The Resurrection of Christ
3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…
The Resurrection of the Dead
14 … [I]f Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God… 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23 But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. [1 Cor 15:3-4, 14-23, NRSV]
Conversion of St. Paul, by Nicolas Bernard Lépicié, 1597
Genuine change in an individual comes from an encounter experience with the Crucified and Risen Christ that prompts a different way of life in relationship with him.
With his conversion, Paul’s vision of who God is and how God relates to the world went through massive changes. Of decisive impact on Paul’s conversion, his ensuing life and his growing theological outlook are three historical realities that stand at the core of the Jesus-event: the life, suffering death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In this reflection, we shall briefly attend to the impact of these realities on Paul’s Christology and his theology on Resurrection.
On Christology
On many counts, Paul had been adamant that Jesus deserved to suffer and die on the cross. In his reckoning, Jesus was plainly a blasphemer calling himself the Son of God, who even threatened to pull down the Temple, the most sacred edifice in Judaism. In the eyes of Paul, a strict Pharisee, Jesus as leader of a mixed-bag of disciples who held compliance with the Mosaic Law in disdain exposed Jesus as anything but a holy and righteous man. Besides, Jesus had to be a liar and a usurper of the authentic Messiah, one who would certainly kill and drive out the hated Roman occupiers. Yet, Jesus being put to death by crucifixion in the hands of the enemies clearly disqualified him as the coming Messiah. Furthermore, and this is crucial in Paul’s understanding, nowhere in the Torah was there room for a “crucified Christ”. Instead, the Old Testament explicitly states that “one who hung on the cross was cursed by God “(Deut 21:22-23). Before Saul became Paul, there was simply no way in his theological horizon that the crucified and massively humiliated and discredited Jesus of Nazareth could possibly be the Jewish Mashiach – the Anointed or Chosen One.
Then came the pivotal encounter with the Crucified and Risen Christ on the Road to Damascus. It was in every respect a “shaking of the foundations” for Paul. Not only did he come to realise that the cross of Christ was not a curse from God, but he now understood it as God’s gift of salvation. Now, the cross of Christ stands at the core of the Christian faith. Let’s unpack that a little.
- Jesus who suffered and died on the cross has been raised by God and has appeared to many, including Paul (1 Cor 15:3-8) and spoken to him (Acts 9:1-9). Clearly, the death of the Resurrected One could not possibly be God’s final verdict on his sacrifice; his resurrection is!
Now, by his cross, Jesus is revered as the living embodiment of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 52-53 featured in every Good Friday Service – one who submits completely to God’s will, and embraces suffering in perfect compliance. But why would Jesus actively embrace suffering on the cross? What could an embrace of suffering mean?
- Jesus embraced the cross for the sake of human conversion to and communion with God.
By embracing suffering, excruciating as it was, Jesus transformed Passion into the highest expression of love: he does not simply endure the cross – he embraces it. How might we understand that transformation of Passion?
- Jesus took the cross, and turned the most tragic and unjust of human acts into the greatest act of self-giving. It is what the ancients called “kenosis” – self-emptying, self-donating, thereby inaugurating a new way of relating to the Father. To relate to the true God, one must enter into the spirit of kenosis as demonstrated in Jesus the Crucified One. In his life and death, history had taken a new turn. Paul the self-righteous Pharisaic Jew would learn that it is not by obsessive-compulsive and scrupulous compliance with little bits and pieces of the Mosaic Law that one could brag about righteousness before God, but by willingly absorbing suffering and actively making sacrifice for the sake of human salvation.
- This salvation relates intimately to what Jesus is all about – the kingdom of God. Contrary to popular thinking, often expressed in songs, suggesting that Jesus came to die, he actually came to live, and to show sinful humanity a better way to live, to avoid sinful ways, to live the values of the kingdom of God, and thereby to live in the presence of God. His unwavering walk all the way to the cross was value-affirmed and life-authenticated by the Father who acted definitively by raising him from the dead (Acts 2:36). Easter Sunday first and foremost means that God authenticates the Crucified One and affirms all that Jesus lived, preached, and stood for as being very good; God “sets his seal on Jesus’ message and lifestyle.” All this decisively teaches that the kingdom values of which he taught on one mountain (see the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7) and lived to the full on the other mountain (Mount Calvary, see Luke 23:46), are humanly achievable.
In this new and Christ-focused way, the cross stands at the very core of a deeply committed faith in God. Henceforth for Paul, to relate to God, faith in the crucified-and-risen Christ and following in his way is the key. No longer is the life of faith a matter of just complying with the law to gain righteousness (Pharisaic way!), but by the way of the cross! From Paul, we too may learn that the cross of Christ is meaningful because of the values preached and lived by Christ.
Observant readers readily sense the incisive focus of Herman-Emiel Mertens, our professor of dogmatic theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, who titled his textbook on Christology “Not the Cross, but the Crucified”. A Catholic priest and theology professor, Mertens would shock his students by saying, “I have never met a Christian, myself included.”
In a world increasingly shaped by a narrative of victimhood, where people are quick to blame others for their own suffering, and slow to forgive, Jesus offers another path. Wholly innocent, and yet condemned to a criminal’s death, Jesus never portrays himself as a victim. Instead, he embraces the cross with trust, humility, and profound love. To love so radically entails a willingness to suffer and even die. But through all this, a point of great importance must never be lost sight of, for it bears intimate relevance to the spiritual life of every follower of Christ:
- Jesus sees his suffering as participation in the Father’s loving and salvific plan.
In this light, we may also think of our annual “Lenten observances” not as something imposed on us, but as little “sacrifices” we willingly take on, and offer up to God through Christ, in humble participation in God’s salvific plan for the salvation of a sinful world.
And so, Paul truly understands love because he understands the Cross of Christ. Paul’s most beautiful “hymn to love” is in 1 Corinthians 13.
On the Doctrine of the resurrection of the dead
The resurrection meant Jesus’ death was not a curse by God, but completely the other way round – a free, divine gift of salvation, of unimaginable grace, of life-changing good news!
As the Resurrection of Christ signifies the exaltation and glorification of Jesus (Acts 2:36), the Crucified and Risen Christ is now the Lord – the Kurios – who is actively present in the faith community through his Spirit. This spurred and ignited early preaching to a lost world, and now provides the basis for our future hope, for otherwise all the apostolic proclamation is in vain and our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14).
As Gerald O’Collins, SJ puts it: “Easter shapes and colours the very identity of God”. The early Christian community began to describe God in a new way – as the Father who raised Jesus from the dead and glorified him. Moreover, in raising Jesus from the dead, God began the process of raising the dead, and we are all beneficiaries. God’s new identity became the “God of resurrection”. Resurrection is thus revolutionary. God is faithful: He did it for Jesus; He will do it for us. Our work, our faithfulness, will not be in vain. Humbly, but with determination, we plough on, we shall persevere! The lengthy 1 Corinthians 15 is the major text on the resurrection of the dead.
So D.A. Carson wrote in The Cross and Christian Ministry: “The value of Jesus’ sacrifice is most spectacularly vindicated in the most remarkable fact of history: God raised him from the dead.” There are multiple and clear attestations, a clear expression of which may be found in Acts 2:36. If interested, readers may also google “30. Easter: From Mountain to Mountain” @ www.jeffangiegoh.com for further reflection on this point.
Before we go, what sort of commitment, do you think, does Paul’s ministry of the cross entail? And how do they impact those who are involved in various lay apostolates but do not find their current involvement fulfilling in any way or worse, are so affected by the negative atmosphere that they are struggling with the decision to quit? We shall briefly reflect on those related issues in the next post.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, August 2025. All rights reserved.
To comment, email jeffangiegoh@gmail.com.
