Jesus Rose. So what?

The core of Christianity is the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why does this matter for anyone today?

The apostle Paul, when writing in the New Testament states, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your [Christians’] faith is in vain.” Quite literally, if Jesus did not resurrect from the dead, then Christianity is a totally useless endeavor.

This is because a dead God is no God at all. This is one of the crucial distinctions that set’s Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. Apart from them never claiming to actually be god, Siddhartha Gautama Buda, Krishna, Muhammad, Laozi, Confucius, Pythagoras, Mozi, Epicurus and Zeno of Citium are still buried in the ground. In fact, millions of people around the world travel across the globe to visit their graves and pay respect to the founder of their respective religions. Christians, on the other hand, have speculations as to where Jesus’ borrowed grave might have been, but no one really knows for sure because he was only buried in it for three days.

Only 20 years after Jesus physically rose from death and ascended into heaven, Paul wrote to the very people who were still alive after the Son of God was executed. Paul says, “Then he [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive.” It was just an understood fact that Jesus had risen from the dead and walked around on earth for 40 days. No one questioned that it had happened because eye witnesses were still alive.

For us, the resurrection has great significance for how we live our lives right here, right now in 2020. If you are a Christian, it shows what exactly will happen to you when you die one day: One moment you will close your eyes, and the next you will be resurrected to new life in the presence of God Almighty. 2 Corinthians 4.14 says, “… knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” Just as Jesus rose, so too will we follow in his footsteps and rise. Physically. In new bodies.

It also shows our justification, or our having been declared righteous by God. If you have faith in Jesus and believe that he lived a perfect life on your behalf, and was killed and raised to new life, you can have true peace, knowing that your sin was buried with him in the ground and is not remembered by God anymore. Psalm 103.12 says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." 

Finally, because of the resurrection we can look forward to what our physical bodies will be like in heaven. The Bible says that we will not decay or get old, we will have no illnesses or aches, and we will be free from all instances of forgetting or misunderstanding. Imagine what this means for those who struggle with chronic illness or destructive disabilities. There is coming a day when all things will be made right, beautiful, and healthy.