The Resurrection

When Satan was cast out of heaven after rebelling against God, he was denied two important things:

1. The chance to live with Heavenly Father again.
2. The chance to receive a body like the Father has.

From the time he was cast out, it has always been in his plan to foil these exact same things. At the Fall of Adam, two forms of death entered into the world: spiritual death, or a separation from Heavenly Father as a result of sin; and physical death, or a separation of the spirit from the body as a result of mortality.

As Easter rolls around, we are celebrating the resurrection of the Savior and Redeemer of the world. However, I feel that we generally understand the aspect of the Atonement that redeems us from spiritual death than we do the aspect that saves us from physical death.

Remember, though, God's work and glory "is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

Eternal life = living with Heavenly Father again, or conquering spiritual death.

Immortality = having our body and spirit reunited forever, or conquering physical death.

On the night of Christ's death, he accomplished the first task of the Atonement; he suffered, bled, and died for the sins of the world. He paid the price so that we could again return with our Father.

On the third day after his death, he accomplished the second task. As his followers came to his garden tomb with spices, they were instead met by an angel who asked a very powerful question:

 

"Why seek ye the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5). 

 

The angel continued by reminding them of the Savior's promise that he must be killed by the hands of sinful men so that he could again rise on the third day.

 

Imagine the joy!! When Christ appeared to Mary Magdelene outside the garden tomb. It took but the word "Mary," for her to rush to him. His command to not touch him clearly shows that the first thing she intended to do was embrace her Redeemer and friend. (John 20:16-17).

 

When Thomas was able to see the resurrected Messiah in person, he exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:27-28).

 

When Christ called out to his apostles while they were fishing, Peter's joy was so great that he cast himself into the sea just to be by his Master sooner. (John 21:7).

 

Why were they so excited? First, they truly loved Christ. As said in 1 John 4:19, "We love him because he first loved us." Christ loved in such a way that his followers were thrilled to see him once again. But is this all? I think it went a step further. These people had put their complete trust in him! At some point, all of the apostles are killed because of their testimony of the Lord, their Savior. Jesus himself was brutally tortured and murdered. I can only imagine that the persecution against his disciples was brutal, especially after he died a thief's death. The humiliation probably caused many to question their faith. Thomas didn't even believe Jesus had been resurrected until he felt the scars himself!

 

The Resurrection stopped that doubt in its tracks. It proved that Jesus was the Christ. He proved the divinity of the work he had left behind. He had conquered the inconquerable!

 

And with it, he accomplished the Atonement. Through Jesus Christ, there is nothing the devil can deny us. We can not only be with our Heavenly Father again, but can have a perfected body as he does, as a "joint heir with Christ." (Romans 8:17).

 

The Book of Mormon, as the testament of Christ that it is, explains the importance of the Resurrection beautifully:

"O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.

"And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.

"And this death of which I have spoken, which is spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead, which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliever up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliever up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel." (2 Nephi 9:10-12).

I will be eternally grateful for a Savior who does not only save my soul from Hell, but my body from the grave. I want to add my testimony to that of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon: "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!" (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22).

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that because of this, I, too, may live again.