As we approach Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the topic inevitably arises: did Christ rise from the dead and later physically ascend to Heaven?  Does it matter?  I want to open with a quote by Augustine of Hippo, “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself” (Sermons).  Now we can begin.

Essential Information: What is the Gospel?

At the end of your life, you will stand before a holy and perfect God who ordains all things that come to pass.  He is perfectly holy and just.  No man can enter into His presence and live.  At the final judgment, you will either be judged by your lack of righteousness or enter into heaven by another’s righteousness.  Whose righteousness?  Jesus Christ’s.

The essence of the Gospel is this: Jesus Christ entered into history in the flesh, both truly God and truly man, and lived the perfect life of righteousness and obedience that you or I never could.  Because of His perfect obedience, He was able to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice on the cross to satisfy the justice and righteousness of God.

God poured out His wrath upon Christ for all of Christ’s people.  Three days after His death, God the Father raised God the Son (Jesus) from the grave, showing Christ’s sacrifice acceptable and making Christ the firstfruit of those who would rise from the grave.

So, is believing in the resurrection necessary for salvation?

For this, we must appeal directly to scripture:

Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection from the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.  Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He rasied Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been rasied, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. (1 Cor 15:12-19, NASB)

I will not build a case of reasoning or argument pulling in various scripture verses  because this one is clear:

If Christ is not raised from the dead, you are dead in your sins and under the condemnation of God.  However, because Christ is raised from the dead, we can know that the Bible is true.

If the Christ is not raised from the dead, there is no such thing as Christianity, and the faith is fraudulent and useless.  Because Christ is raised from the dead, we can know that Christ’s message is genuine and life-giving.

Because Christ is raised from the dead, you can be adopted as sons and daughters into the kingdom of God and have passed from death to life (cf. John 5:24, Galatians 4:5).

However, if you do not believe in the resurrection, you have called God a liar and are not in the faith, “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony [of God] in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him [God] a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son” (1 John 5:10).  If you do not believe in the resurrection, you are still under the wrath of God and falsely identify as a Christian.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation