The Resurrection: The Breaking in of the New Aeon

“It is...of the greatest importance to see the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, which
are the center of Paul’s proclamation, as an inseparable unity; and particularly to keep in view
how the significance of Christ’s resurrection is determined by that of his death and vice versa. On
the one hand the eschatological significance Paul ascribes to Christ’s resurrection is not that of a
general belief in redemption or immortality that may be said to have found its firm basis in
Christ’s resurrection. The eschatological significance of Christ’s resurrection is determined by the
special character of his death... For Paul Christ’s death is determined primarily by its connection
with the power and guilt of sin. It is characteristic of this emphasis that again and again he relates
Christ’s death to the cross and can therefore qualify the whole of his gospel as ‘the word of he
cross’ (1 Corthinians 1:17-16; cf. Galatians 3:1)...It is this special death of Christ, qualified by the
cross, which further determines the significance of Christ’s resurrection and the new life that has
come to light with it, in its forensic, ethical, and cosmic aspects...

“On the other hand, it is to be maintained no less vigorously that in Paul’s proclamation the
resurrection of Christ in fact means the breakthrough of the new aeon in the real, redemptive-
historical sense of the word, and therefore cannot be understood only in forensic, ethical, or
existential categories...Because Jesus was the Christ, his resurrection is not, as previous raisings of
the dead, an isolated occurrence, but in it the time of salvation promised in him, the new creation,
dawns in an overwhelming manner, as a decisive transition from the old to the new world (2
Corinthians 5:17; cf. v. 15). It is in this light too, that those passages are to be understood where
Paul calls Christ the Firstborn, the Firstfruits, the Beginning:

...that he might be the Firstborn (protokos) among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
...but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the Firstfruits (aparche) of those who have fallen
asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20).
...who is the Beginning (arche), the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be the First
(Colossians 1:18).

...we can say...that Paul’s kerygma of the great time of salvation that has dawned in Christ is
above all determined by Christ’s death and resurrection. It is in them that the present aeon has lost
its power and hold on the children of Adam and that the new things have come (Herman
Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, pp. 55-57).