Essential Truths of the Resurrection

Essential Truths of the Resurrection
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The following essential truths of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as have been capably outlined by Kenneth Richard Samples in his book, Without a Doubt, Baker Books, 2004, are reviewed in this document for the instruction and encouragement of all who have by faith alone in Christ alone received God’s grace-gift of eternal life.

From a historic Christian perspective, both the uniqueness and truth of Christianity rest on Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. That Jesus Christ rose to life three days after being executed is both central to the Christian gospel (doctrine) and is Christianity’s ultimate supporting fact (apologetics). (Without a Doubt, see above)

The following realities pertaining to the resurrection of Jesus Christ convey essential theological information about the resurrection of Christ:

Christ’s resurrection is the definitive and absolute confirmation of Jesus’ identity as God incarnate and the promised Jewish Messiah. It proved that what Christ said of Himself was totally true. Through His resurrection, the redemptive mission and message of Christ was vindicated.

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:1-4)

For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. (Romans 14:9)

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. (Matthew 16:21)

He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. (Matthew 28:6)

Christ’s resurrection permanently identified Him with humanity because He rose from the dead with/in a material (physical) human body. Because of this, Jesus Christ is the God-man forever. The resurrection was not a flight from the human condition but rather its glorious restoration and fulfillment.

Jesus Christ will occupy His resurrected body for all eternity. It will be the visage with which every believer will relate to Christ forever more (1 Thessalonians 4:17 ). To understand the resurrected body of Christ is to better understand the type of resurrected body each believer will possess and enjoy (1 Corinthians 15:49 ). The following is a partial list of distinctions that apply to the resurrection body of Jesus Christ.

Glorious—1 Corinthians 15:43.
Powerful—1 Corinthians 15:43.
Spiritual—1 Corinthians 15:44.
Immortal—1 Corinthians 15:54.
Imperishable—1 Corinthians 15:42.
Physical form capable—Matthew 28:9, 10; Luke 24:30, 38, 39; John 20:27 .
Morphing capable—Mark 16:12; Luke 24:16; John 20:14; 21:4.
Food consumption capable—Luke 24:30, 41-43; John 21:13 .
Matter transitional capable—John 20:19 , 26.
Recognition capable—Matthew 28:9, 17; Mark 16:9.

Christ’s resurrection involved all three members of the Trinity and thereby confirmed God’s full involvement in salvation.

Father—Acts 2:24 ; 3:15 ; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 6:14 ; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20 .
Son—John 10:17 , 18; 11:25 ; Hebrews 7:16 .
Holy Spirit—Romans 8:11 .

Christ’s resurrection designated Jesus Christ as the forever-living head of the Church—the Body of Christ composed of all persons who by faith alone in Christ alone have received God’s grace-gift of salvation. The historic Christian church, both universal and local, worships and takes direction from a living Savior.

And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22, 23)

Christ’s resurrection power is active in, and ensures, the believer’s eternal salvation. The gospel message rests on the truth of the resurrection.

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:5, 6)

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Ephesians 3:10, 11)

Christ’s resurrection power is available to empower all believers as they seek to live in submission and gratitude to God. The debilitating power of sin over mankind has been broken by the resurrection.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:12, 13)

Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee for and prototype of the bodily resurrection of all believers.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. (Romans 6:5)

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11)

And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. (1 Corinthians 6:14)

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)

Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. (2 Corinthians 4:14)

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:20, 21)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17)

Christ’s resurrection completely removes mankind’s greatest existential dilemma, which is the prospect and fear of both physical and spiritual death. The sure knowledge of the resurrection grants the believer a confident expectation and comforting, if not joyful, anticipation of his future.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. . . . (John 11:25, 26)

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:7, 8)

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:51-57)

Christ’s resurrection is one of the major themes, along with Christ’s death, of the apostles’ preaching and teaching in the New Testament. It is a chief doctrinal tenet of God’s message to mankind. “He is risen” was the confessional cry of the early Church. Acts 1:22; 2:31 ; 4:2, 33; 17:18 .

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4)

Christ’s resurrection is the cornerstone of truth upon which Christian doctrine squarely rests. Christianity’s truth-claims can be tested by and through the examination of the facts of Jesus’ historical and bodily resurrection from the dead.

For an examination of these facts, the reader is directed to the commentary/study entitled “Jesus Christ—Fact or Fiction?” posted in the Skeptic’s Forum of the website www.bibleone.net.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up--if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:14-19)