The Lord Jesus Brings Us Out of Death into Life with His God and Father in Heaven

In Adam, all people die because all people sin. The children of that first gardener have been driven out of Paradise and return to the dust whence they were taken. But now another Gardener has come, who has made His bed in the dust of the earth and who, by His rising, restores Paradise to all the children of men. With His voice of the Gospel, He calls us by name, and He opens our eyes to behold Him by faith. At His Word, we enter His tomb through Baptism into His death, so that, just as He is risen, we also “rise from the dead” (John 20:9). Come, then, “sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1). He has fought for us against our enemies, and in His resurrection not one enemy remains. “Fear not,” therefore, but “see the salvation of the Lord” (Ex. 14:13), which He delivers “as of first importance” by the preaching of His Gospel (1 Cor. 15:3). Thus, we are raised with Christ “in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4), and we stand firm because we “are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:1–2).