Christ’s Resurrection & Redemption

In his A History of the Work of Redemption Jonathan Edwards sets out the boundaries of the purchasing work itself. It ends with the resurrection, because ‘Christ’s resurrection is the day when Christ finished the work of our redemption’. So often we have a thin view of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, finding perhaps two points of significance: it is an apologetic proof and it is the basis of a future hope. The Reformed tradition found in the Scriptures much more to say about the resurrection as redemption. Here is Thomas Boston speaking about Christ crucified and risen in his A View of the Covenant of Grace: ‘He was indeed without sin inherent in him; but not without sin imputed to him, till in his resurrection he got up his discharge, having cleared the debt by his death and suffering. Then was he justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16, and so shall appear the second time, without sin, Heb. ix. 28; the sin which was upon him, by implication, the first time he appeared, being done away at his resurrection.’ This anticipates the theme of Christ’s resurrection as his – and therefore our (Rom. 4:25) – justification, so wonderfully unpacked by Richard B. Gaffin in his book Resurrection and Redemption.