Jesus was married. Jesus was written as the Groom and we are His brides. And Jesus’ wives, who are the congregation, are more obnoxious and problematic than any wives on earth there is. So Jesus understands the difficulties of marriage.

And lastly, we experience death and Jesus did too. Woe are they who in death are not accompanied by God. What are they comforted with? Pastor Stephen Tong once preached about a father and his son who are both atheists. When the father was about to face death, he was shaken as he fears the possibility of atheism is wrong. The son then reminded his father, “Dad, we have long believed in atheism. We have to be strong in our faith and hold on to atheism.” Then the father said, “Holding on to what? What is there to hold on to? There is only nothingness and emptiness, we cannot hold on to anything.” Not only did he not have anything to hold on to, but nobody was holding him. In our lives, there are times when we cannot hold on to God, yet we are still thankful that God is still holding us. But woe are they who do not know God in their lives. There is no God in their birth, there is no God in their growth, there is no God in their adulthood, there is no God in their marriage, and later, in their death, God is not present too. So, Christ’s death accompanies man’s life, as so in His birth, growth, obedience and so on. All these accompany our lives. I do not use the term accompany in an easy manner, I do not mean merely as an accompaniment. I am speaking of a spiritual union with God. Not only a mere accompaniment but a communion with the Living God. We could actually reverse this: Christ died accompanying our death, but even in our death, we could understand Christ’s death even more. Do you understand this reversal movement? We die because of our sins, Jesus died accompanying us. But it is in our death we could accompany Jesus in terms of gaining a better understanding of Him.

Louis Berkhof asked a very interesting question in his book, Systematic Theology, I do not know if you have thought about this or not, he asked this, “It is said that God died for us, He was crucified to redeem our sins, but why is it that believers must still experience death in their lives?” Have you ever thought about this? Jesus died for us as a substitute for our sins, and He has accomplished all that, our salvation is fully in Christ, so why then do we die? The Scripture says that death happens because the wage of sin is death. Now our sins have been borne by Christ, so why do we still die? Don’t Christians die at one point in our lives?  Why is there still death? Then Berkhof stated his reasonings in points: First, second, third and so on. Through his reasonings, he stated that death could be an instrument for good. Reading Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, Paul said “[…] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Our death is good as it is, brothers. We could view this from this perspective: In death or suffering that is according to the LORD’s will, we could grow to know God better. After we are saved, God does not eliminate death. Death is still present, because it is through death we could have a union with Christ. Death is an instrument in our lives to know Christ better. It was mentioned in the previous sessions that there is no one that has ever died and resurrect again like Christ to inform us how death is like. So, all these are speculative, but we do not have to tell fantasy stories about heaven and hell that are not in accordance to the Scripture, but we will eventually experience death ourselves and gain a new perspective and understanding of Christ that is still incomplete at present. Our understanding will be perfected when we die. Therefore, death is an instrument for us to better understand Christ, to better understand the LORD. If in death only people could come to know God better, let alone through life. But before I go there, I still want to talk more about the cross, about death.

This month, the month of March, exactly 500 years ago, Luther went to Heidelberg, not because there is the oldest university in Heidelberg, but because there stands Augustine’s monastery that is very significant. Luther was of the Augustinian Order, and there, he stated a thesis, so-called Disputatio Heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Disputation). He proposed a theology, hoping that fellow Augustinian monks were persuaded by what he preached. This disputation in the year of 1518 became very well-known, which in terms of content is more significant than the 95 theses, which we celebrate last year (which was the 500^th year since 1518). The so-called theologia crucis or the theology of the cross: What was Luther’s understanding of the theology of the cross? I will read a quote, “As the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 1:21 (so this is from Paul), “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in His glory and majesty, unless he recognizes Him in the humility and shame of the cross. Thus, God destroys the wisdom of the wise, as Isaiah 45:15 says, “Truly Thou art a God who hidest Thyself.” (Luther, Heidelberg Disputation). What is the point here? Many wish to know God from the perspective of glory and majesty. But unfortunately, when speaking of glory and majesty (of majestas) what it truly means is worldly glory. The picture of worldly glory is a high and elitist picture. Luther claimed that it is not the theology of the cross, but the theology of glory. I apologize beforehand that I’m going to use the following analogy: A few months ago, we were surprised by the news of Ahok’s problematic marriage. There are some who refuse to accept this fact. Initially people said that the news must be a hoax or just another slander. We simply cannot accept the picture. We say these things not without grief, for this is our shared struggle. But I have set a reminder long before this, “Be careful in introducing Christ’s glory through the glory of this world.” Go ahead and see which officers or politicians are corruption free, aren’t they Christians? Go ahead and see who are the most intelligent, aren’t they Christians? Go ahead and see who are the most honest, aren’t they Christians? Be careful with these statements, brothers. Go ahead and see which families are most harmonies, aren’t they of Christian families? This is not the gospel that we believe in. The gospel that we believe in does not teach us that Jesus died for the harmonious families, the gospel that we believe in does not say Jesus died for the righteous. That is not the gospel that we believe in. The gospel that we believe in that Jesus died also for families which are not harmonious, Jesus also died for them, Jesus died for the dishonest, like you and I, Jesus died for the unrighteous. This is the gospel that we believe in. But there are some others who introduce the gospel with another way, with worldly glory. Go ahead and see the most intelligent, talented, greatest, aren’t they all Christians? Who are the contributors, aren’t they Christians? Be careful, brothers. If Jesus came in this way, He would not be born in Bethlehem, He would be born in Caesar’s palace and might as well be the Caesar Himself. This is a version of the theology of glory according to Luther. But let’s look here, why did He die on the cross? “In the shame and humility of the cross”, the cross is a symbol of shame, humiliation, defeat and failure. Everything collapsed until all His disciples left Him to return to become fishermen again. We thought we followed a visionary, but everything turns out to be like this. Everything is in vain! It is true, brothers, when we look at God’s wisdom according to the world, 1 Corinthians 1 said that it is folly. How could people believe God becoming a man, how folly! Who said this? Not the unbelievers, but the Scripture! The world will say that this picture does not bring interest to the world at all, because they have their own concept of glory. They know what glory is, they build their own concept of glory. In the previous session it was mentioned that people like to project their view on Jesus and on God. They build their own concept of glory, which at the end turns out to be worldly glory, a picture of worldly glory. Then we see the cross with a picture of a weak, vulnerable, tortured, helpless man worshiped by Christians, how stupid are Christians? Who says this? 1 Corinthians says so. It is said in 1 Corinthians that this is folly to the world. The world seeks their own wisdom, but Luther said the glory of the cross is hidden and unseen. Unless the Holy Spirit opens that man’s eyes, it is then the man could witness the glory of the cross.

So, we cannot talk about death without talking about life and we cannot talk about life without talking about death. Only the dead could resurrect, because those who are not dead could not be resurrected. This is the story of Christianity: how we walk in the humility and shame of the cross. What is the most blessed church in the world? Surely not a church which congregation are great and rich people. I’m interested in a commentary that says, “Try to check what kind of people are there in your church. If you find your church’s congregation to be great people only, who are the elitists, then something is very wrong with your church.” I was surprised by this sentence. What is wrong if all my congregation are intelligent and economically successful? The commentary proved me wrong. Try reading the book of Corinthians. Paul said that not many of you were wise, but God chose the humble to shame those who are strong in this world. That is the theology of the cross. The marginal and exiles, those who are not respectable in this world, those who are nothing, those whom the world are uninterested to honor. God built a new community, a new creation, out of these people. God is not discriminative towards the rich. Paul said there is, but not too many. If there is any, they are the rich people who are like Zacchaeus who did not lean on his wealth, who knew that wealth could not help him out. Coming back to this, when we are talking about the death of Christ, we are talking about the true hidden glory.

Now we are talking about resurrection. “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”, Jesus said. The I AM here, is one of the seven great IAM’s. We have discussed about this in the past SPIK that this resolves the problem of losing (something or someone), relationship and death. The problem of losing and relationship are both death. Death does not necessarily have to be our personal death, but could also be the death of others or our beloved. When we talk about death, an individualistic would think about his own death. This person is a narcissistic. Death could happen to others too, not necessarily to us. Then, we would lose them and we feel absence. Paradoxically, absence is very much present. The presence of absence. If absence itself is absent, we would not feel it, but when absence is present, the absence reminds us that something is absent. This is an unresolved problem in man’s life, except for Jesus who said, “I AM the Resurrection and the life.” Not only the problem of death, but also in relationship and in losing. When you read in the book of John, in John 11, Jesus said that Lazarus is not dead, but asleep, he will be resurrected. Then you read Martha’s response, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” This is a general hope of resurrection. What was being shared in Judaism at that time was the belief in the resurrection of the dead and that there is life after death. Yes, Lazarus will be resurrected after everything has been accomplished, and God will end all things on earth, then there will be resurrection of the dead. We do believe in the resurrection after death, not that we do not believe. But this picture is not enough, because Martha’s response was a general idea of the hope of resurrection. Jesus then answered, “I AM the resurrection and the life.” Pay attention to this sentence. General hope of resurrection will happen later, but Jesus said, “I AM.” It is difficult to interpret this phrase in Indonesian. In Greek, it is ego eimi. We agree with many commentators who said that this points to the Pentateuch tradition. Ego eimi, I AM THAT I AM. When Jesus introduced Himself as I AM, the Jews understood, because of this background. Be careful, because this Man speaks as used by Yahweh, by God. But He used this term I AM, who does He think He is? But if you read I AM here in light of Martha’s hope, Jesus did not say, “I will be the Resurrection, but I AM the Resurrection.” And therefore, Lazarus was resurrected on that very day. We then read this passage and enter an unfruitful discussion. After Lazarus was resurrected, would he die again? How should we interpret this then? This is an irrelevant question. The point is not whether Lazarus will die again after he was resurrected. The point is that Lazarus’ death, according to the picture of general hope of resurrection, is supposed to happen at the end of time, yet it happens here and now. Pay attention here. Jesus said, “I AM the Resurrection and the life.” If Lazarus is to be resurrected later, then it would be obvious to everybody. But He said, “I AM the Resurrection”, and not “I will be”. But “I AM”, right now, Lazarus will be resurrected, because Jesus is “I AM” and not merely “I will be”. If you read in the typical Johannine theological profile, God is not limited by past, present, future. God is always IS, He is not was, nor will be. He is always at present, always IS. And time is the one that beholds God. God is not reduced by time, but time must be accounted for God. Because God is also God over time. This is typical in the Johannine theological profile. So, when you read this passage, you will find a wrong timing, why did Lazarus resurrect at the wrong time? Shouldn’t he be resurrected at the end of time when everybody will be resurrected? Why did he resurrect at the present? This is not only written in the book of John. In the book of Matthew, you read that there were saints resurrected as Jesus was resurrected. Again, there was a mistiming. Why did this happen? Why shouldn’t they wait until the end of time to be resurrected? Because Jesus IS the Resurrection Himself. Jesus IS the Resurrection and the life. This is not a vague, abstract, platonic, philosophical idea of resurrection, but Jesus Himself IS the Resurrection and the life. When we talk about resurrection, we do not necessarily have to talk about life. But the question is when Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, though he dies (aurist), yet shall he live (that is when he believes).” What does it mean? What does it mean to live? The concept of death according to the Scripture primarily means depraved relation, not primarily physical and biological death. This is the problem of modern people. When they read the Bible, they said, “God said that Adam will surely die if he eats the fruit. Adam ate the fruit and he did not die, did he?” Then another person would answer, “Actually he did die. It’s like this: you remove an electricity cord from its source. Sometimes the electricity is still on, it is a matter of time until it dies out.” Alright, he explained a little. So, God removed your cord from Him and someday you will eventually die, through stroke or something else. But still, such explanation is still in physical and biological death. The Scripture when talking about death, primarily speaks about a disconnected and depraved relationship. I think we must review this concept. Earlier, Ivan talked about Christ’s fear and reverence in facing the cross, not because of death, but because of his disconnected relationship with the Father. The death of a relationship is truly death, because the relationship is depraved due to our salvation. So, when we talk about death in this concept, we need to understand that life is the restoration of relations. A leper could not have a relationship with others, so they are as good as dead, although they are physically and biologically still alive. Isn’t this true? Lepers in the time of Jesus were as good as dead. They had to resound, “Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!” so everyone could avoid them. In this way, they could no longer worship God and lack relationship with others. What’s worse, they had to resound to others that they were unclean so others would have no relationship with them, because they were unclean. People like these are as good as dead. But from a modern perspective, we may think, “No, they are not dead, they are still alive. They are still breathing; their hearts still beat and they are not brain-dead.” We have our own definitions of what death is. But when the Scripture talks about life and death, it is primarily about relationship. What does it mean when we talk about life and how Jesus has risen to give us life? It means restoration of relations. When Jesus said this statement, “Whoever believes in Me, though he dies, yet shall he live.” Since life is relational, we could slightly modify Anselm’s statement, to become not only “fides quaerens intellectum” (faith seeking intelligence), but also “fides quaerens relationes” (faith seeking relations). We cannot comprehend the picture of a modern man who claims that he is alive and yet lacks relationship. He is picky about to whom he would like to have a relationship with. He is possessed by like and dislike. He is very similar to the Pharisees in Jesus’ time who were also possessed by such thing. “I want to sit in one table with these people, but I cannot be in one table with those people, because they are not righteous like I am. Therefore, I cannot eat in one table with them.” But with whom did Jesus open a table fellowship then? With the prideful Pharisees. This is very interesting. Jesus also accepted the invitation of a boastful Pharisee, Simon. Simon was a very prideful Pharisee, but Jesus was willing to have a table fellowship with him. This reminds us of the story of the prodigal son. Do not forget. There is a beauty that we fail to observe when we read that passage. We often focus on the prodigal son. But when you read that story, the father went out to meet the eldest son. The youngest son was not fetched, he came back home on his own. The youngest son was aware that he has fallen far away from God and he must return. But as for the eldest son, his father must go out to fetch him in the field, in another place but home. So, his father must fetch him, because his fall was so deep, that God needs to do extra to fetch him. Yet the youngest son “returned on his own”, of course not without the grace of God. Let us return to our point, when we are talking about life, we talk about relation, restoration of relations. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This is the definition of eternal life, and not a matter of a long life in terms of duration or cease to die, this is transhumanism. If you have read about Emperor Qin Shi Huang, an early transhumanist, who desired to break through the limitation of death and to live a long life possible. So, he instructed the greatest doctor to search for the formula to live a long life or to live forever. So that the phrase “long live the emperor” would become a reality, instead of a mere slogan. Finally, the doctor came up with an incredibly fantastical idea, that is to drink mercury. Doctors back then resemble sorcerers. Due to his lack of knowledge, Qin Shi Huang did not live a longer life, but on the contrary, lived a shorter life, because his doctor “poisoned” him with mercury. Of course, the doctor did intend to poison him. Men’s dream to live forever or to live a long life is not substance according to the Scripture. The Scripture says that an eternal life is knowing God, according to Jesus. Knowing the true God and knowing Jesus Christ who was sent. So, what then is the meaning of life? That is to know the Trinitarian God. Knowing the Father who sent the Son, knowing Son who was sent by the Father. And those who know enabled to know by the Holy Spirit who leads them to. So, this is a discussion of the Trinity. We could know talk about Christology without talking about the Trinity, and we could not talk about the Trinity without talking about Christology, because they are related to each other. Jesus said that living is to know the true God and to know the Son whom the Father sent. Outside of this would only mean death, darkness, doom. The lack of knowledge of the Triune God means death according to Christ. I will end with the last slide. “Life begins here and now”.  We must appreciate this, as Lazarus was resurrected at the seemingly wrong time. It is true that we are waiting for the bodily resurrection at the end of the age. But life: we who have died spiritually would be resurrected so we may possess a new life, becoming a new creation, and this begins here and now. Why so? Because the knowledge of the Father and the Son also begins here and now, not at the end of the age. Here and now. So, know we are discussing about realized eschatology. There is a present eschatology and a future eschatology. In the Systematic of Reformed we call it already and not yet. Moving on. Genevan Catechism states that the chief end of human life is to know God by whom we were created. Without knowing God, we would fail to know the purpose of our life, our life is of without purpose. Without knowing God, we would fail to know the chief end of human life. Calvin wrote the Genevan Catechism. And his statements were inspiring as the Westminster Catechism, although there were minor modifications. But the first part was actually taken from Calvin.

Finally, what does it mean to believe in Christ as the One sent by the Father?

First, is to receive the words of Christ, which means that we acknowledge Christ’s prophetic office. Because Christ speaks out what He receives from His Father. They do not come out of His own mouth, but He is always in synchronization with what the Father says. This is what we refer to as a prophet. A false prophet’s words do not come from God, a true prophet speaks what he receives from God. In this world, there are true and false prophets. False prophets do not teach what comes from the Father, but their own teaching.
Second, Christ was sent by the Father. So alike, life means that we also must give ourselves to be sent. You brothers and I, if we consider ourselves Christians, we must give ourselves to be sent, which means that we possess a prophetic function. A blessed church is a church who is sent out, while a less blessed church focuses unendingly on internal matters. They are constantly focusing on internal matters that will never be resolved, and they are never sent out. Yet, a mature and blessed church works out their prophetic function, they are sent out. What does it mean? As Christians, when we speak, we must speak out what we receive and heard from God. In the Johannine language, it is speaking of the union of works. We have a spiritual union with the Father, with God, because we speak of the things God wants to speak. Union of words. The words that we speak reflect what God wants to speak.

Lastly, union of works. What is life? Life is saying the things God entrusted us to speak to the world. But life also means to do the works of God. There is a union when someone is a part of the LORD’s work. There is a union with the Father. This is a union that is within Christ and the Father. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” The Father and the Son are one and in a perfect union. But union is what understanding? According to John, the union of words (one in speech) and the union of works. We are thankful to know this principle because this part could be lived. We are not talking about the divinity of Christ, but not having access there, because it is not transferrable and not communicated to us. But the union of the Father and the Son according to the Johannine context is the union of words and the union of works. So you brothers and I who have been resurrected from our spiritual death, we are invited to enter into this life: we speak God’s speech, we do the LORD’s works. With this, we will know what it means to live in Christ, that is shared with us. The union with God the Father. May the LORD bless us all. Let us enter into prayer.

LORD, we give thanks to you for Your union with the Father, though it is exclusive, yet a union that is opened for us pathetic and wretched men. But You have invited us to be a part of Your life. We are thankful that we who are already dead could be resurrected again in You, that we have found the meaning of our restored relation with You and with others. Teach us, LORD to appreciate the life that you have gifted us and to not waste our lives. We know that there are still those who disfavor to have a relationship with You, the same way we initially disfavored to have a relationship with You. And You have sent us like Christ, so we could be little mediators when we bridge those who disfavor a relationship with You, so we would bring them to have a relationship with You. And please keep our private lives, LORD so our relationship would not be depraved. Not only our relationship with the LORD, but also our relationship with others. So, we could enjoy a life full of reconciliation, both with You and with others. May the LORD bless us and Your church. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks. Amen.

By Rev. Billy Kristanto Ph.D., Th.D.
Sermon translated by Alicia Angie Wiranata

This sermon translation has not been revised by the preacher.

Alice