The dominance of Jesus’ resurrection in biblical thought cannot be overstated. Of all ‘the great things’ to be said about the Saviour, that he was raised is ‘the central one’.¹Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 536.

Everything hangs and turns on Christ’s literal, physical, bodily resurrection.

A Matter of First Importance

His resurrection is not quite Christianity’s most characteristic claim — that would be ‘Jesus is Lord,’ occurring in various forms over 100 times in the New Testament. But the supremacy of Christ is most clearly expressed by his resurrection, which dominates apostolic teaching. Along with his death ‘for our sins,’ that Jesus was ‘raised on the third day’ and appeared to large numbers of disciples is the core substance of the preached gospel, ‘of first importance’ (1 Cor 15:1-8).

Christ’s death and resurrection are the central truths of biblical teaching and, of the two, resurrection is most pivotal — the hinge on which all depends. Without it the faith of the New Testament is less than useless. The truth or falsehood of the entire Christian faith rests on the reality or fantasy of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:14-18). Its incomparability runs in two directions.

History and the Supernatural, Combined

The resurrection’s blend of historical fact with supernatural power makes it matchless in a general sense. Although the world’s religions, paganism, and contemporary atheism deride it as absurd, Christ’s bodily resurrection was a historical occurrence with a historical footprint, comprehensively evidenced, occurring in space-time alongside other datable events.

But it was no ordinary happening. Christ’s resurrection cannot be explained in purely human or natural terms, but only in Divine ones. If established as fact, it ‘supplies an indisputable demonstration of the supernatural origin of Christianity, of the validity of Christ’s claim to be the Son of God, and of the trustworthiness of his teaching.’²Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 543; slightly amended.

Not Merely Supernatural, but Saving

Christ’s resurrection is also unparalleled in a more particular sense: ‘there is no direct parallel in the history of religions of a founder whose bodily resurrection from the dead confirms and ratifies his life and teaching and enables followers to enter into eternal life.’³Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:464. Its saving significance, not merely its supernatural character, singles it out.

The Fact Upon Which Everything Else Depends

In New Testament teaching, Jesus’ resurrection is the event on which all other elements of the gospel converge depend — the foundation of the biblical message and the premise of Christian proclamation.

Denying it cuts the nerve of the entire narrative. If Christ was not raised then neither are the dead; and if he remained dead, Christian teaching gives a false account of God. ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins’ (1 Cor 15:17).

So integral was it to apostolic preaching that it is as if ‘the whole Christian community … are suspending Christianity on the resurrection of Christ as its fundamental fact,’⁴Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 1:196. indispensable ‘to the very existence of Christianity.’⁵Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 1:196. Jesus himself ‘deliberately staked his whole claim upon his resurrection … he repeatedly pointed to this sign as his single and sufficient credential’⁶Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 1:195. (Matt 12:39-40).

Before the crucifixion, as Theodoret observed, Christ ‘did not appear to be God either to the Jews or even to the disciples,’ but after he rose ‘all those who believed recognized that he was God.’⁷Theodoret of Cyr, Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans, 1:4; Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament VI. Romans, ed. Gerald Bray (IVP Academic, 1998), 11. The resurrection established Christ as the incomparable individual in world history, confirming his humanity and revealing his Divinity (Rom 1:3-4).

God’s Definitive Word About Jesus

The resurrection is God’s definitive Word about Jesus. Deleting it would be to delete all, for it underlies the whole substance of biblical belief. The gospel’s core message concerns forgiveness and reconciliation through Christ’s atoning death (1 John 2:2) — and it was the resurrection which designated who Jesus is, ‘the Son of God’ (Rom 1:4), and declared the value of his death in our place.

The Gospel of Resurrection

Historically, Christian faith originated bound up with belief in Christ’s resurrection. In the first generation both his literal resurrection and a general future resurrection of the dead quickly became universal Christian convictions.

This was unique. In early Rabbinic Judaism belief in resurrection was peripheral, and opinion varied in paganism too. But in first-century Christian belief there was no range of opinion: resurrection was its ‘foundation-stone.’⁸Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 539. To be Christian meant, by definition, to believe that God had raised Christ and would at the last day raise all.

The sermons in Acts show distinct emphases. Jews accepted resurrection and judgment but rejected a crucified Messiah — so there the emphasis fell on why the Messiah must suffer and die (Acts 2:23). What they rejected was not the raising of the dead but that God had raised Jesus, ‘killed by hanging on a tree’ (Acts 5:30). Gentiles rejected bodily resurrection outright — so before them Paul stressed it as grounds for Christ’s appointment as Judge (Acts 17:30-32).

Throughout, teaching about the resurrection provided the cutting edge (Acts 2:32); sometimes it is the central substance (Acts 17:31-32). Stimulating faith in it was a primary goal of apostolic evangelism, for personal belief is a fundamental issue of salvation: to be saved one must ‘believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead’ (Rom 10:9). ‘The resurrection of the dead,’ taught Tertullian, ‘is the Christian’s trust. By it we are believers.’⁹Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1; in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff [hereafter ANF], 3:545.

Crucifixion and Resurrection

Salvation was accomplished through the whole sequence of Christ’s life and work, with heavy concentration on his death because of its cost. When Christ died as ‘the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 2:2), the expense of God’s redemptive love was displayed.

Yet the emphasis on Christ’s death — ‘I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor 2:2) — is coupled with an equally strong declaration of his resurrection as ‘of first importance’ (1 Cor 15:3-4), expounded at length in the same letter.

Focus on Christ’s atoning death does not play down his resurrection. Justification occurs by virtue of both cross and resurrection (Rom 4:25), the two inseparable, a single complex event. His death displays love, his resurrection life.¹⁰Adapting Brakel’s point about Christ’s exaltation, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:625. Here is Calvin:

‘[L]et us remember that whenever mention is made of his death alone, we are to understand at the same time what belongs to his resurrection. … Paul rightly contends that “faith is annulled and the gospel empty and deceiving if Christ’s resurrection is not fixed in our hearts.”’¹¹Calvin, Institutes, 2.14.13; 521.

When Paul says he ‘decided to know nothing among you’ except a crucified Christ, he does not mean neglecting the resurrection. It means proclaiming only the Lord crucified to bear the penalty for our sins. No other Christ than the crucified and risen Christ exists as Saviour — a gospel of resurrection through suffering and death (1 Cor 15:3-4).

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• 1
  Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 536. ↩︎
• 2
  Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 543; slightly amended. ↩︎
• 3
  Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:464. ↩︎
• 4
  Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 1:196. ↩︎
• 5
  Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 1:196. ↩︎
• 6
  Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 1:195. ↩︎
• 7
  Theodoret of Cyr, Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans, 1:4; Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament VI. Romans, ed. Gerald Bray (IVP Academic, 1998), 11. ↩︎
• 8
  Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 539. ↩︎
• 9
  Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1; in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff [hereafter ANF], 3:545. ↩︎
• 10
  Adapting Brakel’s point about Christ’s exaltation, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:625. ↩︎
• 11
  Calvin, Institutes, 2.14.13; 521. ↩︎