Now we’re ready to examine the most important event in the history of the ages – the resurrection of Christ. The significance of the resurrection cannot be overstated. So, before we look at the record of the actual event, let’s examine the importance of it.
First, the resurrection of Christ is a sign of His authority over death. In Matthew 12:38-40 the Jews wanted a sign to prove Christ’s claim that He was the Son of God. He gave them the sign of Jonah, “For even as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, likewise will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Verse 40)
And, let’s be clear, the comparison is literal. The children’s books show Jonah sitting by a fire in the fish’s belly, a sad look on his face. But just as Christ was dead those three days and nights, so was Jonah. It’s not surprising that Jonah showed some enthusiasm for following God’s command after he “cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell I cried,” (Jonah 2:2) and “the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.” (Jonah 2:10) “Hell” is from Sheol, the place of the dead, the same as described in Luke 16, as previously discussed. It is clear that both Jonah and Christ were dead for three days and nights.
Jesus was definitive in what He said about His resurrection (see Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23 and 20:18-19 for examples); though it’s obvious by their actions (as we will see later) His own family and the disciples did not understand Him. I’m not condemning them for their unbelief, but many of His claims that He would be resurrected came after He had shown that He had authority over death. He had raised the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:35-43); had brought the widow’s son back to life in Nain (Luke 7:11-15); and raised Lazarus to life again after he had been dead for four days (John 11:1-44).
Secondly, I want to point out the fact that Christ’s resurrection was a sign of the Father’s acceptance of His (that is, Christ’s) completion of the plan of redemption. Atonement for sin was fully carried out, the just for the unjust; reconciliation had been achieved and the barrier between God and man was destroyed.
“But to which of the angels had God ever said, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a stool for Your feet.” (Hebrews 1:13, a quote of Psalm 110:1) Who was the Father talking to here? It was not the eternal, pre-existent Son. It was the resurrected humanity of the Christ! For the first time in history a man was permitted to sit in the presence of the holy, righteous God. And Christ sat at God’s right hand – the sign of complete acceptance, the place of honor.
And since the man Christ Jesus was accepted into the very presence of God and to this place of honor, He makes it possible for believers follow Him as His accepted brethren. This is Hebrews 2:11, “For both He Who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of the same family. And for this reason He (that is, Christ) is not ashamed to call them brethren.” And let us not forget what Paul says in Romans 8:17, “And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also; the heirs of God and equal heirs with Christ (sharing in His inheritance).”
Then the resurrection is the sign of promise, the promise of our own resurrection. The easiest way to explain this may be to give you my expanded translation of I Corinthians 15:20-23. “This is an established fact: Christ has been raised from the dead. And because of that, He has become the first of those who have fallen asleep in death that will eventually follow Him. Since it was through a man (Adam) that death first came into the world, it is also through a Man that the resurrection of the dead has now come. Because of our relation to Adam (sharing his sin nature) all of us will die; so also because of our relation to Christ (sharing His nature) we will be resurrected to life. But we have to wait our turn. Christ was the first, then those who belong to Christ will be resurrected at His coming again to the earth.” (Compare I Thessalonians 4:13-17)
It is the fact of the resurrection that gives believers the confidence that they will live again after their earthly life has ended. This is I Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy we have been born into the hope of living again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
While the meaning of the resurrection is a theological matter, the reality of it is an historical fact. No other belief system in the world claims that its founder has arisen from the dead. The claims of Christianity rest entirely on the resurrection of Christ (read I Corinthians 15:3-23). The resurrection is not a matter of faith – it is an established fact of history. “To them also (the apostles) He showed Himself alive after His suffering by a series of convincing demonstrations, appearing to them for forty days and talking to them of matters concerning the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3) Here, “convincing demonstrations” is from en pollois tekmeriois, a legal expression that describes irrefutable evidence that cannot be disproven!
The resurrection of Christ was an accepted historical fact with both Christian and non-Christian historians, from the Christian Ignatius, to the Jewish Josephus and the Roman Tacitus. Early historians surrounded by contemporary evidences did not try to refute it, only much later in time was this attempted. More recently, atheist Frank Morison wrote a book titled “Who Moved the Stone?” His work was intended to provide hard evidence that the Christian claims of a resurrected Christ were false. The result of his investigation was his own conversion to Christianity and he had to rewrite the book! It is still available today on Amazon.