The Critical Transforming Nature of the Resurrection

All Scripture is founded on the truth and reality of the resurrection. God through the Word of God by the Spirit of God desires each of us to be transformed by the truth of the resurrection.

The Biblical Necessity of the Resurrection

The resurrection of Christ is critical to our faith. One cannot be a Christian and deny the resurrection of Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, Paul gives a selective resurrection account which is both historical and biblical. Paul intentionally writes how Jesus appeared to others. This appearance was the bodily, physical, resurrected appearance of Jesus not a spiritual vision.

The men listed by Paul represent apostolic authority, where the church finds its authority as given by Christ. These men were also leaders amongst the believers and demonstrated transformed lives because they fully understood and believed the truth of the resurrection of Jesus.

One who truly believes the resurrection of Jesus will be transformed.

Paul first lists Peter and the twelve to whom Jesus had appeared. Peter is a reminder of how we all fail and doubt. Peter’s life displays the extent of Jesus’s forgiveness, as far as the east is from the west.

Next Paul notes that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred at one time, some who were at the time of Paul’s writing, ‘asleep.’ How comforting to know God views the death of His child in the Lord Jesus Christ as a temporary circumstance. Just as Jesus was raised back to life, those in Christ have the blessed hope of eternal life with Him.

These five hundred people came to the powerful reality that Jesus lives, and they testified to this reality.

Paul next mentions James, the half-brother of Jesus (Gal. 1:18-19) who knew Him but did not believe in Him as his Savior (John 7). It is not until after the resurrection that James is confronted with the powerful reality of who Jesus is and then places his faith in his resurrected Lord.

The Personal Necessity of the Resurrection

Paul continues with his own abbreviated personal testimony in 1 Corinthians 15:8-9. Believing in the resurrection means more than traditionalism or a historic, biblical fact that gathers us together. As we see in Paul’s life, when the truth of the resurrection is believed, a person’s life is changed.

Paul had a past of persecuting the church of God, breathing out murderous desires to imprison all men and women who followed Jesus. Paul mentions that he was the last to see the resurrected Christ and describes his apostleship as ‘one untimely born.’ The Greek meaning of this phrase is the idea of trauma or miscarriage. We are to understand that Paul was out of order or out of time for being called an apostle. He was unlike the others who walked with Jesus and learned from Him during His earthly ministry. Paul was last, the misfit.

Paul makes the point that even misfits, and those suffering abnormal and sorrowful circumstances or tragedies, and even those filled with hatred and anger, when confronted by the resurrected Savior can be changed by the power of the gospel.

The Divine Necessity of the Resurrection

The resurrection is a divine necessity because only God could change a persecutor of the church into a pursuer of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:10). It was by God’s grace and initiative that Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus and was changed. It was nothing Paul could do; it was Jesus who did the work of salvation, and Paul was changed.

Before coming to Christ, Paul had been zealous, careful with the law, moral, devoting himself to pleasing the priests, assuming he was pleasing God as well. Now, Paul writes his amazement that it was nothing he had done, but it was by God’s grace alone, divine sufficiency.

The scripture is clear that the resurrection is true. Only God can do this amazing work, giving new life to what is dead. All other hopes and helps are vain. The sufficiency of grace compels us to trust in Jesus as Savior.

Living for Christ is hard work. Paul’s life as a missionary included being persecuted, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and often uncomfortable and hungry. Yet his life by divine grace reflected who was working in him, a divine reflection seen by those around him.

Perhaps like Peter, we have failed. Perhaps like James, we have lived in unbelief. Perhaps like Paul, we have pursued a lifestyle that we think is right but does not please God.

Like these men, our lives can be transformed by the resurrected Savior, giving us the hope of eternity with Jesus by faith in Him alone. We, too, can be divine reflections of His grace to those around us.

Application Points

• Do you know a lot of facts about Jesus, or have you placed your faith in Jesus alone? God’s Word records the power of Jesus over death so that you might know His power to forgive, save, change, and transform you.
• Are you defined by your past, by your sin, by your self-effort, by your good works? Or are you defined by your Savior? Jesus would have you believe and trust Him, the Savior, by the Word of God.
• Has knowing the Savior changed your life? Are you reflecting the divine grace of God to those around you? Jesus is a forgiving and loving Savior. When you know Him, your life will be transformed, and others will notice.

Tools for Further Study

Cross References to Explore

Acts 9, 22, 26

A Hymn to Encourage: "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say"

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
lay down, thou weary one, lay down
thy head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in Him a resting place,
and He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
the living water, thirsty one;
stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
and now I live in Him.