Resurrection

Ask most people to sum up the gospel, and they will tell you that Jesus died for our sins. That is true, and it is the heart of the message. But it is only half of what Scripture calls the gospel. The other half is that He rose again, and without it the cross would be a tragedy rather than a victory. The resurrection is not an addition to the good news. It is part of the good news itself.

More Than the Cross

When Paul stated the gospel plainly, he named both events. First Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I received, how 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:” He died, He was buried, and He rose. All three belong to the message.

The resurrection also appears in the very verses that tell us how to be saved. Romans 10:9 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” And Romans 4:25 tells us that Christ “…was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” The cross paid the debt, and the empty tomb is God’s proof that the payment was accepted.

Paul knew what was at stake. First Corinthians 15:17 says, “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” If Jesus stayed in the grave, then He was only a man who died, and we have no Savior.

But He did not stay. The angel’s words in Luke 24:6 settled it: “He is not here, but is risen:” And the risen Christ did not leave His followers guessing. He showed them His hands and feet and said in Luke 24:39, “…handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Acts 1:3 says, “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days…” Paul adds in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that “he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.” In other words, when Paul wrote, hundreds of eyewitnesses were still alive and could be asked.

Two Resurrections

Scripture teaches that every person who has ever lived will be raised. Acts 24:15 speaks of “a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” But there are two very different outcomes. Jesus explained in John 5:28-29: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

The resurrection of life belongs to those who have trusted Christ. The resurrection of damnation, which means judgment, belongs to those who have not, and Revelation 20:15 describes where it ends: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” That is a sobering truth, and it is the reason the gospel matters so much.

The Resurrection of Believers

This hope is not new. Long before the empty tomb, Job asked the question every person eventually asks. Job 14:14 says, “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” And in the next breath of his suffering he answers it, in Job 19:25-27: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” Job did not have the New Testament, yet he knew his Redeemer lived and that he himself would be raised to see Him.

Our confidence rests on Christ’s own resurrection. First Corinthians 15:20 says, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” A firstfruit is the first part of the harvest, and it is a promise that the rest is coming. Verses 22-23 continue, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” Because He rose, we will rise.

Paul describes how it will happen in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is the Rapture. The believers who have died will be raised first, and those still living will be changed and caught up together with them. First Corinthians 15:51-52 puts it this way: “…We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

A word about those who have already died. Scripture uses the word “sleep” for the body, which is laid in the grave to await this day, but the believer himself is not unconscious. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” At death, the believer’s spirit goes immediately into the Lord’s presence, which is why 1 Thessalonians 4:14 can say, “…even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Christ brings the spirits with Him, and the bodies are raised, made new, and joined to them.

The body we receive will be like His. Philippians 3:21 says He “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.” This is the glorification every believer is waiting for, the day we are finally delivered from the presence of sin altogether.

Jesus gave Martha the promise that holds all of this together in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Hope That Cannot Fail

Death is real, and it still brings grief. But for the believer it is no longer final. First Corinthians 15:55-57 asks, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Peter calls this a living hope. First Peter 1:3 says God “…hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” Our hope does not rest on a feeling or on a promise from a man who died. It rests on a Savior who walked out of the tomb and lives forever.

So when someone asks what the gospel is, tell them all of it: Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day. And everyone who trusts Him will rise to live with Him forever.