Special: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is Fundamental to the Gospel and the Christian Faith

The resurrection is fundamental to the gospel because it demonstrates that Jesus of Nazareth is in fact God.

It demonstrated the substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of our Lord were acceptable to the Father as the atonement for sin and it also vindicated Him since it demonstrated He was who He claimed to be throughout His First Advent, namely, the eternal Son of God.

The resurrection of Christ demonstrated to all that He was indeed who He claimed to be, namely, the incarnate Son of God (Rm. 1:1-4).

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was central to the preaching of the apostles, who were witnesses of His resurrection (see Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15, 26; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 33, 34, 37; 17:31).

The foundation of Christianity is built upon the resurrection of Christ since the integrity of our Lord is at issue and as attested by many witnesses He did rise from the dead as He said He would (Acts 1:22; 4:2, 33; 17:18; 23:6; 1 Cor. 15:14).

William Lane Craig states: “Without belief in the resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being. The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even had they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, his crucifixion would have forever silenced any hopes of His being the Messiah. The cross would have remained the sad and shameful end of His career. The origin of Christianity therefore hinges on the belief of the early disciples that God raised Jesus from the dead.”[1]

The apostle Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection of our Lord from the dead is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith at the very heart of the gospel.

Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

If Jesus Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then He is the greatest deceiver of all time and if He did rise from the dead, then He is indeed the Son of God and we are obligated to worship and adore Him as our Lord and Savior.

If the resurrection of Christ never took place, then as Paul says we as Christians are of all people to be most pitied (1 Co. 15:15-23).

1 Corinthians 15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (NIV)

Jesus never predicted His death without adding that He would rise again (atthew 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9, 22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; 27:63; Mark 8:31-9:1; 9:10, 31; 10:32-34; 14:28, 58; Luke 9:22-27; John 2:18-22; 12:34; chapters 14-16).

Jesus not only predicted His resurrection but also emphasized that His rising from the dead would be the “sign” to authenticate his claims as being the Messiah (Jn. 2:13-22) and He declared openly that He was the resurrection (John 11:25-26; 14:6).

Neither the Romans nor the Jews could produce the body of our Lord to disclaim what the apostles were proclaiming to the world and it was in the interests of these two groups to put an end to such talk by simply producing the body which they could not since He had in fact risen from the dead.

Not even a guard of Roman soldiers protecting the tomb could prevent the resurrection of Christ.

The tomb of our Lord was owned by Joseph of Arimathea who was rich and was sealed with large rock by the Romans at the request of the leaders of the Jews in order to prevent the theft of the body by the disciples (Matt. 27:62-66).

Pilate’s own soldiers were sent to perform the task of protecting the tomb (Matt. 28:14) and these hardened Roman soldiers were terrified by the angel who rolled away the large rock which had sealed the tomb from entry on that Sunday morning of our Lord’s resurrection (Matt. 28:4).

Actually, they went into the city of Jerusalem to report the resurrection of Christ (Matt. 28:11-15).

Matthew 28:15 records that the guard had accepted a bribe from the Jews to keep quiet about the resurrection (Matt. 28:15) and it was the guards that spread the lie that the body had been stolen.

During His ministry, He pointed to the sign of His resurrection as His single most important credential and He boldly declared even to His enemies that He would rise from the dead.

He said something only a fool would dare say and no founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that but Jesus did just that!

Think about this for a minute regarding Jesus’ claims of rising from the dead.

If you or I should say to any group of friends that we expected to die, either by violence or naturally, at a certain time, but that, three days after death, we would rise again, we would be quietly taken away by friends, and confined to an institution until we got our act together.

You would have to be a fool to make the claims that Jesus made unless you knew without a doubt that this was going to take place.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”[2]

[1] Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, pages 116-117 [2] Mere Christianity, page 41; New York: Macmillan