As Paul begins his letter to the church at Rome, he uses words which clearly focus on the resurrection of Jesus. He said that Jesus was “…declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection from the dead” (1:4). In his letter to the church at Philippi, he spoke of his great desire to “…know Him and the power of His resurrection” (3:10). Lives are changed if we never forget that His resurrection empowers us to forsake all for Him.
Our salvation will never happen until we believe in the resurrection. Listen to what Paul says about this. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your hearts that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Our souls, our hearts, must believe that God raised Him from the dead. This shows the power of the resurrection.
The resurrection on the third day is the foundational truth of Christianity. When Paul used the expression “first of all,” it was far more than the “first point” of a paragraph. The Greek shows that of all the truths in the gospel it was first in importance. “I delivered to you first of all…that Christ died….and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4).
The resurrection assures that preaching is not vain. Paul said, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching if empty” (1 Cor. 15:14). There is no need to preach! There is no need to try to get men to come to Jesus. If there is no resurrection, then Jesus is a fraud and the empty tomb is a myth. Yet, Jesus showed the entire world’s need when He said to preach the gospel (His death, burial and resurrection—1 Cor. 15:1, 4) to every creature (Mark 16:15).
The resurrection gives reality to hope and faith. Look again at 1 Corinthians 15:14 and especially the closing words. “If Christ is not risen then…your faith is also empty.” This entire chapter ties the empty tomb to our resurrection to the hope eternal life with Him.
The resurrection changed Jesus’ entire family of Jesus. Prior to His resurrection, His brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). For three decades none of them thought He was the Son of God. On one occasion, “…they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, ‘He is out of His mind.’” But less than three years later they were all in the upper room and were part of selecting the apostle to replace Judas (Acts 1:14, 26)! What changed them? Jesus had appeared to James, his oldest brother (1 Cor. 15:7), but His brothers believed the testimony of those who had seen Him.
The power of the resurrection will change you. Stand and look at the empty tomb. Something happens to you as you look inside—He is not there! Its emptiness will change you!