“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out” (John 5:28-29)
There are more than a few Christians who don’t believe that Christ was actually raised from the dead. Yet the Bible teaches that His resurrection is as important as His death on the Cross. In fact, the Apostle Paul told believers in Corinth, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (1 Corinthians 15:17)
Most Christians have no problem understanding why the resurrection of Jesus is so important. No resurrection would mean that sin was not conquered, that eternal life is nothing more than a hope. If you stop and think about it, if Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, then He didn’t keep his promise. It would also mean that the Books of Acts and John are full of lies. He never ascended and He never went to prepare a place for us.
I know Jesus came out of that tomb. The Bible says He did and hundreds of people saw Him before He ascended to heaven. Interestingly, there’s no record in existence where any one of the hundreds who saw Him said it wasn’t true. Sadly some of us will only be convinced when he returns to judge us.
But while Christians have little trouble understanding the importance of the resurrection of Jesus, some of us can’t understand what’s so important about the promise that we, too, will rise out of the grave, just like Jesus.
We know it was important to Job. Here’s a man who lost everything, except his faith in the Lord. After all Job endured, he let us know that he was clinging on to the promise of his own resurrection when he said, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25-26)
It’s easy to understand the importance of believing in Jesus’ resurrection, but why is our own resurrection so important? The answer to that question is fundamental truth that is laced throughout the Gospel.
No one in the Bible was more strident about the importance of the believer’s resurrection than the Apostle Paul. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he knew that Christians could never have victory over death without resurrection. Paul understood what it meant to live under grace rather than under law. The penalty of trying to live under law was death he told all of us in his letter to the Church at Rome, but because we are saved by grace, he proclaimed, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)
Paul also understood that death could not be the final enemy unless and until the believer enjoys the victory that comes from resurrection. “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption,” he told the Church at Corinth. “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
One day body and soul will both go to heaven. But the bodies we have then will be perfect, unblemished, willing to give way to matters of the spirit rather than matters of the flesh. That’s what’s so important about the believer’s resurrection and exactly why Paul exclaimed, “So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’.” (1 Corinthians 15:54)
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