The preachers quoted here call the resurrection the keystone of the Christian faith and a fact of history. They describe it as God's announcement that Christ finished his work, the basis of a believer's assurance, and the answer to death.
Paul states plainly what depends on it. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (1 Corinthians 15:14). "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" (15:17). The New Testament word is anastasis, a standing up again.1 Christianity does not rest on Christ's teaching alone but on the claim that he rose.
The apostles preached it as an event with witnesses. Christ "was buried, and ... rose again the third day", and was seen by Peter, by the twelve, and by "above five hundred brethren at once" (1 Corinthians 15:4-6). He "shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs" (Acts 1:3). Peter said at Pentecost, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:32).
Scripture draws out what it means. By it Jesus was "declared to be the Son of God with power" (Romans 1:4). It is God's seal on the cross: he "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (4:25). And it is the defeat of death: Christ "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light" (2 Timothy 1:10).
For believers it is both present power and future hope. They are raised with Christ to "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4), and they are "begotten ... again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). His rising is the pledge of theirs: "now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25).
The church has confessed it from the beginning. The Apostles' Creed says of Christ, "The third day he rose again from the dead".2
The resurrection also looks forward to judgment: God "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:31). It matters because everything else in the gospel stands or falls with it.
- Strong's Greek 386, anástasis: "a standing up again, i.e. (literally) a resurrection from death (individual, genitive case or by implication...".
- Various, The Apostles Creed, "Apostles' Creed".
In their own words
Each line below is quoted exactly from a sermon on this site. Follow the link to hear or read it where it was said.
The resurrection is the keystone of the arch on which our faith is supported.
D.L. Moody
in Shall We Meet Our Loved Ones Again?
Read in context
The resurrection of Christ is vital; it is absolutely essential.
Martyn-Lloyd Jones
in A Living Hope of the Hereafter
Read in context
The resurrection of Jesus is a historic fact.
Anton Bosch
in Evidence for the Resurrection
Listen at 39:49
The resurrection of Jesus is a well documented historical fact.
Erlo Stegen
in Christ Is Risen - the Empty Tomb
Read in context
The Resurrection is the great announcement of the momentous fact that Christ has finished the work He came to do.
Martyn-Lloyd Jones
in A Living Hope of the Hereafter
Read in context
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basis of your assurance and mine.
Mariano Di Gangi
in Easter (1988) - the Reality of the Resurrection
Listen at 18:55
The resurrection is proof that he'll never die again.
Michael Koulianos
in Easter Sunday Morning Service
Listen at 41:29
The resurrection is the great antidote for death.
D.L. Moody
in Shall We Meet Our Loved Ones Again?
Read in context
What Scripture says
- 1 Corinthians 15:14 if Christ be not risen, our preaching is vain and your faith is vain
- 1 Corinthians 15:20 Christ is risen, the firstfruits of them that slept
- Romans 4:25 raised again for our justification
- John 11:25 I am the resurrection, and the life
- 1 Peter 1:3 a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
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