The resurrection of Christ is of paramount importance for several reasons, many admit the necessity of the death of Christ who deny the importance of the bodily resurrection of Christ. Paul shows that everything stands or falls with Christ’s bodily resurrection. If Christ has not risen, preaching is vain, the corinthians faith was in vain, the apostles were false witnesses and the Corinthians were yet in their sins, those fallen asleep in Jesus have perished. The resurrection is clearly an essential part of the gospel. God raised him up and exalted him to his own right hand that he might be the head over all things to the church. It was necessary for him to rise before he could baptize the believer in the Holy Spirit. He must rise to be a Prince and Savior, to give repentance and remissions of sins.
We have demonstrably sincere eyewitness testimony. Early Christian apologists cited hundreds of eyewitnesses, some of whom documented their own alleged experiences. Many of these eyewitnesses willfully and resolutely endured prolonged torture and death rather than repudiate their testimony. This fact attests to their sincerity, ruling out deception on their part. According to the historical record most Christians could end their suffering simply by renouncing the faith. Instead, it seems that most opted to endure the suffering and proclaim Christ’s resurrection unto death.
A second line of evidence concerns the conversion of certain key skeptics, most notably Paul and James. Paul was of his own admission a violent persecutor of the early Church. After what he described as an encounter with the resurrected Christ, Paul underwent an immediate and drastic change from a vicious persecutor of the Church to one of its most prolific and selfless defenders. Like many early Christians, Paul suffered impoverishment, persecution, beatings, imprisonment, and execution for his steadfast commitment to Christ’s resurrection.
A third line and fourth line of evidence concern enemy attestation to the empty tomb and the fact that faith in the resurrection took root in Jerusalem. Jesus was publicly executed and buried in Jerusalem. It would have been impossible for faith in His resurrection to take root in Jerusalem while His body was still in the tomb where the Sanhedrin could exhume it, put it on public display, and thereby expose the hoax.
The inspired Word of God guarantees the believer’s resurrection at the coming of Jesus Christ for His Body (the Church) at the Rapture. Such hope and assurance issues in a great song of triumph as Paul writes in, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?” How do these concluding verses relate to the importance of the Resurrection? Paul answers, “…you know that your labor is not in vain”. He reminds us that because we know we will be resurrected to new life, we can suffer persecution and danger for Christ’s sake, just as He did, and just as the thousands of martyrs through history who gladly traded their earthly lives for everlasting life via the resurrection.
