Jesus Christ, the Word who was God and who created all things, was made flesh and became fully human so that He could die for our sins. He was not God dwelling inside a body that died while He stayed alive and active; He Himself died, with His life poured out in His blood on the cross, and for three days and three nights He was dead. Dead matter cannot impart life, and life comes only from life, so God the Father, who has life inherent in Himself, raised Him from the dead (John 5:26). Christ rose from death, not from a living state. Romans 14:9 says He died, rose, and "revived," like a boxer knocked unconscious and brought back. Scripture nowhere says He returned to the body that had died. The resurrection changed Him again, from mortal human flesh into immortality, and He lives forevermore as a living Savior, High Priest, and coming King. Had He been only human, His death could have paid for only one other person, but because He is the Creator, His life outweighs all humanity and fully pays the death penalty for sin. Those who deny that He truly died have no Savior. Believers are to surrender completely to the risen Christ, who gives eternal life (I John 5:11-12).

Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day, as Scripture required, and for forty days afterward He showed Himself alive to the apostles and others by many infallible proofs, about ten recorded appearances, speaking of the things of the Kingdom. His relationship to the apostles changed after the resurrection. Because the work the Father gave Him was finished, He was no longer constantly with them but oriented Himself toward returning to the Father. On the fortieth day He ascended visibly in a cloud from the Mount of Olives near Bethany, and the apostles knew it was final until His equally visible return. The Father raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand, far above every principality and power, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him. This fulfilled Daniel 7, where the Son of Man is presented to the Ancient of Days and given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, and Psalm 110, where He sits until His enemies become His footstool. Having overcome, He sat down with the Father on His throne. His resurrection and ascension opened the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, gifts to the church, and His role as ruling High Priest, who entered the heavenly Most Holy Place with His own blood. He now intercedes for believers with full understanding of human suffering, and He waits until He returns.

Jesus' resurrection is far more than the popular Easter celebration of new clothes, sunrise services, and candy. The Bible shows He could not have risen at Sunday sunrise, since Mary Magdalene found the tomb already empty while it was still dark (John 20:1). To fulfill the sign of His Messiahship, He remained in the tomb a full three days and three nights, which points to a Wednesday crucifixion and a late Sabbath resurrection. His resurrection was also no mere return to physical life like that of Lazarus or the saints raised at His death, whose mortality was only postponed. Jesus was raised to everlasting, immortal spirit life, for it was not possible that death should hold Him (Acts 2:24; Revelation 1:18; II Corinthians 13:4). Because He passed from death to life, He makes salvation and eternal life possible. He lives forever as Savior and High Priest, always interceding for those who come to God through Him (Romans 5:10; 6:8-9; Hebrews 7:24-25). Having paid for sins in His sinless body, He was raised and exalted to the Father's right hand, where He has authority to pour out the Holy Spirit on the elect (Acts 2:32-33; Hebrews 1:3). As the Forerunner and Trailblazer of salvation, He opens the way for God's people to attain a similar resurrection and to be like Him, bearing the image of the heavenly Man (I John 3:2; I Corinthians 15:49). Man's potential reaches to the divine.

Jesus Christ truly died and truly rose bodily on the third day, and the resurrection is as essential to salvation as His death: His blood covers sin, while His rising gives a living Savior and the hope of resurrection for all who believe and confess Him (Romans 10). His death is certain, since Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate, and the Roman centurion, who knew death when he saw it, all confirmed it, and secular historians and even His enemies attest the crucifixion under Pilate. The tomb was sealed and guarded at the Jews' own request, and the women who watched the burial knew which tomb it was, so the claims of a coma, a wrong tomb, a stolen body, or a substitute on the cross collapse. The women and guards witnessed the earthquake and the angel, and the seal was intact when Jesus left the tomb by God's power. The empty tomb, the many intimate appearances over forty days, and the appearance to over five hundred at once all confirm it. Mass hallucination is impossible, and four Gospels plus Paul's early creed supply the required multiple witnesses. The twenty-seven New Testament documents are first-generation, candid even about the disciples' failings, and the best attested in history. Peter could point to David's tomb as occupied, while Jesus' was empty, and no body was ever produced. The once-fearful disciples became fearless preachers who died rather than recant, as liars never would. Skeptics reject the evidence by an act of will, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness because accepting it demands submission to the risen Lord.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is far more important for why it happened than for when it happened, though the traditional Easter sunrise timeline is wrong. Matthew 28:1 gives the time the women came to the tomb, not the time of the resurrection, and the Greek of "He has risen" and Mark 16:9's "having risen" describes a completed past action. Christ was put in the tomb at sunset and raised after three full days and nights, so He rose at sunset, before the women arrived. The deeper significance is that Christ's death paid for sin and His resurrection secures eternal life, as in I Corinthians 15, where Paul says that without the resurrection faith is futile, sins remain, and there is no hope. Redemption without eternal life would be pointless. Hebrews 2:14-15 shows that He destroyed Satan's power of death. Like Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea, the resurrection opens a way of escape and a living hope of an incorruptible inheritance (I Peter 1:3-5). Unlike Israel, believers are baptized into His death and raised to newness of life (Romans 6), and they receive God's Spirit under the New Covenant, which enables them to change. The risen, glorified Christ, holding all authority, now works as High Priest, interceding and helping believers through every trial. He lives in them by His Spirit, and nothing can separate them from His love. By His life lived in them, they will be raised on the last day and live forever (John 6).

Jesus truly died, and the dead have no awareness or function (Psalm 146:3-4; Ecclesiastes 9:5; Job 14:21), so He could not raise Himself. Scripture says plainly that Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3) and that He "was dead, and came to life" (Revelation 1:18; 2:8). If He did not truly die, the penalty for sin, which is death (Romans 6:23), has not been paid and we have no Savior. Someone else raised Him: about twenty-three times Scripture says God the Father raised Jesus up (Acts 2:24). John 2:19 does not teach that Jesus raised Himself. There the Greek word naos, the dwelling place of deity, is used metaphorically of a body in which God dwells, as in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 and 6:19. Jesus spoke of His body, the church, and Mark 14:58 clarifies that He would build another temple made without hands. At His resurrection the church became an accomplished fact, with Him as its first member and Head (Matthew 16:18). Because One who has inherent life cannot die, the claim that Jesus was "fully God" and "fully man" obscures the truth. In becoming flesh, He emptied Himself of the outward expression of His deity, including immortality (Philippians 2:6-7), so that He could die and be raised by the Father.