Custom essays on THE RESURRECTION

According to our study of Corinthians, Jesus is the “fristfirstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As the second Adam, Jesus reversed the curse of death that was begun with the first Adam. As a result, one man Jesus Christ has restored life, countermanding the fact that Adam caused all to die.
As in Adam all die, so in Jesus Christ all those who are in Him shall live. “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23). We experience the resurrection of Christ when we are filled with the Holy Ghost, the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. It is a quickening Spirit – a life-giving Spirit that transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. (See Romans 8:11; I Corinthians 15:45.)
Paul taught that the seed sown would come up in a new form (Romans 6:4-5). In other words, we shall be raised to walk in the newness of life. One of the early church fathers, Justin wrote a work on the subject of the Resurrection. He argued for the resurrection of the fleshly body.
Jesus’ first appearance was to the women. He instructed them not to touch Him for He had not yet been glorified. Later, He challenged Thomas to thrust his hands into His side. Jesus could be felt. He could eat, and He could be seen by men. His body was essentially the same as it had been with one major exception: it was no longer mortal, but immortal. It was not an earthly, corruptible body but a new glorified, immortal body.
The dead in Christ will be raised from the tombs, but they will be raised incorruptible. They will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Meanwhile, we who are alive and remain will be changed to immortality (I Corinthians 15:53-55). We will only experience this miraculous change if by faith we have repented of our sins, been baptized in water in the name of Jesus, and have received the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ within. Only by the new birth will we be ready for the Rapture. No other event in our entire lifetime will compare with the joyous emotion that will accompany the resurrection of our bodies. We will have overcome the world, the flesh and the devil for the last time.
Paul constantly referred to his own turning, his own repentance as a model of what it meant to be called by a crucified God. His theology of salvation reaches a high point in Romans 6:1-11. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”. This is the personal counterpart of his theology of the church in Ephesians 4:5…one Lord, one faith and one baptism…”.
The power of the cross of Christ erupts into the world through baptism (1 Corinthians 1:17). Baptism is the power of the cross made actual among those who believe, the most immediate aspect of the gospel, which drives Paul to preach. Here is a way of being saved that is implacably paschal. And references to baptism are more allusive than descriptive. These authors assume the existence of baptism rather than report in detail how baptism practices are carried out. When they refer to baptism, their concern is more with the meaning than mode.
All of the gospels began with the figure of John the Baptizer, a shadowy prophetic figure in the wilderness. John does not preach in Jerusalem, at the center of power as the world judges power. He spreads his message from the wilderness. John’s message is simple: Get ready. Repent. To those who take comfort from their connectedness to the old order and the old power arrangements.
Jesus’ own baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River is the prototype of Christian practice. John’s emphasis is on prophetic expectations of divine cleaning to be consummated in the work of the promised Messiah. His baptism is one of repentance as preparation for Messianic work. The content of John’s baptism is based on costly preaching and witness. He demands conversion of life as a precondition for the new age and promises remission of sins.
John’s baptism is the prototype of Christian baptism because of what happened when it was applied to Jesus. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan, there was an event that at once consummated John’s baptism as obsolete. There was a divine act, a descending of the heavenly dove that manifested Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah of God. Jesus’ own baptism is both in contact with John’s baptism and yet some distance from it. In Jesus’ baptism, the redemptive act of God is set in motion and we see the particular way in which God intends to save in Jesus. Jesus says that he has “A baptism with which I must be baptized. (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50). Subsequent tradition (Romans 6) would look back on the event and its consequences and realize that Jesus demanded repentance not simply the cleansing of John the Baptist, but a going doen unto death as Jesus did. This was the moment of the church’s birth, the central metaphor of its life and the content of its mission (Matthew28:18-20).
In Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost, when once scoffing crowd is pricked to the heart and asks, “What must we do?” Peter’s response is simple. “Repent, believe and be baptized. This is how, according to Acts 2, a Pentecost God raises up children out of the stone in the river. Peter invites the multitude of:”Jews and devout people from every nation under heaven” to come forward for a baptism of repentance. “In the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”, with the promise that they would receive “the gift of the Holy Ghost”.
The goal of such repentance and Spirit giving is the birth of a new people. All birth is a gift, but no gift, particularly that wrought by the Spirit is without some pain. When Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night (John 3:1-15). The Greek word here is anothen, which can mean “ from the top to bottom (as when the veil of the temple is torn “from top to bottom”, (Matthew 27:51). When Nicodemus misunderstands, thinking that Jesus has asked him to be born a second tine time (“How can anyone be born after having grown old?” John 3:4). Jesus tells him that to enter God’s kingdom, one must be “born of the water and Spirit” (John 3:5).

A BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE
John’s baptism had several objectives:
1. To preach on the approximation of the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 3:1-2, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The kingdom of heaven was at hand in the person of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist in the Bible was called the forerunner of the Lord. Thus, the mission of John the Baptist, first, was the proclamation of the approximation of the Lord and His kingdom.
2. To call people to repentance. The mission of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Lord was also to prepare people’s hearts for the coming of the Lord and His kingdom.
The prophecy of Isaiah told of John the Baptist and his mission: Luke 3:4-6 “As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” The same is said in the book of Isaiah 40:3-5.
This passage means that salvation of God can behold the one who acknowledged himself a sinner, confessed his sins to God and rejected his former sinful life. That is why John’s baptism of water is inextricably linked with the repentance: Mark 1:4-5 “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”, Matthew 3:6 “And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”; Luke 3:3 “And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Luke 3:8 “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”
3. To reveal Christ Jesus to Israel. John the Baptist knew and realized that he was the forerunner of the Messiah. Here’s what John said about Jesus: Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
The third objective of John’s baptism was to reveal Christ to Israel. This is what John the Baptist said: John 1:31, 33-34 “I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel… I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
The baptism of repentance carried out by John the Baptist reveals the meaning of God as the destruction of evil and sin and salvation of man from them; it is the requirement of God to people: to give up their sins and repent of them and thus be ready to meet the Savior promised by God. The baptism of repentance carried the healing influence of God on sin infected human souls.
Baptism is the next step after repentance and confession of sins. Water baptism, prayer, Bible reading, good deeds, and dialogue with brothers and sisters in Christ, testimony to unbelievers about Jesus, etc., are all the result of our obedience to God and faith in Jesus Christ.