Space, Time and Resurrection (T&T Clark Cornerstones)

by Thomas F. Torrance

The resurrection takes place in space and time, in physical and historical existence; yet the teaching of the New Testament indicates that it is 'not merely a great event upon the plane of history, but an act that breaks into history with the powers of another world. It is akin to the creation in the beginning; and the Gospel is the good news that God is creating a new world'.

abruptly divine act within history, a decisive deed completely setting at nought all cyclic processes, putting an end to the futility to which they are shut up but opening and straightening them out in a movement toward consummation. Such a resurrection of the incarnate Word of God within the creation of time and space which came into being through him is inevitably an event of cosmic and unbelievable magnitude. So far as the temporal dimension of creation is concerned, it means that the transformation of all things at the end of time is already impinging upon history, and indeed that the consummation of history has already been inaugurated. And so far as the spatial dimension of creation is concerned, it means that the new creation has already set in, so that all things visible and invisible are even now in the grip of the final recreation of the universe. The resurrection of Jesus heralds an entirely new age in which a universal resurrection or transformation of heaven and earth will take place, or rather has already begun to take place, for with the resurrection of Jesus that new world has already broken into the midst of the old.

Jesus himself, the relation of the world to God has been drastically altered, for everything has been placed on an entirely new basis, the unconditional grace of God.

The general resurrection is absolutely dependent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ himself, for it is in his death and resurrection that God has dealt with death and guilt and hell once and for all. He was put to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. In the resurrection of Jesus an objective and vicarious act has been carried out in our human nature in which we are already implicated. The saving power of the resurrection is applied to us through the preaching of the Gospel.

He died and rose again in such a way as never to die again, for his resurrection involved a radical change, not only in a triumph over death and corruption but in a transforming recreation of the humanity which he had assumed from Mary in his incarnation.

The risen Jesus was the same as he who was born of Mary and crucified under Pontius Pilate, yet he was not the same, for with his resurrection from the grave something had taken place akin to the original creation, and indeed transcending it. It was not just a miracle within the creation, but a deed so decisively new that it affected the whole of creation and the whole of the future. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has creative and constitutive character, and as such cannot but transform our understanding of the whole relation of God to the universe of things visible and invisible, present and future. If the distinctive language used of the resurrection of Jesus is also used to speak of other incidents or events, it is only because the resurrection has so transformed the whole picture that they have to be seen as falling within the field of its impact.

Our resurrection has already taken place and is fully tied up with the resurrection of Christ, and therefore proceeds from it more by way of manifestation of what has already taken place, than as new effect resulting from it. That is why the New Testament speaks so astonishingly of our having already tasted the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5), for in Christ we are already living 'in the end time'. Through Christ the very fullness (plērōma) of God, which resides in him, already overflows to us (Col. 2: 9–10).

It is not something that can be disclosed through extraneous means, or be apprehended except by participating in it and dwelling in it, i.e. from within its reality.

This means that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus will look very different for those who make themselves dwell in it and learn to understand what it is by participating within the circle of knowing which it sets up, and can only appear in a distorted and mutilated way to those who are not prepared to listen in to its message or to allow themselves to fall under its transforming impact. That does not mean, of course, that the evidence for the resurrection is only the evidence of 'belief', but that it is only the believer who is in a position properly to weigh up the evidence and exercise his critical capacities in a way appropriate to that into which he inquires.

resurrection of Jesus Christ did not take place for himself alone, but for us whom he had assumed into a unity of nature with himself, so that in a profound sense we have already been raised up before God in him: to what has objectively taken place in him there is a corresponding subjective counterpart in us which as such belongs to the whole integrated reality of the resurrection event.

If, however, the message of the resurrection is interpreted within the non-dualist frame of reference deriving from Israel, then it has seismic repercussions.

That Jesus the crucified, now proclaimed to be risen from the dead, should grant forgiveness of sins and judge the quick and the dead, and thus share the ultimate prerogatives of God Almighty, that he the Son of Man should be standing on the right hand of God (Acts 7: 55f.), was the great stone of stumbling, which gave such offence to recalcitrant Judaism, for it was unwilling to go forward with the Christian Church in accepting the full implication of the resurrection of Christ.

the resurrection of Jesus Christ in Body, and with it a new understanding of the living God whose very being and life are accessible to human knowing and participating.22

regarded as the entry of the Mediator into a situation where the communion between God and man is broken and distorted, where the divisiveness of sin and guilt has affected the very fabric of human existence.

Hence the union effected in the incarnate Person of the Son inevitably came under attack and strain. The forces of evil thrust against that union, seeking to break it, to divide the human life of the Son on earth from the life of the Father above, to divide the divine and human natures in Christ himself. However, by living the life which Jesus Christ lived in our midst, the life of complete obedience to the Father and of perfect communion with him, the life of absolute holiness in the midst of our sin and corruption, and by living it through the whole course of our human existence from birth to death, he achieved within our creaturely being the very union between God and man that constitutes the heart of atonement, effecting man's salvation and restoration to communion with God the Father.

Thus we are not to think of the humiliation and exaltation of Christ simply as two events following one after the other, but as both involved in appropriate measure at the same time all through the incarnate life of Christ. The immersion of Christ the eternal Word into our mortal existence is itsel...

The coming of the Son of God into our lost and alienated being constitutes Immanuel, God with us, but if God is with us in Christ then in him we are with God. We with God is thus the obverse of God with us. The exaltation of man is the obverse of the humiliation of the Son of God. It is in this light that we must think of the mutual involution of mortality and immortality, death and life, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. Seen in this way the resurrection is not to be understood merely as something that follows upon the crucifixion but as the other side of it – that is why we really discern the act of God in the c...

As a matter of fact the New Testament nowhere presents us with a bare crucifixion, but only with the crucifixion as seen and reported from the perspective of the resurrection where its real secret or significance was disclosed.2 As Hilary pointed out in the fourth century, it was only in the ...

Jesus Christ was regarded as constituting in himself the great Passover from death to life, from man-in-death to man-in-the-life-of-God, from damnation to salvation, from destruction to new creation. But

In him our human life is carried across the chasm of death and judgment into union with the divine life, so that it is through our sharing in his humanity in death and resurrection that we participate in all the fruits of his atoning work.

From God's side the crucifixion is his righteous condemnation of our sin, but from man's side it is Christ's high priestly Amen to the Father's judgment. But in the resurrection we have the same whole event, not only as God's judgment but as his positive satisfaction in the obedient self-sacrifice of his Son. And here the resurrection is the Father's Amen to Christ's high priestly self-offering in obedience and sacrifice for sin. If the Cross is God's No against us in judgment on our sin which Christ endured for our sakes – 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' – the resurrection is God's Yes to us in his affirmation of Jesus as Son of Man and all that he has done for us in our nature and on our behalf. Hence in the resurrection of Jesus the passion is seen as the same event from God's side.

The atoning sacrifice offered in the life and death of Christ is here acknowledged and affirmed by God; the act of the Son is manifested to be the act of God himself. In Pauline language, Christ was raised for our justification. Satisfaction is not the divine satisfaction in death, as compensation for violated law, nor only the satisfaction in the fulfilment of divine righteousness, but satisfaction of the Father in the Son who has fulfilled the Father's good pleasure in making righteous atonement.

Thus in the resurrection the Father owns Christ as his Son, which has the effect not only of confirming all that Jesus had taught and done, and indeed had claimed, up to the crucifixion, but of acknowledging that his activity in life and death was his very own.

Thus by entering into our death as the Holy One of God he robbed it of its sting, and stripped away its power as he accepted the divine judgment in the expiatory sacrifice of his own life, and thus triumphed over the forces of guilt and evil which had made death the last stronghold of their grip over man.

Thereby Jesus also denied to death any natural right over man

Death is no more proper to human nature than sin is. Man is made for God, and God is life: therefore death is unnatural.

As St. Paul says, the identical power God exerted in taking Christ out of the grave is available now to help Christians live (Eph. 1: 19–20). It is thus out of the fullness of Christ that we may all live.

Resurrection is atonement in its creative and positive result and achievement, in the recreation and final affirmation of man and the assuming of him by grace into union and communion with the life and love of God himself.