The resurrection of Christ was the central theme of apostolic preaching.

Philippians 3:10 (KJV)
¹⁰ That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

In the verse above, Paul wrote of the power of his resurrection.  But the resurrection was not exclusively Pauline.  In the very first sermon that was preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost and recorded in Acts 2, the theme of the sermon was the resurrection of Christ.  Inspired writers of the New Testament understood that the resurrection of Christ is precious.

Why is the resurrection so precious?  Two things come to my mind.  First, without the resurrection of Christ, we could not be saved.  Paul reminds us that Jesus was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25).  The word justification refers to an acquittal.  We have been acquitted, that is, found not guilty, in heaven’s court.  This would not be possible if Jesus was not raised from the dead.  If the end of the wonderful story of Jesus was His death on the cross, the story would not be very wonderful at all.  The devil would have been the victor.  Jesus, knowing that such would not be the case, promised that the gates of hades would not prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18).  Jesus Himself knew that if He was not raised by the power of His Father, the church would not be set up, and He would not become the Savior of the world.  Thus, we needed, not only a Savior who was willing to be sacrificed, but a risen Savior.  In the great chapter on the resurrection, that is, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).  Yes, the resurrection of Christ is precious to those of us who are Christians because we understand that without it, we would be without a Savior, and, there, without salvation.

The second reason the resurrection is so precious to us is that it assures us of our own resurrection.   Again, referring to 1 Corinthians 15, notice what Paul wrote.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22 (ESV)
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

The resurrection of Christ proves first and foremost that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Romans 1:4).  It also proves that God has the ability to raise the dead, and someday He will exercise that power on us.  The resurrection of Christ is a glaring example to all of us, who are Christians, of what kind of body we shall someday have.  John said, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Oh, how precious the resurrection of Christ is.  It is a constant reminder that one of these days we are going to have a glorious body too.  It is going to be a wonderful body that is free from all of the pain and problems that we have in this earthly tabernacle.  Can you imagine that?  When our present, corruptible bodies put on incorruption, we will never have to worry about growing old.  We will never have to worry about arthritis.  We will never have to worry about heart attacks or diabetes or any other bodily disease.  We will spend all of eternity in a perfect place in a perfect body.  How do we know?  We know, at least in part, because Jesus has been raised from the dead, and if He doesn’t come back first, we will be raised as well.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.