Full Strength Christianity: Resurrection Of The Dead

This is the second instalment in my series on Full Strength Christianity. This time we will look at the Resurrection of the Dead.

When we read the Nicene Creed, near the end we find the phrase ‘I believe in the Resurrection of the Dead‘.

This is so important, because without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith is ‘in vain’.

1 Cor 15 v 12 - 14

Now if Christ is preached as raised up from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ has not been raised either.  But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.

The materialistic Western cultures look at the Resurrection as an impossibility. Looking through this lens, they would argue how can a decomposed body come back to life? Within three days, the internal organs decompose. So how can they physically reform in someone who has been dead for three days?

They posit resuscitation as the most likely explanation. So Christ simply fainted on the Cross and revived three days later.

If this worldview was being generous, it could allow for a ‘spiritual’ resurrection, where Jesus lives on in His disciples and the Church as a memory, rather than a bodily resurrection.

However, the Bible is explicit on how Christ physically rose from the dead. He wasn’t a ghostly being or a revived man who was still recovering from His wounds. He was literally and physically resurrected.

The Resurrection is the heart of orthodox Christian faith. Modern versions of Christianity tend to focus away from this, concentrating on other things, like charitable works, social justice and climate change. Any talk of a physical resurrection may seem like a fantasy tale to some modern Western Christians.

Full Strength Christianity has the Resurrection of Jesus at its core. His Resurrection proved he conquered death and it means Christians will ultimately escape death too.

Modern Western cultures have no room for this doctrine, as it makes no sense in their materialistic framework. From their perspective, there is nothing meaningful after death. The claim Christ has defeated death, in their eyes, is nonsense. People still die today. But St Paul writes

2 Timothy 1 v 10

But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

And Christ famously said:

John 11 25-26

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

This is the question for the Modern Western Church. Do you believe that Christ was physically raised from the dead, defeated Death and now allows Christians to remain alive and reign in Him (even after their flesh dies)?

Without this core belief, Christianity tends to bound to an earthly vision. Which is overly concerned with the temporal and ‘that which decays’. And consequently, is demonstrably weak.

A full strength Christianity embraces the Resurrection of Jesus as a fundamental axiom. And without it, there is no little hope beyond death.