And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.-1 Corinthians 15:14

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the hope of Christianity. Without the literal physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, our faith is nothing more then a philosophical and moral construct in which we comfort ourselves by assigning eternal meaning to our existence.  In which case as scripture says we should be pitied. Thus we should love and cherish this cardinal doctrine.

There are multiple reasons the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection is important to Christianity. First of all, it confirms the faithfulness of God and the integrity of the whole of Scripture. In John 2:19 Christ declared that He would rise from the dead. The Old Testament also foretells of his death and resurrection as in Isaiah 53:11 for example. If he did not rise then scripture is untrustworthy. Secondly, as Romans 4:25 says, it secures for us our justification provided by the shedding of Christ’s blood. Thirdly, it shows the power of sin, that is death, is now powerless. If Christ is not raised then death still has its power. As Paul says in I Corinthians 15, if Jesus is not raised from the dead then no one is. Christ showed that he was more then a mere man by His resurrection. The required payment was made through the death, yet He does not continue to pay the penalty of sin by remaining in the grave but as Romans says His death is once for all time. We died with Christ and his is our propitiation so also we are raised with Christ to newness of life. Fourthly, His resurrection is a promise and a deposit for our resurrection. As Romans 8:11 says we will be raised by the same power that raised Christ. By His death we are justified and by His resurrection we walk in newness of life. If Jesus did not literally rise from the dead, then the entire Christian faith is false and ineffective. Preaching is without value. We are liars concerning God and no sins have been forgiven, thus believers have no hope. But praise be to God our Father who raised Jesus from the dead and has extended that power and grace to us who believe.

May we echo the earnest desires of Paul in Philippians 3:10-11, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Kevin Farmer, Phil Meade, Dana Arledge