Five Things You Need to Know About the Resurrection of Christ

By L. Pierce

Christ was crucified while on the earth because of our sins. Without Christ’s death, God’s wrath would fall on us. But, if it weren’t for His resurrection, we would have no victory over death. The Lord Jesus died in order to take the penalty we deserved. He rose from the grave to give us victory over the grave through HIS victory.

1.) The Resurrection of Christ is a fact, not a myth. In the gospel of Mark, the sixteenth chapter, an angel said to those who sought Jesus’ body “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.” Although the unbelievers did not want to believe it, they knew that Christ had risen from the dead. In Matthew 28: 11-15, the soldiers who guarded Jesus’ tomb did not know what to do because they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. They went and talked to their elders, and the elders bribed the soldiers to say that Jesus’ disciples came in the night and stole the body of the crucified Savior, so that they wouldn’t have to admit to His resurrection. After Jesus was risen, He appeared to many people. He showed Himself to the eleven disciples (Luke 16:14), to Mary Magdalene (Luke 16:9), and even to a crowd of over 500 people at one time (I Corinthians 15:6). Even after seeing the risen Lord in person, some of His disciples doubted that He was real. They thought that He might have been just a spirit. To assuage their doubts, He had them touch His wounded hands and feet, and He had them give Him food so that He could prove to them that He was truly alive. Jesus said to them “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for you see a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

 2.) The Resurrection of Christ is what makes Christianity unique. Every religion of the world serves a “God” that they make into whomever they want him to be. This god of theirs is just like them.  In Psalm 50:21, God says “These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you…” The true God of the Bible, the God of true Christianity is NOT like human beings. He had no beginning and will have no end (Revelation1:11a). The gods of every other religion of the entire world may have been alive at one point in time, but they are either going to die, or are already dead- never to be alive again. According to Romans 1:23, people worship animals, nature, or other people. They cry out to these things which will never hear them. In Isaiah chapter 41, God mocks these lifeless idols that men set up for themselves. No man or beast that men worship is stronger than death. All men will die, even those who are worshipped: “And as it is appointed to men to die once, but after this the judgment…” Hebrews 9:27). One can search the world over and still find that every god of men is a lifeless god that will never hear the cries of its worshipper. That is, every god is lifeless, but the true God of the Bible- Jesus Christ. The difference is in the fact that, yes, the Lord Jesus Christ did die, but the grave couldn’t hold Him. Death couldn’t defeat Him. He didn’t stay dead. And because of His victory over death and hell, we have the same victory through Him, and we, unlike the entire unbelieving world, serve a living God, not a dead one.

3.) The Resurrection of Christ still transforms lives today. Because Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, those who trust in Him for salvation have the same “resurrection power” available to them through Christ. This power enables us, just as it enabled Christ, to have victory over death, through Him. I Peter 1:3 says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead…” We also can have victory over sin in our every day lives because of Christ’s resurrection. Romans 6:16 says: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.” Without the power of the Holy Spirit through Christ, every human being is in bondage to sin, but through the power of His resurrection, when a person is saved, he becomes a slave to righteousness. Ephesians 2:1 says that we were “dead in our trespasses and sins….being alienated from the life of God…” Without Christ and the power of His resurrection, everyone is still dead in his sins. But Christ defeated sin and death so that we would not have to remain “dead in our trespasses and sins…” By His power, lives are transformed.

 4.) The Resurrection of Christ gives Christians confidence when faced with death. As Christians, we have no fear in death. Why? Hebrews 2:14a-15 says of Christ “that through death He might destroy him who had the power over death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Because Christ died FOR us we do not fear God’s wrath, and because He was raised from the dead, defeating the grave, we do not fear death. One who knows Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection will not be in bondage to fear of death. “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.” (I Corinthians 15:54-57).

5.) Because of Christ’s resurrection, all Christians will be resurrected from the dead.  In I Corinthians 15, it says “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…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!...But now Christ is risen from the dead….For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.” Verse 32 says “If the dead do not rise, Let us eat, and drink, for tomorrow we die.” If there was no hope for believers- that we would be resurrected to meet the Lord- then we may as well eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. We may as well enjoy the pleasures of this life. But, the fact of the matter is that Christ is alive, and He is coming back for us. When Christ returns to meet His children in the air, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” (I Thessalonians 4:16) The ones who have already died will go up to meet the Lord first. After them, those Christians who are still alive on the earth will go to meet the Lord in the air. If Christ hadn’t risen from the grave, then all men would simply perish when they die. Christ would not come back for His children, and the Christians who had died would remain dead. But Christ did rise from the dead, He is coming back for His children, and we thus have a “living hope”-not a dead one. Because of this, God’s children must “be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that [our] labor is not in vain in the Lord.” And an exhortation from I Corinthians 15:34 to those who do know Christ as their Savior, and do look forward to this resurrection: “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.”