Most of us are familiar enough with these words from the marriage service: “Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder.” The same principle also applies to many other things, where we may be tempted to separate what God has put together. It applies, for example, to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now, there is good reason to consider each of these in detail on its own – as long as we do not think either can stand on its own. So, if Christ has not been raised, we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17) and the resurrection is not a resurrection at all without the death that preceded it.
One way in which the death and resurrection are tied together is that they provide contrasting verdicts on Jesus: mankind’s verdict and God’s verdict. So, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter spoke these challenging words: “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). There can be no more emphatic way to denounce, reject and condemn a man than to have him put to death. That is what the Jewish leaders, with the help of the Roman authorities, conspired to do. At the same time, there is no more emphatic way for God to exalt, vindicate and glorify this same man than to raise him from the dead. It is God’s way of saying, “You were wrong about Jesus, you know. In fact, you could not have been more wrong.” The truly amazing thing is that God is only too willing to forgive those who have got Jesus wrong.