Not All Dead Men Stay Dead: 10 Essential Points about the Resurrection
Historic Christianity contains numerous beliefs that are theologically and philosophically volatile (in the best sense of the term). These powerful truth-claims have transformed the church and even turned the world upside down. My new book, 7 Truths that Changed the World, explores seven of historic Christianity’s dangerous ideas. The following 10 points give a brief overview of what I consider to be the Christian faith’s most dangerous idea.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
This list conveys essential theological information about the resurrection of Christ meant to help people think through the most important elements of the doctrine, especially its implications about the deity of Christ.
1. The Resurrection confirms Jesus Christ’s identity as the divine Messiah, Savior, and Lord (Romans 1:3–4; 14:9). It proves Jesus to be who He said He was. In His resurrection, Jesus Christ permanently identified with humanity and became the God-man forever.
2. By the Resurrection, God the Father vindicates Jesus Christ’s redemptive mission and message (Matthew 16:21; 28:6). Jesus’ resurrection confirms His words as true.
3. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:24; 3:15) involved all three members of the Trinity: Father (Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20), Son (John 10:17–18; 11:25), and Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11).
4. The Resurrection designates Jesus Christ as the ever-living Head of the Christian church (Ephesians 1:19–22).
5. Christ’s resurrection power generates and ensures the believer’s salvation (Romans 4:25; 10:9–10; Ephesians 2:5–6; Philippians 3:10).
6. Christ’s resurrection power enables all believers to live lives of gratitude to God (Romans 6:12–13).
7. Christ’s resurrection supplies the pledge and paradigm for the future bodily resurrection of all believers (1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:20, 2 Corinthians 9:14; Colossians 1;18; 1 Thessalonians 4:14).
8. Christ’s resurrection answers mankind’s greatest predicament, the inevitability of death. The Resurrection provides hope, purpose, meaning, and confidence in the presence of death (John 11:25–26; Romans 14:7–8).
9. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the major theme of the apostles’ original preaching and teaching (Acts 1:22; 2:31; 4:2, 33; 17:18) and the principle doctrinal tenet of the New Testament as a whole.
10. The truth or falsity of the Christian message rests squarely upon the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:14–18).
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