If Christ had not been raised

By Matthew C. Harrison

At last year’s convention, we reaffirmed the simple, elegant truth at the heart of Lutheran doctrine: We preach Christ crucified.

The focus on the cross as the beating heart of our theology and practice was tremendously well received, though — as you might expect — we did get the occasional complaint that we were putting Jesus back on the cross and ignoring the resurrection. Nothing could be further from the truth! To confess Christ crucified is not to ignore the resurrection. Even St. Paul (from whom we stole the convention theme; see 1 Cor. 1:23) concludes that same epistle with his great treatise on the resurrection in Chapter 15.

In that chapter, Paul makes five big “If-then” arguments: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:13–20).

Jesus’ resurrection is absolutely necessary. If He didn’t rise, the whole Christian church is a millennia-long con game and we are perpetrators of a demonic lie. But in fact, Christ rose. (How many post-Enlightenment theologians have I read who finally can’t assert faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus? No wonder Christianity devolves among them into justice, ethics, gender ideology, environmentalism or whatever else is popular in the scholarly world at the time.) The Crucified One is the Risen One. Eternally crucified and eternally risen. His resurrection confirms the power of His death to liberate all who belong to Him from sin and death.

That’s why Christians since the first century have greeted each other in Eastertide saying, “Christ is risen!”, expecting the reply, “He is risen indeed!”

The truth of the resurrection exposes the Gnostic lies that permeate our confused society. To summarize briefly, even before the New Testament, the Gnostics taught that spiritual realities were to be preferred over material ones. The material world was just a prison for the truer spiritual world. When Christianity arose, some Gnostic philosophers sought to integrate their teachings into the New Testament. Jesus came, they taught, to bestow the knowledge necessary for man to be liberated from his material, bodily existence. Against this false notion, the evangelist wrote, “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). And we confess in the Nicene Creed, “Jesus Christ … very God of very God … was made man.” The material world is not a prison for some more real spiritual existence. The Creator called His world “very good” (Gen. 1:31).

The resurrection of Jesus from the grave drives the final nail in the coffin of Gnosticism. The God who became Man died a real death and rose from the dead, body and soul intact. He didn’t leave His body behind. And He promises not to leave your body behind. (Those post-Enlightenment scholars fumble at this too.)

The resurrection — both Jesus’ and ours on the Last Day — gives courage to our everyday realities. Toward the end of his earthly life, my dear friend and colleague Rev. Dr. Herb Mueller was working on a book on the resurrection. We’ve been privileged to bring his vision to print as The Resurrection Changes Everything, and it will be available from Concordia Publishing House toward the end of this year. Herb wrote:

“The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead is on-going assurance from God Himself that Jesus Christ is Lord and is worthy of our trust. In a world full of competing voices, our purpose here is to boost your confidence in this heart of our faith, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. That’s because the resurrection changes everything. Anyone who is unsure of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead will also be less confident in other areas of apologetics and witness: creation vs. evolution, the exclusive claims of Christianity, etc.

“However, when a person is fully convinced Jesus Christ did rise bodily from the dead and that He is alive today, ruling over all creation for the sake of His church, such conviction shows a confidence in the Christian message that is not easily shaken. Certainty about the death and resurrection of Jesus and the reason for it — the boundless love of God — profoundly changes how that person thinks of others and approaches them.”

He is risen indeed! Truly risen! Bodily risen! And so shall you.

Posted April 1, 2024