Hymn Themes: Resurrection

So many hymns touch on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but few are wholly focused on it. The resurrection is at the very core of the Christian faith. It comes at the end of the gospels, but the book of Acts, and what follows, touches on it again and again.

Somone once asked me what’s the difference between the resurrection of Lazarus and that of Jesus. I foolishly answered that the resurrection of Jesus was more impressive because Jesus raised himself from the dead. But that’s not the key difference. Lazarus came back to life, but he was still subject to the trials of living in the world, getting ill again and dying again. That wasn’t the case with Jesus. Jesus rose, never to die again. And his resurrection is what will happen to all those who repent and trust in him. Back when I was 12, I remember learning these sung lines from the Mass.

Lord by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world.

Scripture teaches that in the age to come, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, where God will dwell with humankind and where everything will be perfect.

2 Peter 3:10-13
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. ¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹² as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³ But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

The new birth and the presence of the Holy Spirit gives us a slight foretaste of all this. But the resurrection of Jesus makes it all more tangible. Where he goes, we will follow.

The resurrection proves that Jesus really is who he claims to be. When Paul spoke to the philosophers at Athens, he said:

Acts 17:31
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

If I gave a prophecy that a well-known pop star will die next year, and it actually happened, would you be impressed? Probably not 😀. Isn’t it a bit vague? And why wouldn’t it happen anyway?

But Jesus gave a very specific prophecy when he said that he would die and rise again in three days. He said it several times. And he did rise. The apostles had the joy of knowing that everything else he said must be true and that when he paid the price of sin, it really was paid.

Many religions come about through merging various superstitions. In some cases, someone might simply be an impressive leader or teacher. In other cases, someone might claim to have had a special revelation or dream or say that an angel appeared to them. You pretty much need to just take their word for it. And such religions can and do spread.

However, what impresses me about Jesus, is that the miracles that he performed happened in the public arena. If any of it wasn’t true, it would have been easy to refute it at the time. Not everyone saw the risen Christ, but the tomb was empty and there were hundreds of witnesses. The apostle Paul wrote about this to the church at Corinth. Some Greek thinking was drifting in, where people didn’t warm to the idea of a future physical resurrection. Paul replied by making reference to the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ:

1 Cor 15:3-8
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

The resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit gave the early church the momentum to get off the ground. So much so, that eventually, the whole empire was transformed. If the resurrection never happened, the disciples could have just carried on believing the teachings of Jesus. They might have just formed another little Jewish sect. But the resurrection made all the difference. And they did preach it because it did happen.

Growing up as a Catholic, I never made much of the resurrection. I just assumed Christianity is true anyway. What difference would it have made if Jesus had simply gone back to heaven without rising. And I wasn’t keen on getting a new body when I died. I was happy to exist in a different form. But much of that thinking isn’t really biblical. It’s stems from ancient Greek or Eastern thought. By contrast, the bible teaches that God created a physical world, with physical beings, and one day there will be a new physical creation. Our bodies won’t be subject to the aches and pains and decay that we see today. Things will be very different.

“The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that one day everything sad will come untrue.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

We need to get back and put ourselves in the shoes of these early disciples, who were in a state of despair and were utterly transformeed when they met the risen Christ.

Anyway, here are my 10 favourite resurrection hymns:

1. Thine be the glory

Thine be the glory,
Risen conquering Son;
Endless is the victory
Thou o'er death has won;

2. Because he lives

An empty grave is there to prove my Saviour lives.......
Because he lives,
I can face tomorrow,
Because he lives,
All fear is gone

3. Christ the Lord is risen today

Death in vain, forbids him rise, 
Alleluia,
Christ has opened Paradise
Alleluia

4. Up from the grave he arose

Up from the grave He arose
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes
He arose a Victor from the dark domain
And He lives forever with His saints to reign

5. Led like a lamb to the slaughter

You’re alive, You’re alive,
You have risen, Alleluia!
And the power and the glory is given,
Alleluia, Jesus, to You.

6. I serve a risen Saviour

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.

7. O praise the name (Anastasis)

Then on the third at break of dawn,
The Son of heaven rose again.
O trampled death where is your sting?
The angels roar for Christ the King

8. See what a morning

And we are raised with Him
Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered
And we shall reign with Him
For He lives, Christ is risen from the dead

9. Christ is risen

Now the fear of death is broken,
love has won the crown:
prisoners of the darkness-listen,
walls are tumbling down!

10. In Christ Alone

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

The web is full of debates about the resurrection. As you can imagine, if you have no appetite to believe in Jesus, you can find arguments against the resurrection. But if you approach it with an open mind, the arguments for the resurrection are quite impressive. In recent years, one of the most scholarly advocates for the resurrection is former Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright.

He has three books on the resurrection, a long hard one, a short easy one, and a free one 😀:

• The Resurrection of the Son of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God: Volume 3
• Surprised by Hope
• Resurrection and Renewal of Creation

I also find Wayne Grudem helpful on the significance of the resurrection. He covers it in the following lectures:

• Chapter 28: Doctrine of the Resurrection – (Pt. 1 of 2) – Dr. Wayne Grudem
• Chapter 28: Doctrine of the Resurrection – (Pt. 2 of 2) – Dr. Wayne Grudem