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For those of us who grew up in the 1900s (and isn’t that a flattering way to put it!), it is astounding to think that we are living in the year 2024. But that’s not quite right. We are living Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord,” 2024. Tracing back to a Christian monk from the sixth century, this so-called Western dating system divides the calendar of recorded history into two periods—the time before Christ’s birth (abbreviated by BC, “before Christ”) and after His birth (using AD, or Anno Domini). The system’s slight miscalculation notwithstanding (most scholars believe that Jesus was born around 4 BC), it is significant that everything from business meetings to budgets to recording birthdays, anniversaries, and dentist appointments refers to the time since the year of Christ’s first appearance in the flesh. How marvelously fitting it is that the arrival of the Son of God incarnate marks the great bisection of human history in the way that our world measures time.
If you were to ask Jesus what the true dividing line is, what is the great bisection of human history, after which everything changed from what it was before, He would likely not point to His birth but point to His resurrection. Jesus’ birth was always leading to the goal of His dying and rising for sinners as their substitute. As He said heading to the cross and the empty tomb, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27). Christ also promised that after His resurrection, He would pour out the Holy Spirit to indwell His people as their “Advocate” or “Helper” (Greek paraklētos) forever. This same Spirit, given as the fruit of Christ’s resurrection (John 7:39), gave us the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21; see 1 Peter 1:10), guides us deeper into their truth (John 16:13), produces the fruit of Christ’s life in us (Gal. 5:22–23), and assures us that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:16). The broader context of these personal benefits is the reality that Jesus’ resurrection inaugurated His reign as our Redeemer and let loose the power of heaven on earth.
Like the BC/AD dating system, the resurrection of Christ also bears on the whole world by reminding everyone that God’s timeline for human history is moving toward a final climax. For “now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30–31).
Biblically speaking, therefore, we are not just living in 2024. We are living in Anno Resurrectionis Domini 2024—in the year of the resurrection of our Lord. We are also living within the movement toward the consummation of all things. That makes all the difference in the world. The real question is, What difference does it make to each of us?