Why is the living Saviour so important in the full plan of redemption? Keep in mind that this world was in total darkness before the Messiah came. “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:2). It is to this environment that Jesus came as “the light of the world.” And what happens when we accept Jesus as the Light of the world? “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness” (John 8:12; 12:46).

When we speak of Jesus as the Light of the world, what are we actually talking about? This is not just so that we are able to see. Rather it is speaking of something that even gives us the capability of seeing. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

“[John 1:4 quoted.] It is not physical life that is here specified, but eternal life, the life which is exclusively the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual received. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Lifegiver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. ‘I lay it down of myself,’ He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived. This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ.”1

This life is by nature in Jesus Christ and voluntarily He gave this life for our salvation. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17, 18). As He is able to voluntarily give up His life so He is able to voluntarily take it up again. In other words, He has the power to resurrect Himself. Without this ability, the cross would be useless to humanity.

Why could Jesus make such a powerful promise? “Not one of the angels could have become surety for the human race: their life is God’s; they could not surrender it. The angels all wear the yoke of obedience. They are the appointed messengers of Him who is the Commander of all heaven. But Christ is equal with God, infinite and omnipotent. He could pay the ransom for man’s freedom. He is the eternal self-existing Son, on whom no yoke had come; and when God asked, ‘Whom shall I send?’ He could reply, ‘Here am I; send Me.’ He could pledge Himself to become man’s surety; for He could say that which the highest angel could not say—I have power over My own life, ‘power to lay it down, and . . . power to take it again.’ ”2

Jesus did not have to die—neither on the cross nor ever. He could have lived and never died. It was fully His willing act to die on the cross. “While as a member of the human family He was mortal, as God He was the fountain of life for the world. He could have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but voluntarily He laid down His life, that He might bring life and immortality to light. He bore the sin of the world, endured its curse, yielded up His life as a sacrifice, that men might not eternally die.”3

This resurrection—and the fact that He raised up His own body—was so important that it was used as a sign that He really is the promised, hoped-for Messiah. He declared, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. . . . But he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21).

The perfect life that Jesus lived in human flesh and His ultimate death on the cross of Calvary is everything to us.4 He brings divinity into humanity through His forgiving grace. But we need more! Yes, much more! We need a living Saviour. We find this kind of Saviour in the Deity of Jesus Christ. “ ‘He that hath the Son hath life’ (1 John 5:12). “The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life.”5

We need a Saviour that can Himself break the bonds of the tomb and leave it empty. “To the believer, Christ is the resurrection and the life. In our Saviour the life that was lost through sin is restored; for He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will. He is invested with the right to give immortality. The life that He laid down in humanity, He takes up again, and gives to humanity.”6

Combined with His human nature, this power of divinity and the resurrection is brought into humanity.

It is impossible to give what we don’t have. Jesus cannot offer and ultimately give me immortality if He Himself is not Immortality. My Saviour is Immortality; My Saviour is Resurrection; My Saviour is Life. If we try to make Jesus anything less than that, we are completely lost. That kind of saviour would still be in the tomb. But the tomb of Jesus is EMPTY!

Why? What was the cause of the empty tomb of Jesus? The Saviour explained, “ ‘I am the resurrection, and the life’ (John 11:25). These words could be spoken only by the Deity. All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are dependent recipients of the life of God. From the highest seraph to the humblest animate being, all are replenished from the Source of life. Only He who is one with God could say, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. In His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death.”7 Because He is fully God He was able to respond to the call of the Father to resurrect.

“When the voice of the mighty angel was heard at Christ’s tomb, saying, Thy Father calls Thee, the Saviour came forth from the grave by the life that was in Himself.”8

When we accept Christ, we put on immortality at the resurrection morning. “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). We put it on and become immortal—but we are not immortality. We still have to eat of the tree of life for all eternity. But Jesus always was and always will be the immortal King. He does not need to eat from that tree to maintain life. He is life. “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).

Why is the resurrection so important in the Christian’s life? “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” (1 Corinthians 15:16–18). The tomb of Jesus must be empty. Without an empty tomb we are lost. That fact that Jesus broke the prison house of death makes it possible for us to look to a bright future.

But why did Jesus resurrect immediately rather than wait till the end of time and then resurrect everyone at once? It is because He has a work to do to prepare a place for us. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). To bring full salvation to humanity, we can trust in a living Saviour who left the tomb empty.

Through this whole experience—death, resurrection, and intercession in the heavenly sanctuary—we have confidence in Christ as our elder Brother ministering in our behalf. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). Because He is alive as our elder Brother we can have boldness, we can have confidence to come before Him in all our times of need. (Ephesians 3:11, 12.) “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15, 16). Because of His perfect victory in humanity, He can help us accomplish the same in our sinful human nature.

“It is not God’s will that you should be distrustful, and torture your soul with the fear that God will not accept you because you are sinful and unworthy. ‘Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.’ Present your case before him, pleading the merits of the blood shed for you upon Calvary’s cross. Satan will accuse you of being a great sinner, and you must admit this, but you can say: ‘I know I am a sinner, and that is the reason I need a Saviour. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. ‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:7, 9). I have no merit or goodness whereby I may claim salvation, but I present before God the all-atoning blood of the spotless Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is my only plea. The name of Jesus gives me access to the Father. His ear, his heart, is open to my faintest pleading, and He supplies my deepest necessities.’ ”9

Because of the confidence we have in a resurrected Saviour Who understands me as a human being, Who knows what I am going through, Who has been right where I am and yet became victorious and broke the bondage of the sepulcher, what can I be assured of when I come sinful as I am before the throne of God? “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23, 24). I can have the full confidence that my prayers will be answered. (Romans 8:34.) Understanding His atoning work and ministry serves as the anchor to our faith during these trying times in the last days of this earth’s history. (Hebrews 6:18, 19.)

As we look to the living Saviour ministering in our behalf, we cannot help but long for His return so that we can be with Him where He is. We long to spend eternity with the One who has endured so much for us while on earth and then work for our complete salvation in the sanctuary above and prepare an eternal dwelling for us. (Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 2:9.)

We have learned to expect death as a normal part of life. People are born, they live, and they die. However, through the message of the gospel we have a hope that burns within our hearts. That hope is that our tomb will also be empty. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:10, 11). This idea that we shall live again in the resurrection is considered one of the first principles of the doctrines of Christ. (Hebrews 6:2.) This hope is based on the fact that the grave of Jesus is empty because our Saviour is alive. (1 Peter 1:3.)

Now how does the resurrection of the saints take place? How is it possible that a human being who died comes to live again—not just for a few days, but for eternity? “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). If we have the same Spirit, if we have the same experience, the same power that resurrected Jesus will resurrect us. Just as Jesus resurrected Himself by His divine power, it is He that performs our resurrection also. (John 5:28, 29.)

“The voice that cried from the cross, ‘It is finished,’ was heard among the dead. It pierced the walls of sepulchers, and summoned the sleepers to arise. Thus will it be when the voice of Christ shall be heard from heaven. That voice will penetrate the graves and unbar the tombs, and the dead in Christ shall arise. At the Saviour’s resurrection a few graves were opened, but at His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice, and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life. The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Him, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.”10

This we symbolize in every baptismal service—both for the future resurrection and in the new life of the believer. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. . . . Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. . . . For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:4–11).

Therefore we have a life to live, a work to do. “For he that is dead is freed from sin. . . . Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:7–18).

“We have a living Saviour. He is not in Joseph’s new tomb; He is risen from the dead, and has ascended on high as a substitute and surety for every believing soul. . . . Then shall we permit ourselves to have a vacillating experience of doubting and believing, believing and doubting? Jesus is the pledge of our acceptance with God. We stand in favor before God, not because of any merit in ourselves, but because of our faith in ‘the Lord our righteousness.”11

“The sinner so recently dead in trespasses and sins is quickened by faith in Christ. He sees by faith that Jesus is his Saviour, and alive forevermore, able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. In the atonement made for him the believer sees such breadth, and length, and height, and depth of efficiency—sees such completeness of salvation, purchased at such infinite cost, that his soul is filled with praise and thanksgiving. He sees as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and is changed into the same image as by the Spirit of the Lord. He sees the robe of Christ’s righteousness, woven in the loom of heaven, wrought by His obedience, and imputed to the repenting soul through faith in His name. When the sinner has a view of the matchless charms of Jesus, sin no longer looks attractive to him; for he beholds the Chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely.”12

Yes, the tomb is EMPTY and our Saviour is alive forever more. And if we surrender all to Him today, our tomb will also be empty for eternity and we will be alive with Christ for all the ceaseless ages of eternity.