The sound of the song, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, escapes from the church into the bright morning air. A skinny, bespectacled man of God on the pulpit ransacks the bible for scriptures on the resurrection of Jesus and speaks with passion and imagination as if he were there over 2,000 years ago.

It’s another Easter Sunday when Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ their Lord. The story of the life and works of the founder of Christianity is told in the Holy Bible.  

Jesus was Deity born in human form in Bethlehem, Israel around 4 B.C. He called himself Son of God and Son of Man. He was a teacher; preacher; miracle worker who healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons and forgave sins. He was the Messiah, the Saviour.

Religious leaders accused him of blasphemy- asserting that he’s God’s son and can forgive sins. He was judged by Pilate who made a fatal legal error- passing a “not guilty” verdict but handing over an innocent man to be flogged and hanged due to mob insistence and fear.

Jesus died on the cross on a Friday about A.D 33. He was buried in a rock-hewn tomb but on the third day, Sunday, his body was missing- he had risen from the dead. Christianity, the world’s leading religion of two billion followers, is the only religion which boasts a living Lord.

Jesus’ enemies spread the rumour that his disciples stole his body. His resurrection remains a historical fact. The tomb is empty; eyewitnesses saw him- the women (Matthew 28:9); his disciples (Mark 16:14); and the two men walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-16).

John Singleton Copley (Lord Lyndhurst), a Solicitor General in Great Britain in 1819 and Attorney General in 1824, wrote a note found in his private papers, “I know what evidence is, and I tell you, such evidence as that for the Resurrection has never broken down yet.”

If the resurrection of Jesus were removed from the bible, the character and identity of Christianity would be altered. “The resurrection of Jesus and Christianity stand or fall together,” writes Professor Josh McDowell in Evidence that Demands a Verdict (1990).

The Church without the resurrection? It’s the resurrection of their master that gave the disciples the courage to emerge from hiding; to preach the gospel boldly and to suffer for it. The church was begun and marketed using the message of Jesus’ resurrection.

Peter addressed crowds on the Day of Pentecost, “God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this,” (Acts 2:32). Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “... that Christ died for our sins ... that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later.” In verse 14, he adds, “And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain.”

Michael Green in Man Alive, (1968) writes, “Without faith in the resurrection, there would be no Christianity at all. The church would never have begun; the Jesus movement would have fizzled out with his execution.” 

Removing the resurrection means invalidating the Trinity doctrine. If Jesus the Son did not rise, there would only be the Father and the Holy Spirit, implying God is not Almighty and Jesus didn’t conquer death.

Jesus would be proved wrong for uttering prophesies about his resurrection- “The Son of man is about to be handed over to the people ... but three days later, he will be raised to life,” (Matthew 17:22-23).

Wilbur Smith in, A Great Certainty in this Hour of World Crises (1951) says of Jesus, “He said something that only a fool would dare say ... He was sure He was going to rise.”

Without the resurrection in the bible, Christians would have no hope- there would be no second coming of Christ, (Matthew 24:29-31; 24:42-44) or its signs- earthquakes, wars, famines, false prophets and persecutions (Matthew 24:5-14).

No hope of going to heaven to inherit God’s Kingdom. Jesus would be wrong when he said, “... I am going to prepare a place for you ... I will come back and take you to myself,” (John 14:2-3). He wouldn’t be the groom and the church the bride.

No feast in heaven of which he spoke, “... I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in my Father’s Kingdom,” (Matthew 26:29). No judgment- humans would claim they are just animals, Homo sapiens. No repentance, no hell, no eternal life and no rewards for righteousness.

Paul rightly wrote, “And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins .... then we deserve more pity than anyone else in the world,” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19). Without Jesus’ resurrection, any scripture on man’s resurrection including the Old Testament prophesy about Jesus’ resurrection (Psalms 16:8-11) is irrelevant.

Jesus’s promise to send his followers the Holy Spirit would be vain (John 16:7), meaning no Day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4). The prophesy in Joel 2:28, about God pouring out His spirit on everyone would be dead. Christians wouldn’t experience infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’s teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven, a reward being kept in heaven (Matthew 5:12) and repentance would be irrelevant. Christians wouldn’t recite the Apostles Creed which affirms resurrection and wouldn’t practice baptism, symbol of dying and rising with Jesus (Romans 6:4). They wouldn’t celebrate Easter or sing resurrection songs.

In the end, we agree with Wilbur Smith, “... if you lifted out every passage in which a reference is made to the Resurrection, you would have a collection of writings so mutilated that what remained could not be understood.” 

The resurrection of Jesus remains a historical fact and cannot be removed from the bible. It’s inseparably and divinely knit into the very fabric of the bible, the church and Christian life.