The Importance of Jesus’ Resurrection

A dead Savior cannot give life. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then He did not conquer sin, and He is powerless to save us from our sins. As Paul declared, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17). Furthermore, if Jesus is not raised, then we who proclaim His resurrection are “lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave” (1 Cor 15:15), and those who believed our message have placed their hope in a lie (1 Cor 15:19). In such a case, Christianity collapses, the gospel has no saving power, and we are left with nothing more than a delusion.

As Christians, our confidence is not in vain, for “Christ has been raised from the dead, and He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died” (1 Cor 15:20). Jesus’ resurrection guarantees ours. Since He rose, then we too shall rise. Jesus’ resurrection is part of the good news of the gospel (1 Cor 15:3-4), and it guarantees that we who have believed in Him will spend eternity in heaven, because Jesus—the living One—is coming again to receive us to Himself (John 14:1-3). For unbelievers, it’s bad news, for unless they turn to Christ and believe in Him for salvation (John 3:16), they will be resurrected to face eternal separation from God in the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-15).[1]

We have confidence in Jesus’ resurrection because the Bible—God’s authoritative Word—is a reliable historical record. The New Testament was written by men who saw the risen Christ and testified to what they witnessed (Luke 1:1-4). These were men of integrity who willingly suffered and died for their testimony (1 Cor 15:3-8; 2 Pet 1:16). All four Gospels affirm Jesus’ resurrection that “He has risen” (Matt 28:6; cf. Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6-7; John 20:1-18). After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to numerous persons over a period of forty days (Acts 1:3), namely, Mary Magdalene and other women (Matt 28:1-10; John 20:10-18), two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32), the disciples without Thomas (John 20:19-25), the disciples with Thomas (John 20:26-29), the disciples by the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-23), Peter, James, and more than 500 brethren at one time (1 Cor 15:5-7). After these appearances, Jesus ascended bodily into heaven (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11; Eph 1:20). Peter and others were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, saying, “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32), and later, at the house of Cornelius, he said, “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He appear, not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead” (Acts 10:40-41). Throughout the NT, there are over 40 direct mentions of Jesus being raised from the dead.[2] Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6) and to John on the island of Patmos, saying, “I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Rev 1:17-18).

Every writer of the New Testament assumes the resurrection of Jesus as a historical event that took place in time and space. Paul affirmed that Jesus was “raised on the third day” (1 Cor 15:4), and that He, “having been raised from the dead, is never to die again” (Rom 6:9). He also exhorted believers to “remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead” (2 Tim 2:8). Jesus’ bodily resurrection demonstrates that He is truly the Son of God, possessing the authority to give life (John 10:17-18). Scripture states that Jesus Christ “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4a). Jesus’ resurrection was God’s public endorsement that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be, and that His redemptive work was completed and fully accepted. To deny the resurrection is to gut the gospel of its power. But to embrace it is to be rooted in unshakable truth and to live in resurrection hope.

Jesus’ resurrection is the Father’s declaration that Christ’s atonement for our sins was accepted, for Jesus “was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life to make us right with God” (Rom 4:25). Our sins were the reason Jesus went to the cross (Rom 5:8; 2 Cor 5:21). He bore the penalty that rightfully belonged to us, for “Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18a). Jesus’ resurrection proves the sin debt has been fully paid. Without the resurrection, there would be no assurance that the transaction at the cross was sufficient. But because Jesus lives, we have full confidence that we are declared righteous before God through faith in Christ alone (Rom 5:1). Simply put, no resurrection means no salvation.

In light of all this, the resurrection of Jesus Christ stands as an indispensable feature of our Christian faith—historically grounded, theologically essential, and personally transformative. It is the Father’s validation of the Son’s work and the believer’s assurance of eternal life, power for daily living, and hope beyond the grave. To deny it is to unravel the very fabric of the gospel; to believe it is to stand firmly in the truth of God’s Word, secured by grace, and anchored in a living Savior who conquered death and lives forevermore. Because He lives, so shall we.

Dr. Steven R. Cook

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[1] The Bible teaches that all people will be bodily raised from the dead by God, each in their own divinely appointed order (1 Cor 15:22-24). For the Church, the resurrection occurs at the rapture, when believers are caught up and transformed to receive glorified, incorruptible bodies like Christ’s (1 Th 4:16-17; Phil 3:20-21). Old Testament saints will be raised at the Second Coming of Christ to share in the blessings of the millennial kingdom (Dan 12:2; Isa 26:19), along with Tribulation martyrs who are also resurrected at that time (Rev 20:4-6). Other saints, such as those who believe during the Millennium and die during that period, will likely be raised at the end of the thousand years. In contrast, unbelievers from all ages will be raised in a final resurrection after the Millennium to stand before the Great White Throne and be judged according to their works, resulting in eternal separation from God (John 5:28-29; Rev 20:11-15). This multifaceted doctrine underscores both the certainty of future bodily existence and the distinction between resurrection unto life and resurrection unto judgment

[2] These references span across the Gospels (Matt 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6-7; John 20:9), Acts (Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10; 10:40; 13:30), Epistles (Rom 1:4; 4:25; 6:4; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Cor 6:14; 15:4; 15:20; 2 Cor 4:14; Gal 1:1; Eph 1:20; Phil 3:10; Col 2:12; 1 Th 1:10; 4:14; 2 Tim 2:8; 1 Pet 1:3), and Revelation (Rev 1:18).