Jesus' Resurrection Is Not About Dying and Going to Heaven

The bodily resurrection of Jesus is not about the Christian notion of dying and going to heaven. Ben WItherington makes this point in his (great and highly recommended) little book, Revelation and the End Times Participant’s Guide Unraveling God’s Message of Hope.

I find that many Christians misunderstand what the resurrection of Christ is all about. The first thing that our minds go to about the resurrection is that it’s somehow illustrative of dying and going to heaven, because, after all, Jesus did eventually go to heaven after his resurrection (the Ascension). This is not what it’s about.

The resurrection is ultimately all about the renewal of creation; the launching of the New Creation as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s great World Renewal Plan. What does that mean? Well, it all comes down to God’s faithfulness; God’s faithfulness to Israel as their Patron Deity, and God’s faithfulness to the creation as its Creator.

We all know that there is a problem with the creation. This is one of the easiest points of Christian theology to argue with non-believers. Take one look at the state of affairs on earth and its apparent that something is wrong. Injustice in the world, greed, poverty, dishonesty, stealing, cheating, adultery, along with hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, sickness, disease, death…they are all signs of the problem.

As the Creator, God has committed to be faithful to solve these problems (even though the problems are the result of humanity’s infidelity). His strategy: to create everything all over again. God’s World Renewal Plan centers on reconciliation and rebirth. God, through the resurrection of Jesus, demonstrates to the world that he is launching into a New Creation. This old creation of sin, decay, corruption and death is slowly passing away and there is a new age to come, a new age of liberation and complete wholeness. This is what the resurrection is all about, the culmination of God’s World Renewal Plan.