“In Christ’s resurrection the end-time resurrec­tion-harvest becomes visible, a visible reality.”

“In Paul there is no more important conclusion about the Christian life, nothing about its struc­ture that is more basic than this: the Christian life in its entirety is to be subsumed under the category of resurrection. Pointedly, the Christian life is resurrection-life.” (Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., By Faith, Not By Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation, pp. 60 and 68).

“Jesus says, ‘I lay down my life, in order that I may take it again’. Here we are apprised of a relationship that exists between His death and resurrection that too often escapes our attention. It is that the laying down of His life was to the end that He might take it again, that His death was to the end of His resur­rection. . . . The death of Christ is not an end in itself. It is subordinate to a great purpose that can be achieved only through resurrection.” (John Murray, “Who Raised Up Je­sus?” The Westmin­ster Theological Journal, May 1941, pp. 119-120).

From the Reflection for Trinity Presbyterian Church, OPC