A dead Christ cannot save the church. Neither could he bring the kingdom of God to completion. He must needs rise and ascend and receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Wondrous evangel of Easter! Jesus is risen indeed!

And he received that wondrous new life as the Head of the church and the new world. Hence, his resurrection is at the same time the justification of all that belong to him. Indeed, his rising again is the proof of our justification. On Good Friday he hung on the cross, and he had us all in his bosom. Therefore it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God imputed all that guilt and sin on him, and he had to die in order to pay the price.

When he [Jesus] appears in the garden of Joseph it proves that all that guilt and sin is gone. Otherwise God would never have raised him from the dead.

~from Unspeakable Gift by Rev. G Vos (chapter 39)