4: The Resurrection Faith

In First Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1-19 Paul insists that Christianity is based on the resurrection. Paul taught that the resurrection is the foretaste of what is to come, and that Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection of all who have accepted Christ. Not only is Jesus the first to be resurrected, he is the key to the resurrection of everyone else. Paul’s teaching was that all those who were joined to Jesus by baptism into his church will enjoy the resurrection of the dead. For Paul resurrection was not into a world like this one with all its corruption, but rather to a new world transformed by the elimination of sin, a world ruled by God. In Paul’s view creation is groaning in its birth pangs, it is yet incomplete, but out of this present world will come a new world in which the resurrection will be an integral part.

One point about Christianity that is often missed is that Christians do not believe that the soul, the spiritual side of our lives, is enough. Although they believe that good people live on in heaven after death, they see heaven as a kind of transitional state before the final resurrection of the dead.

Not everyone believes that Jesus rose bodily, and some say that he rose spiritually. The reasoning behind this view is that a bodily resurrection is a miracle, which contravenes the laws of Science. Such thinkers tend to claim that it is Jesus’ teaching rather than his presence that matters, and that he is best regarded as a very good man. Orthodox Christians respond to this claim by saying that the apostles testified that they did not encounter a mere spirit. Others might say that the Son of God took on human nature as a way of becoming involved with the world, and that human nature means having a body. Losing the body in death cuts off the involvement, so the resurrection of the body is necessary for Christ’s continuing participation in the world. The Christian church is convinced that Christ’s presence in the lives of his people is of fundamental importance.

What part does the resurrection play in Christian faith?

Is belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus essential to Christianity?