Reason #4 – To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead
[The resurrection] was the public declaration of God’s endorsement [that the righteousness of God was completely vindicated].
There is a huge link from this passage back to reason #1 (satisfy God’s wrath). The cross was God’s public declaration of both God’s wrath and God’s love. The resurrection is what cemented that God’s wrath has been satisfied. If not, Jesus would have stayed dead. But God’s love proved that his wrath was satisfied through the substitution made on the cross by raising Jesus from the grave.
Christ couldn’t be resurrected without first dying.
Likewise, we don’t truly live without dying first–to ourselves, to sin.
Only when we die to sin and self and are raised to newness/born again/regenerated do we truly live.
It reminds me of the quote by William Wallace in the movie Braveheart. “Every man dies. Not every man truly lives.”
Gratuitous video since I referenced the movie: