ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CUENet AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION DOGMATICS 2 LESSON 36 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> How do you understand the resurrection of Christ? What is its importance and was it absolutely necessary? Could we have Christianity without the resurrection? I certainly remember what Paul has to say about this in I Corinthians. But I would really like to hear you expand upon it. To me it seems to be of vital importance that every Christian fully understand Christ's resurrection. >> DR. DAVID SCAER: This question about whether the resurrection was necessary and absolutely necessary has to be understood over against the idea that the cross was the all consuming moment. In a certain sense, it was. But in another sense, the resurrection -- Christianity is not complete without the resurrection. Let me just give you an illustration that I have frequently heard. That the real event was the crucifixion. And that's when God signed the contract. And the resurrection was merely his approval. And some scholars have come to the conclusion that the resurrection was simply an add on. That everything was completed in the cross. And this comes up in preaching. This is not so. Well, I'll make a brief reference to what St. Paul says in I Corinthians. There he says that if there is no resurrection, then Christ is not raised and that you are dead in your sin. So we have a Bible passage to show it. But let's look at it from a different side. Death is the signal of God's defeat. Wherever sin and death and sickness and sorrow exist, God is not in control completely. Satan is still exercising his authority. If Jesus had remained in the grave, Satan would have won the battle. There would have been no proclamation of God's victory. I think of the hymn written by the first president of the Missouri Synod CFW Walther. He said, "When Christ lay in the grave the foes in hell cheered and shouted." That's right. "Keep the body of Jesus in the grave." Because death is brought by Satan. And it's the sign that God is defeated. If God is defeated, then Satan is the true God. Well, let's look at the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, consider that prayer. In heaven God's will is done. His kingdom is come. His name is hallowed. But not on earth. Only with the resurrection is the name of God hallowed on earth. And therefore, it is an absolute necessity. Jesus never speaks of his death without speaking of his resurrection. They are two sides of the same reality. These are not two different things. The crucifixion of Jesus points forward to the resurrection. And the resurrection points back to the crucifixion. When the women come to the tomb, the angel doesn't say, "Isn't it great? Jesus proves he's the Son of God and enters into his glory." The angel doesn't say that. The angel says, "You seek Jesus, the crucified one." In his exaltation, in his resurrection, he remains the crucified one. This has to be made absolutely clear. Now, of course as a pastor you're going to have this particular problem: Maybe scholars -- maybe many scholars do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. But with the people in our congregations, they are very happy to celebrate the resurrection even if we don't fully comprehend it. And we can prove it. Because they are in church on Easter when they are not in church during Ash Wednesday, Lent and Good Friday. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***