We live in a day and age in which people are fanatical about world records—mesmerized by those who set and even better, break records. And we are especially enamored by those who are “the first” to do something—and even more with those who are “the first and only” to achieve something—in all spheres of life: sports, the sciences, the arts, you name it.

Neil Armstrong, the first human being to walk on the moon. Marie Curie, the first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice (1903 and 1911). Amelia Earhart, the first and only woman to fly nonstop and alone across the Atlantic (May 20–21, 1932). Barrack Obama, the first and only African-American President of the United States of America. Tom Brady, the first and only NFL player to win 7 Super Bowls. Lebron James, the first and only NBA player to score 40,000 regular season career points, and counting.

As remarkable as some of these accomplishments are, they pale in comparison to the sheer magnitude and scale of what Jesus Christ accomplished two thousand years ago on that first Easter Sunday. They don’t hold the weight of a single drop of water in the bucket of Jesus’ universally unparalleled and far-reaching feat on that first Easter Sunday. Nor does any other human accomplishment as rare, as lofty, as consequential, as life-altering, as society-shaping, as health-benefitting, as life-improving, as humanity-inspiring, as it may be.

The resurrection of Jesus is an unparalleled, unrepeatable, singular act and demonstration of divine power over death that he alone has the power to accomplish. Jesus is the first and only person to come back from the dead—he may have raised others during his ministry, Elijah raised the widow’s son by God’s power (1 Kings 17:17–24), Peter raised Dorcas by the power of God (Acts 9:36–43), and Paul raised Eutychus by the same power (Acts 20:7–12). But no one has ever had the power to raise themselves from the dead—not even John the Baptist whom Jesus called the greatest man who ever lived (Matt 11:11).

No—no one but Jesus Christ, the God-Man—who as God and by the power of God, raised himself up from the dead—after laying down his life for his sheep, exactly as he said in John 10:17–18, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

This is a record that Jesus alone holds and will hold forever—an extraordinary accomplishment of cosmic proportions with eternal implications for humanity which belongs to the category of God, alone—because God alone has the power to do something this beyond the realm of human imagination and possibility.

Jesus is God and his resurrection from the dead demonstrates that he is. And for us sinners who believe that he is, it secures for us all the promises he made while on earth and in Scripture: forgiveness of sin, eternal life, resurrection glory, and infinite joy in his presence and with the Triune God, forever.