The Connection of Death with the Resurrection

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” — 1 Corinthians 15:20

“And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” — The Creed

«Christos Anesti»

It is noted that “Christos” means Christ, i.e., the Messiah, rose—and not “Iesous Anesti,” i.e., Jesus rose.

With this proclamation, the Church intentionally and testimonially declares the beginning of the Messianic era, referring to Christ’s title “the Messiah” openly:

“ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” — Acts 2:36

Christ was keen not to reveal that He was the Messiah throughout His ministry, until He completed His suffering without hindrance and fulfilled the rights of atonement on the cross by the will of His crucifiers. This was difficult according to human logic for His disciples to connect between the cross and the resurrection. This prompted Christ to correct it immediately after His resurrection—but rather with a severe rebuke to the two disciples of Emmaus who were confused by the connection between the glory of the resurrection and the humiliation of His crucifixion and death:

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” — Luke 24:25–26

It is also observed that John the Baptist encountered this stumbling block when he sent two disciples to ask Christ:

“Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” — Matthew 11:3

This question arose because of Christ’s humble appearance and the weakness of His worldly authority over the rulers and kings who had imprisoned John, who was supposed to prepare the way before Him. Christ replied, indicating who He truly was, and showing that the era of the Messiah and His works were right before their eyes:

“Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended by Me.” — Matthew 11:4–6

Here we observe that the strongest sign testifying that He is the Messiah is His authority to raise the dead—and this is the authority of God Himself. Christ clarified the relationship of His authority to raise the dead with the truth that He is the Son of God:

“For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” — John 5:21

As for Christ’s own resurrection from the dead and His ascension to the right hand of God, it came to confirm that the One with divine authority to raise from the dead must primarily and pre-eminently also be raised Himself from the dead—a permanent and glorious resurrection:

“...and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” — Romans 1:4

Moreover, Christ confined the ultimate purpose and goal of His coming to giving eternal life and raising the dead:

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” — John 6:40

So the resurrection from the dead is the essence of Christ’s message for salvation, which leads to resurrection and living hope. He began it Himself and will complete it with us on the last day.

Through the mystery of Communion, the power of resurrection became accessible to all. Christ hinted that the power of resurrection resided in His body, and thus He instituted the mystery of Communion, so that the power of resurrection would be available to everyone and permanently ready in every time and place:

“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” — John 6:54

It is not hidden from the reader that in Christ’s giving His body and blood to His disciples on Holy Thursday—before the cross—for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life, it was a revelation beyond all revelations: that resurrection and life were in His body before death just as they are after death, and He now delivers them to us in the same manner, meaning before death, to reach their ultimate manifestation after death and on the last day.

Christ once declared that He is the coming Messiah; He declared this to the Samaritan woman when she confronted Him with her keen insight:

“The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’” — John 4:25–26

However, Christ was very careful that His identity as the Messiah should not be revealed until after the Resurrection, so that the Cross would not be hindered, and because the revelation of the Resurrection must be the direct indicative result of Christ’s death on the Cross, as explained in the Transfiguration incident:

“After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and Elijah appeared to them with Moses—the testimony of the Prophets and the Law—and they were talking with Jesus. And as they were descending from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” — Mark 9:2–9

And as stated in Peter’s testimony:

“You are the Christ, the Messiah.” — Mark 8:29

Then He warned them not to tell anyone about Him. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).

The Inevitability of Suffering, and the Resurrection

Immediately after His resurrection, Christ corrected the disciples’ understanding—and consequently the understanding of the entire Church—regarding the inevitability of the Messiah’s suffering and death so that the resurrection might be revealed, and thus eternal life and the Kingdom. By this Christ explained what came concerning it in the Holy Scriptures:

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself, as the Messiah, in all the Books.” — Luke 24:27

And from that hour, the disciples and all the Church thereafter began to study and examine and interpret all the books of the Holy Scriptures with great diligence and activity—personal and collective—until their interpretations became settled as an official source to confirm the correctness of the connection between the suffering and death with the resurrection in the faith of the Church. And this we hear clearly from Paul the Apostle several times:

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures.” — 1 Corinthians 15:3–4

Then Paul the Apostle returns and affirms that the suffering of the Messiah is the primary cause for the manifestation of His being the first to rise from the dead—not as a model but as a source. Furthermore, the connection of suffering with resurrection constitutes a fundamental sign to identify the coming of the Messiah and the beginning of His service to the whole world, according to the Scriptures:

“Therefore, having obtained help from God, I continue to this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying nothing other than what the Prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles.” — Acts 26:22–23

This is the tradition inherited from the Scriptures, that the sign of the Messiah is that He would suffer and die and then rise.

The Inevitability of the Resurrection as the Path That Follows the Act of the Cross

It is also imperative that we realize that our faith in the Resurrection—and its action and effect—is essentially linked fundamentally to the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. For the Cross alone without the Resurrection is impossible to be able to forgive sins, and this is what led Paul the Apostle to say:

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” — 1 Corinthians 15:17

Therefore, the Resurrection is the proof of the validity and effectiveness of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and it is the final decree for the forgiveness of sins—a public documentation with the testimony of witnesses for the work of the Cross. For on the Cross Christ bore our sins and received the penalty of death for them in His pure body to redeem us from the curse and death. For if He had remained in death without resurrection, our sins would have remained imprisoned by death and would have continued to have dominion over us.

But He rose by the power of His divinity and by the factor of His holiness, dissolving the pains of death since it was not possible that He be held by it—abolishing death and thereby nullifying sin, having paid its full price in His body. And Paul the Apostle explains with precision the relationship between the work of the Cross and the work of the Resurrection, and the connection of each to the other with regard to us:

“...who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” — Romans 4:25

And also he says:

“And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” — Romans 8:10

That is, by faith in Christ, union with His body is accomplished in death and resurrection; and by this we have abolished the body of sin, meaning we have crucified with Him the old man:

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” — Romans 6:5–7

And so the connection of Christ’s death with His resurrection becomes the core of the Christian faith, which rests on the foundation of the forgiveness of sins and the expectation of eternal life with living hope.