Christ's Bodily Resurrection Real

Only the personal appearances of the risen Christ convinced them of the reality of His resurrection. The forty days during which He appeared to them on many occasions, instructing them concerning the kingdom of God, furnished ample proof that He had really triumphed over death, and this glorious fact gave them that confidence which enabled them to stand against all opposition, witnessing to every man that God had raised His body from the grave. They beheld Him as He was taken up from them into heaven in that same body, and after receiving the Pentecostal enduement, they went about bearing witness to the resurrection of their Lord with great power.
This is the outstanding message of the Church. He who died for our sins lives again for our justification. The resurrection of the material body of flesh and bones is the proof that God is satisfied with the redemptive work of His Son. It declares that God can now be just and the justifier of him who believes on the Lord Jesus. To say that though Christ is dead as to the body He is alive as to the spirit will not do. That might be true of any man. It would be no evidence of divine satisfaction in His work.
Some years ago an eloquent New York preacher, who denies the physical resurrection of the Saviour, declared, "The body of Jesus still sleeps in an unknown Syrian tomb, but His soul goes marching on!" Many applauded this as a wonderful explanation of the influence of Jesus down through the ages. But it is utterly false and fallacious. If the body of Jesus still rests in the grave, He was not what He professed to be and is powerless to save.
This heresy (for heresy it is) is not new. It became prevalent in certain circles even in apostolic days, as 1 Cor. 15 proves. In the Corinthian church there were some who accepted the teaching of the Sadducees and denied the reality of a literal resurrection. Sternly, Paul challenges them in the well-known words: "Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. 15:12-19).
Here is sturdy logic indeed, and withal inspired by the Holy Spirit. If Christ be not risen we have no gospel to preach, and there is no message of deliverance for poor, lost sinners held captive in chains of iniquity. Faith in a dead Christ will not save anyone. The gospel is the dynamic of God unto salvation because it proclaims a living, loving Redeemer who is waiting to manifest His power on behalf of all who trust in Him.