J.R.D. Kirk has written a fantastic article in the most recent edition of Christianity Today titled “A Resurrection That Matters” (pp. 37-39). In this article he compares King Jesus to King David as regards inaugurated rule and established rule that I found helpful in explaining, in part, the role of the resurrection. Here is the quote:

At his resurrection, Jesus becomes the enthroned king of the world–the Messiah. But isn’t the Jesus we meet in the pages of the Gospels also the Messiah? Yes and no.

Jesus in the Gospels is like David in the Book of 1 Samuel. He has received God’s anointing as the chosen king, but another king is currently on the throne. The story of the Gospels is one in which Jesus inaugurates the new reign of God and deals a deathblow to the imposter king through his death on the cross. If the Cross is the defeat of the old king, the Resurrection is the enthronement of the new. Jesus now literally sits in the space that the kings of Israel had figuratevly occupied before him: at the right hand of God. Though the preexistent Christ has always been God’s agent in the creation and rule of the world, the human Jesus is now joined to that role as Lord and king over all.