When we proclaim on Easter, “He is Risen”, we mean He came out and left the tomb empty. But it is much much more than that. He came, not just out of the tomb, but from Sheol, Hades, the realm of the dead. He came back from a place from which humans do not return. He reversed what the first Adam did. “21For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:21–23 ESV). Adam took the human race down to death and Christ brought it back up to life. “He is Risen” is a proclamation of what He accomplished for all of us; He defeated death to make resurrection possible. In Christ’s victory is our victory; in Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection.
