Why Resurrection?

“And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living”
(Matthew 22: 31-32)

In his response to the Sadducees' double-barreled question about marriage and the eschatological future, Jesus makes a remarkable statement: God is the God of the living, not the dead. Like his original audience, this statement perplexes us: how could this be so?

As we keep reading through the Gospel as we move toward Easter Sunday, we are given the answer: God is the God of the living because He is the One who brings new life from the clutches of death. He did this fully and finally in Jesus’ bodily resurrection.

As Paul says, “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him…you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:9-10).

Over the next few weeks on The Apologetics Corner, we will explore God’s life-giving, resurrecting power. This attribute is depicted in surprising ways throughout the Bible, from the conception of Isaac to the crossing of the Red Sea to the resurrection of Christ and the future hope of bodily resurrection. We will see God’s resurrecting power in the Old Testament, the hope in Christ’s post-resurrection body, and our call to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus alongside the apostles.

Here are the topics and passages we will be exploring:

March 14: Red Sea & Resurrected Life (Exodus 14-15; Acts 7; 1 Corinthians 10)
Key Question: Where is God’s resurrecting power in the Old Testament?

March 21: Jesus’ Resurrected Body (Luke 24; 1 Corinthians 15)
Key Question: Why does it matter that Jesus was resurrected in His body?

March 28: Death to Sin, Life in Christ (Acts 10; Romans 6; Galatians 2)
Key Question: Why do we proclaim the resurrection of Jesus as good news?

I hope you will spend the next few weeks meditating on what Scripture says about God’s resurrecting power with us. We pray that as we move toward Easter Sunday thinking about resurrection, God would grant us the strength “to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may, by your life-giving Spirit, be delivered from sin and raised from death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.¹

1. "Collect for Easter,” Book of Common Prayer (2019: Anglican House Publishers).

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Dr. John F. Ankerberg in his writings and on his television program presents contemporary spiritual issues and defends biblical Christian answers. He believes that Christianity can not only stand its ground in the arena of the world's ideas, but that Christianity alone is fully true. He has spoken to audiences on more than 78 American college and university campuses, as well as in crusades in major cities of Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands of the Caribbean. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Religious Broadcasters. He and his wife, Darlene, have one daughter, Michelle.