If There Were No Resurrection...

Why Christians Must Believe Jesus Rose from the Dead

By Claudia Mair Burney

The first Resurrection Sunday was very different from our joyous Easter celebrations today. Then, most of the disciples were still in hiding because they believed if they were found they’d share the same awful fate as their Master. They had good reason to be concerned. Jesus had been beaten, humiliated, and crucified. In such a precarious position, it’s unlikely that an empty tomb, discarded burial clothes, and the word of distressed women would have been enough to persuade his closest disciples that Jesus was no longer dead.

Fortunately, Jesus kept appearing to eyewitnesses after his death: on strolls, at dinner parties, and to the women who loved him. The gospel of John tells us he slipped through locked doors to be with his fearful friends. He offered his nail-marked hands to one so skeptical he had to touch the wounds himself. Even the early church had its "doubting Thomas" moments. The apostle Paul wrote a compelling letter to some unbelieving Christians. Paul's words to them have much to teach us.

The Apostle Paul's Compelling Words

"Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also…" 1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Novelist John Updike wrote:
"Make no mistake; if He rose at all
it was His body;
if the cell's dissolution did not reverse; the molecules
reknit; the amino acids rekindle,
the church will fall."

Our faith doesn't work without a literal, physical the resurrection of Jesus' body. Here's why, according to Paul...

Without the Resurrection, the Apostle's Preaching Would Be in Vain

There were still many living witnesses of the resurrected Christ in Paul’s time. Most compelling is the testimony of those who walked most closely to Jesus. These were people who saw Jesus suffering, from His sweat and blood agonizing in the garden of Gethsemane, to His betrayal, His unjust trial and crucifixion. They would have had the most to lose for keeping the teachings of Christ alive, and they knew it, hence the running scared after His death. But these former cowards who had abandoned their Master when he needed them most, risked their lives to preach that He lives. All of the apostles, with the exception of John, died a martyr's death. If Jesus had not risen, they wouldn't have risked this fate.

Without the Resurrection, Our Faith Would Be Useless Too

In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, spiritual writer Philip Yancey explains why he wants to believe in the Resurrection. “Faith grows out of a subsoil of yearning, and something primal in human beings cries out against the reign of death. Whether hope takes the form of Egyptian pharaohs stashing their jewels and chariots in pyramids, or the modern American obsession with keeping the body alive until the last possible nanosecond, and then preserving it with embalming fluids in double-sealed caskets, we humans resist the idea of death having the final say.” If this is true, and I believe it is, then surely the God-breathed part of us, our eternal soul, expresses its longing for eternity through our faith. But without the Resurrection, our faith—our very hope—is silly! And we might as well have a high time while we’re here. Paul said it best, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” I Corinthians 15:32

Yet we persist in believing, and even try to be good. That, my friends, is telling.

Without the Resurrection, the Witnesses and Preachers Would Be Big, Fat Liars

Not long ago, I watched a DVD of "Columbo," the popular TV movie detective. He was interviewing a pair of actors who had accidentally killed the man who financed their stage production. They’d concocted an elaborate alibi, a story that both repeated to the detective almost word for word. Columbo said something like, “My wife and I can’t agree on something that happened yesterday.” It was the crazy consistency that gave them away. Colombo was right. It’s hard to get two people to agree like that on anything. A look at the gospels shows the variations in the greatest story ever told.

The eyewitness accounts of the Resurrection are as varied as the witnesses were—this is what happens when many people tell the same true story. Their testimonies had no big, immediate payoff either—after all, a lot of trouble came with following Christ back in the day, and witnesses that Jesus did what he said he’d do could get themselves crucified. But what they all agreed on was that Christ had died, and then there He was, comforting a crying woman, eating fish at the cookout, or saying, in so many ways to those who loved him and those of us, yet unborn, who would love Him much later in time, “Peace be with you!” John 20:21. And passing out that peace in a breath of the Holy Spirit. How could this happen if it weren’t true?

Without the Resurrection, We Would Have No Hope of Deliverance from Sin

Paul speaks to this with his most startling passages in the Bible, “You see at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6

Sin and death entered the world through a man, Adam, and a man, the one who was also God, died to take it away. Paul says, “For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous.” Without the Resurrection, Jesus’ obedience was for naught. But we can give thanks that all will be well. “So just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:19-20

Without the Resurrection, the Righteous Dead Would Perish

In I Corinthians 15:17-18, Paul tells us if Christ had not been raised, “Then those who have fallen asleep are lost.” Along with so much hope their lives inspired. And that is just depressing.

But they are not lost. At the end of that riveting chapter, verses 51-53, Paul writes, “Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” And what will we change into? The exquisite garment of immortality! This is the hope of every believer, of all times. The brand-spanking-new Easter clothing we wear to church is but a homely picture of what is to come: we will be changed. We will be brand-new.

Without the Resurrection, Death Would Have Won

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, part of the Pascha liturgy—the feast of the Resurrection, proclaims in song, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the grave bestowing life." Paul expresses the same this way, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with the immortal, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'"

Here’s a question to ponder:

"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"

All who believe in Christ, and His Resurrection know Paul’s answer. "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15: 54-56. This is why we must believe.