What Is The Main Point of the Resurrection?

Reflect on these words about the resurrection of King Jesus —

From Paul, the apostle of Jesus

…concerning his Son, Jesus the Messiah our King, who was a descendant of David, according to the flesh and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles,… (Romans 1:3-5)

From N.T. Wright, a follower of Jesus

Jesus is indeed King.

This is the main point of his resurrection, as the early formula in Romans 1:3–5 makes clear: the resurrection demonstrates that he always was the ‘son of God’, and has now been powerfully and publicly declared to be Israel’s Messiah, the world’s true king.

The resurrection isn’t about ‘proving that there’s a life after death’ or ‘showing that God still loves us’ or any such thing. Those are true but, by comparison with the reality, they are trivial. Indeed, such interpretations can be, sadly, ways by which Christians have avoided the much sharper implications of the resurrection.

The risen Jesus ‘was taken up into heaven, and sat down at God’s right hand’. The way this reads, it almost sounds like a physical description; but whoever wrote this passage was far more in tune with the key biblical texts than we are, and in this case we are surely meant to pick up the echoes of Jesus’ answer to Caiaphas in 14:62. The ‘son of man’ has indeed ‘come with the clouds of heaven’ and is now ‘sitting at the right hand of Power’, as in Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 110:1.

And just what is this power for? What is the church, the messengers of the Messiah, to do in response?

[Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will accompany those who believe:
In my name they will drive out demons;
they will speak in new tongues;
they will pick up snakes;
if they should drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

So King Jesus, after speaking to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the accompanying signs. (Mark 16:15-20)