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THE RESURRECTION  
OF JESUS: OUR LIFE 

 

 

 

 

Abstract  

At Easter we celebrate a super extraordinary event.  In the 

words of Pope John Paul II, paraphrasing St. Augustine: 

“We are the Easter people and ‘Alleluia’ is our song”.  We 

all sing ‘alleluia’ today to praise and thank the Lord for the 

wonders He has worked for us.  Easter, the celebration of 

the Lord’s resurrection is the center of the whole year of 

worship, ‘the feast of all feasts’.  Our faith, our hope and the 

meaning of Christian life is founded on Jesus’ resurrection. 

Despite the surety of the Christian belief, the idea of the 

resurrection and its effect or relevance in Christian life has 

often been either underplayed or exaggerated. This paper 

therefore sets out to theologically affirm this historical 

reality of faith, examining counter theories of the 

resurrection by examining their logical correspondence and 

hypothetical soundness. As this essay will reveal, in as much 

as the resurrection of Christ cannot be definitely disproved, 

it becomes a fundamental element and in fact the most 

radical of Christian faith as the conclusion of the work 

revealed, to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to 

believe as well in the possibility and reality of change in 

one’s life. This essay also clarifies the existential 

concreteness of the resurrection; it is not a raising from the 

dead which postpones an inevitable fate still but rather a 

definitive victory of Christ over death. Different 

formulations of the creed and magisterial statements give 

complete credence to this faith.  This is the faith of the 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      193 
 

 

 

Christian Church from its beginning, celebrated in her 

ceremonies and rituals and lived in the life of Christians. 

 

Keywords: Resurrection, supernatural event, Christian faith 

 

Introduction 

We are in the year 2019 (Two thousand and Nineteen Years, since 

the beginning of the calculation of time and history).  In fact, Two 

thousand and Nineteen Years since the birth of Christ - God became 

Man - the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  It is 2019 years 

since this happened; when God entered time and made time sacred.  

That was an extraordinary event in every sense of that word.  Ever 

since then in mankind’s history a lot of things have taken place.  

Consider for a moment what mankind has accomplished.  We have 

built spaceships that can leave our solar system. We have 

transplanted hearts into a week-old babies.  We have computerized 

everything from architecture to zoology.  We have made tremendous 

progress in many areas of life.  We are, as some people claim, at the 

apex of history.  Nothing is so new that it has never been heard or 

seen before, and nothing is so old that it will never be seen or heard 

again.  As the American astronauts landed on the moon for the first 

time, the then President Nixon declared: “This is the greatest event 

in the history of the world since the day of creation.’ To this 

exaggerated statement Bill Graham responded: “The President 

seems mistaken because the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus 

are the greatest and most important events in the history of the 

world.”  That is true indeed, it was true, it remains true till this very 

day; and it will continue to be true forever.  Alleluia!  

 At Easter we celebrate a super extraordinary event.  While 

the law of science stipulates a cycle of life and death, while other 

religions celebrate cycles of birth and death, Christianity insists that 

in one unique historical moment, the cycle is reversed, and a dead 

man came back to life.1 That something which was never seen or 

heard before, or to be again, happened. Round this revolves the 

whole economy of the Christian religion.  St Augustine used to say, 



194       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

“The faith of Christians is the resurrection of Jesus.” Using the 

words of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, while paraphrasing St. 

Augustine: “We are the Easter people and ‘Alleluia’ is our song”.  

Alleluia, as we know, is composed of two Hebrew words ‘allelu’ 

and ‘ia’.  The former is the imperative form of the verb hailal which 

means ‘to praise’, while the latter is a shortened form of the personal 

name of God, Yahweh. ‘Alleluia’ thus means “praise the Lord”.  

Throughout the Christian era, ‘alleluia’ has been the outburst of the 

Church, the authentic response to the joyful, Easter event. We all 

sing ‘alleluia’ today to praise and thank the Lord for the wonders He 

has worked for us.  

 In fact ‘we are truly the Easter people and alleluia is our 

song’.  Easter, the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection is the center 

of the whole year of worship, ‘the feast of all feasts’.  Our faith, our 

hope and the meaning of Christian life is founded on Jesus’ 

resurrection.  Paul expressed it well: “If Christ has not risen from 

the dead, then our believing is useless. . . ” (1 Cor 15). The 

Resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental element and in fact the most 

radical of Christian faith.  It is theologically relevant in that it is 

essential for being identified as a Christian.  To be a Christian is to 

believe in Jesus Christ not only as a great man of the past, even the 

greatest, but as someone ever living among us. Otherwise his 

coming twenty centuries ago leaves us entirely indifferent and He 

interests us no more than Napoleon or Julius Caesar.  Not to admit 

the Resurrection of Jesus means that one is not a Christian.  Such 

issues which deal with the uniqueness of Jesus can never become 

irrelevant to Christians except as the price of making Christianity 

itself irrelevant. No doubt the Resurrection is a central and 

inexhaustible mystery. To attempt an account of the redemption 

without including the Resurrection is to end in a deadlock. “No 

approach to New Testament Christology is possible without coming 

to terms with the resurrection.”2 Through the centuries many princes 

and rulers have tried to stop the majestic wave of the news of the 

resurrection of Jesus – first the synagogue, then Roman Empire, and 

then Communist regimes.  But the resurrection of Jesus is still being 

proclaimed and celebrated. The resurrection of Jesus is the most 

powerful, liberating, joyful message we can hear.  



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      195 
 

 

 

Questioning the Resurrection of Jesus  

But then, let us stop awhile and address ourselves to some pertinent 

concerns.The resurrection is ridiculed and rejected in some quarters, 

even supposedly ‘Christian’ quarters.  It is important that we get the 

right and proper meaning of what we are celebrating.  Inasmuch as 

we do not intend to be unnecessarily apologetic, it is also important 

that we brighten some clouds, clean some doubts, and settle some 

difficulties often associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

 

Among the various stories and theories used to doubt or discredit the 

event of the resurrection are the following:  
 

1. The Fraud Theory:  that the disciples of Jesus fugitively slipped 

to the tomb at night and stole his body, hid it somewhere and then 

circulated the report that he had risen from the dead.  (cf. Matt 28: 

13)  Therefore the whole story is a hoax, a deliberate imposture.  D. 

Whitaker is of such opinion that the body of Jesus was stolen by 

thieves. This idea even goes back to New Testament times, and 

according to Matthew 28:13, it was even put forward by the Jewish 

elders in their attempt to bribe the Roman soldiers.  It figured in 

Origen’s debate with Celsus, in which Origen argued that men do 

not suffer persecution and risk martyrdom for a lie.  

 Now we ask: how is this possible with the putting of seals 

on the stone and the soldiers to guard there?  The soldiers could not 

be bribed to open it.  How would they know it if they were asleep?  

What good would the body of Jesus have done them?  And again, if 

they were afraid to fight for Jesus when he was alive (cf. Matt. 2: 

56; Mk. 14: 50), how would they have the courage to risk their lives 

when he was dead?  As it is commonly said: “the courage to die for 

one’s beliefs is given for those who have the courage to live for 

them.”  The disciples were not trying to prove anything; in fact they 

were reluctant to believe in him after they saw him alive again.  

Sincere belief in the resurrection does not spring up causally.  Indeed 

the pain and disillusionments of life and the scepticism of this world 

would almost seem to make confident faith in the resurrection 

foolish or impossible.  



196       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

 Long ago, St. Augustine gave a decisive answer to this theory 

when he said: “You bring forward as witness men who were 

sleeping. Truly, it is you who have fallen asleep, you who have failed 

in examining such things.  If they were asleep, what could they have 

seen?  If they saw nothing, how are they witnesses?”   

 

2. The Swoon Theory: holds the view that Jesus was not really 

dead; that he had only swoon or fainted for the soldiers did not kill 

him and that the cool, quiet tomb and spices caused him to revive 

and come back to life.  The rationalist H. E. G. Paulus put forward 

this theory and in more recent times a similar view has been set out 

by H. Schonfield in “The Passover Plot” (1965).  

 

We respond to this theory as follows: 

 But the fact of Jesus’ death was clear.  The facts are evident.  

The soldiers pierced his side with the spear before Joseph of 

Arimathea took him down from the cross. If there were any 

possibility that Jesus was still alive, Mary and other disciples never 

would have let him be buried.  According to Jewish understanding, 

burial is the final signing and sealing of death.  Also, in contrast to 

the above story, the spices were poisonous and would have killed 

him instead.  Moreover, his weakened physical condition (after all 

those beatings and passion) would have prohibited such revival.  

Then too, if he rose later, certainly he would have been apprehended 

by the guards.  

 

3.  The Hallucination Theory: states that the agitated disciples and 

hysterical women wanted to see Jesus and thought that he would 

rise.  So they imagined that they saw him.  They therefore did not 

see what they claimed to have seen but just what they thought and 

wanted to see.  They had hallucinations.  

 But the response to this: If so, how did it happen that the 

disciples were steeped in unbelief and would scarcely believe him 

after seeing him, for which Jesus rebuked them (cf. Lk. 24: 25)  

Think of Thomas who refused to believe without touching him.  The 

records all indicate that this resurrected Jesus had a body. The 

disciples recognised his features; Mary recognised the tone of his 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      197 
 

 

 

voice; his mannerisms; He ate fish with the disciples; He invited 

Thomas to examine his hands and his side.  

 Furthermore, if this theory is true, how can one explain the 

fact that the tomb was empty?  If what these believers saw was only 

a ghost in a vision, his body would still have been in the tomb.  But 

the tomb was empty.  Jesus was not there. This is more eloquent than 

speech, more convincing than logic.   

 

4.  The Mistake Theory:  states that the women made a mistake 

and went to an old deserted tomb, and thinking this to be the burial 

place of Jesus, hurried away to circulate the report that Jesus had 

risen. Similar explanations are those of K. Lake in “The 

Resurrection of Jesus”, Lake conjectured that there were several 

tombs and that the women misunderstood the young man who said 

that Jesus was not there.  The man had intended to redirect them to 

the right place, but they read into it something more.  

 

But the response to this is:  

 There is no parallel to this in all history.  People do not forget 

a place so indelibly impressed on their minds and hearts.  There is 

no question about the identity of Jesus’ tomb. The women, some 

apostles, and even the Pharisees saw to that. It was guarded carefully 

and sealed by men whose hatred and fear would let them take no 

chance of making a mistake.  The facts are very clear, true and 

undisputed.  

 

5. The Earthquake Theory: holds the view that an earthquake 

swallowed Jesus’ body.The response to this is: Peter and John found 

the linen shroud and face cloth wrapped neatly in the tomb.  It would 

be a most considerate earthquake that would swallow the body of 

Jesus and neatly fold the shroud.  It certainly was not the work of 

vandals and enemies who would wish to desecrate the body of Jesus.  

Such a group would never have left the tomb and linens in such a 

neat order.  Even, how would they have entered the tomb with the 

seal and guard of soldiers there? 



198       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

 From the foregoing, it would seem that none of the 

alternative interpretations or attempted explanations succeed to 

provide a satisfactory account. They cannot be defended or 

sustained, even on the strength of their evidence, sequence or logic.  

Their weaknesses are apparent and inherent.  In fact, it requires as 

great a miracle to explain away these facts as it demands such a 

miracle to accept the reality of this supernatural event.  

 

As we read in the Easter edition of the Word Among Us, April 

1999:  

In the Orthodox world, there is a very beautiful 

tradition.  When people meet each other, especially 

at Easter time, one person says to the other, “Christ 

is risen.”  And immediately, the other answers, “He 

is truly risen.”   

At the beginning of the Bolshevik 

Revolution, there was a public debate in a Russian 

city between an atheist and an Orthodox priest.  The 

atheist speaker stood up and spoke against the 

resurrection of Jesus. When he was done, he stepped 

down convinced that his arguments could not be 

disputed. Then, the Orthodox priest came to the 

platform, looked at the crowd and said “Christ is 

risen.”  And all at once, everyone shouted, “He is 

truly risen!”  With that, he left the platform.   

 

For the one who believes, no explanation is necessary.  

For the one who does not believe, no explanation is possible.  

 

The Uniqueness of Jesus Resurrection  

No one in the New Testament claims to have seen or witnessed the 

actual resurrection even, or to know what a resurrection is.  This, 

however, is not to question whether it actually happened.  Though 

the event itself is nowhere described, since no one saw it or had 

direct experience of it and could have described it literally, the 

resurrection of Jesus Christ including the predictions and the 

testimonies, represent the watershed of New Testament history and 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      199 
 

 

 

the central point of its faith.  On the historical plane it marks the 

division between the earthly life of Jesus and the apostolic age.   

 It is a unique event, and not one of a class in relation either 

to the expectation of other individuals or to other raisings from the 

dead in the biblical narrative.  It has priority in time (cf. Act 26:23) 

and superiority in status in that it forms the first and most significant 

part of the series.  In fact the noun (‘resurrection’) is never used to 

those other raisings. Even in the Lazarus story, it is reserved by 

Martha for the general resurrection at the last day (cf. John 11:24) 

and by Jesus for himself (cf. John 11: 25).  All other men apart from 

Jesus are restored to life only to die again.  Even those raised from 

the dead by Jesus and the apostles have still to die again.  Their death 

is merely postponed.  Indeed, it is often debatable how far over the 

boundary of death they have passed. What the language indicates is, 

rather, that for the Hebrew mind there was no absolute division 

between life and death.  They are indeed dead; but in all these cases 

the dead person is simply called back to life, and this is indicated by 

the corpse’s opening its eyes and sitting up (cf. Acts 9:40) or sitting 

up and beginning to speak (cf. Luke 7:15).  Raising the dead is the 

continuation of healing beyond a certain point.  Such is included as 

part of the regular mission program laid upon the twelve (cf. Matt. 

10:8).  The restorative power is of God, but the agents of it may be 

purely human.  

 The case is quite different in the resurrection of Jesus.  Only 

HE is exempt from this (cf. Acts 13:34; Rom 6:9).  There is no 

suggestion of mere resuscitation.  He passed right over the border 

into the realm of the departed spirits.  He is not brought back simply 

to this life, destined to die again, but raised forever to the right hand 

of God.  This is effected, not through any human agency, but by God 

alone: and only of his rising does the New Testament use the term ‘ 

the resurrection’. The Resurrection of Jesus, according to St. 

Thomas is the efficient and exemplary cause of our resurrection.3  

For Karl Rahner:  
 

The Resurrection which is referred to in the 

resurrection of Jesus as distinguished from the 



200       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

resurrection of the dead in the Old and New 

Testaments means the final and definitive salvation 

of a concrete human existence by God and in the 

presence of God, the abiding and real validity of 

human history, which neither moves further and 

further into emptiness, nor perishes altogether.4  

 

What kind of event is the Resurrection of Jesus?  

In the midst of all sorts of arguments and theories to explain the 

resurrection away as not real and factual, one can ask another 

meaningful question: what kind of event is the resurrection of Jesus?  

Is it an event or experience?  

 No matter what we say about it, all would agree that 

something clearly happened after the death of Jesus which 

transformed the band of shattered disciples into people who were 

firmly convinced that Jesus was alive and that they had a message 

which would transform the world.  Even the historical scholar must 

agree that something has to have happened which suddenly 

awakened in all these men, who were in no way prepared for it, such 

a conviction that they had. The New Testament writings are 

unanimous that what happened was the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

Such apparently divergent texts illustrate, if anything does, 

Heraclitus’ principle: “An implicit agreement is more valuable than 

an explicit one.”5 The deep-seated harmony of these different 

testimonies have great weight.  And it would be difficult to explain 

their mutual relationship by mental contagion or coincidence.   

 In other words, the early preachers were proclaiming an 

actual event, an unexpected as it was supernatural.  When we see the 

extraordinary way in which the Church burst forth during the first 

centuries, we must admit that there was an explosion at the start; this 

explosion was the resurrection. It alone gave to the Christian 

missionaries the dynamism that we see in them as that time; it alone 

made of them, who were discouraged and sad after the passion (cf. 

Mk. 14:50) the martyrs and confessors of the faith who would fall 

by thousands, all declaring that Christ lives forever.  Those who 

reject such are obliged to find some other explanations for the 

extraordinary transformation of the disciples. None of those 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      201 
 

 

 

attempted explanations will bear critical examinations or account for 

the extraordinary psychological and moral change induced into so 

many different people and with such lasting effects in the face of 

those who had every reason to discredit the belief if they could.  The 

true plausible explanation of the disciples’ experiences of the 

appearances and the discovery of the empty tomb is the resurrection 

of Jesus. We cannot therefore spiritualise the resurrection and 

remove it from the real of historical fact. Neither can we allow 

Christian theology and spirituality to be shaped by the contemporary 

distrust of the miraculous. We cannot impose on what God has 

chosen to do in Jesus what we think God would have done. 

 This is our faith.  This is the faith of the Christian Church 

from its beginning, proclaimed in all her doctrines, celebrated in her 

ceremonies and rituals and lived in the life of Christians.  Different 

formulations of the creed and magisterial statements give complete 

credence to this faith.  

 

Historical and Transcendent Event  

Yet our question remains:  What kind of event is the resurrection of 

Jesus? The New Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the 

resurrection of Jesus as ‘Historical and Transcendent Event’. “The 

mystery of Christ’s resurrection is a real event, with manifestations 

that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness.” 

(CCC. 639) “Although the Resurrection was an historical event that 

could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of 

the apostles’ encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the 

very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and 

surpasses history.” (CCC. 647). As Pope John Paul II emphasized, 

the resurrection is a ‘historical event’ because it took place in a 

precise context of time and place’.6  

 In our ordinary sense ‘historical’ denotes not only what is in 

itself knowable by scientific observation of facts in its actual 

occurrence, but also what has in fact occurred.  In itself we cannot 

concede that the resurrection of Jesus is historical in the first sense 

of something open to scientific investigation and verifiable by 



202       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

neutral witnesses or an event that could have been photographed as 

it was occurring. The New Testament does not claim that anyone 

saw the resurrection and makes no attempt to describe it. This 

ineffable reality cannot be assimilated to any fact of human history 

which can be grasped and completely understood by applying the 

rules of criticism. By its nature, such an event, being at the same 

time a mystery of the faith, does not completely fit into any of the 

categories of human knowledge.  It is a real event which does not 

come from this world, and cannot be the object of historical 

investigation as such.   

 On the other hand, the resurrection of Christ is truly 

historical in the sense that, while it is in itself completely meta-

experiential, it is objectively signified for us by its effects - negative, 

like the empty tomb, or positive, like the appearances - not to 

mention the faith of the women and the apostles and the birth of the 

Church itself.   

 The appearances, for the disciples who were convinced that 

they had indeed seen him, are historical.  Behind their confession of 

faith in the risen Lord lies the experience of having witnessed him 

at some time and in some way. At the same time the resurrection 

event, as distinct from the appearances, is above all a unique 

supernatural event.  As such, we are reminded by Pope John Paul II 

that, at the same time: 
 

It transcends and stands above history . . . No one 

was an eye-witness of the Resurrection. No one 

could say how it had happened in its physical reality.  

Still less could the senses perceive the most interior 

essence of his passage to another life. It is this 

tranhistorical feature of the resurrection that must be 

especially considered if we are to understand to some 

extent the mystery of that historical but also 

transhistorical event.7  

 

The resurrection of Christ is transhistorical in the sense that it refers 

to an ‘event’ that took place on the other side of death; therefore, 

which lies beyond the confines of space and time. It is, as Jean 

Guitton said, “a trans-reality, known by trans-historical cognition; a 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      203 
 

 

 

trans-reality, but reality; trans-historical, but based on evidence.”8  

History alone is not qualified to teach us about the facts of the 

beyond.  

 Similarly, the reality resulting from this event namely the 

reality of the risen Lord, is also a trans-historical reality in that it 

belongs to the end of history existing within the new 

(eschatological) era.  

 To say this, however, in no way invalidates the historicity of 

the appearances; it merely safeguards the other-wordly new reality 

of the risen Jesus.  By the resurrection Jesus enters a completely new 

universe of being, the end-time of history, beyond the control of 

history and beyond the reach of historians.  He rose to a new life 

transcending the co-ordinates of time and space and therefore not 

subject to the criteria of simple human empirical observation.  It is 

true that there is an underlying identity between Jesus of history and 

the Christ of faith which the risen Lord invited the disciples to 

confirm in the appearances, the human identity hides another which 

is pervaded by the mystery of God. In an important article, W. 

Pannenberg, writing against a cavalier attitude toward the historicity 

of the resurrection, insists that there is no question here of a simple 

revivification of a corpse.  Not only is there the physical fact that 

immediately after death irreversible process of dissolution begins 

but the New Testament are thinking of transforming rather than 

revivification. Paul, who draws a close analogy between the 

resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 

15:12), stresses heavily the characteristics of the transformation that 

takes place in the resurrection.  What dies was perishable, weak, and 

mortal; what rises is imperishable, glorious, and immortal (1 Cor. 

15: 42 - 43; 52 - 54).  In short, “it is sown a physical body; it is raised 

a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15: 44).  It was, rather than a return to his 

previous style of earthly existence, what the Church has always 

referred to as a glorious resurrection. His body is endowed with 

special properties since it now shares in the glory which his soul had 

from the first instance of the Incarnation.  He appears as the same 

and yet different; a ‘transformed’ Christ.  



204       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

 So we cannot speak of Jesus’ resurrection as a process of 

revivification or resuscitation.  His resurrection is not a “coming 

back” to life, but a “going beyond” to a totally new and different 

kind of life.  Stressing the change and the transformation and the 

newness of the risen body, so that resurrection cannot be understood 

as the old body coming back to life, St Paul, writing to the 

Corinthians (1 Cor 15:35-36) said: “What is sown is perishable, 

what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonour, it is raised 

in glory.  It is sown in weakness, it raise in power.  It is sown a 

physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.”  Then he tells them a 

“mystery”: “We shall all be changed. … For this perishable nature 

must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on 

immortality” (15:51-53).  Thus there is both continuity and 

discontinuity between the old and the new.  It was the same Jesus of 

Nazareth who was raised from the dead, but he has been changed 

and transformed. We cannot know in any literal way what a 

resurrection is.  We can only speak of it only in imperfect and 

inadequate metaphors or analogies.  We must say with St Paul that 

the risen body of Jesus is not like the physical body that we know in 

its earthly existence.  John Navone clarifies further:  
 

Resurrection is in some sense a continuation of the 

life that existed in history, and this is the point of the 

continuity between the old and the new.  But it is not 

an historical continuation of this life, for eternity or 

the eschaton is not history extended indefinitely.  

Risen life is a new kind of life and a new kind of 

existence involving a total change and 

transformation of the old, and this is the equally 

important point of discontinuity that Paul stresses.  

 It would be more proper to speak of the 

resurrection as an eschatological event rather than as 

an historical event.  Eschatological existence is not 

simply a continuation of history, it is not history 

extended and continued indefinitely.  It is rather the 

culmination of history, the passage of the historical 

into a new and final mode of existence.9  

 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      205 
 

 

 

Trinitarian Act  

Also the Resurrection of Jesus was a Trinitarian act, accomplished 

by the one act of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity.  The New 

Catechism of the Catholic Church illustrates this well in Nos. 648 - 

650.  

 

648 Christ’s Resurrection is an object of faith in 

that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself 

in creation and history. In it the three divine persons 

act together as one, and manifest their own proper 

characteristics. The Father’s power “raised up” 

Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced 

his Son’s humanity, including his body, into the 

Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as “Son of 

God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by 

his Resurrection from the dead.” St. Paul insists on 

the manifestation of God’s power through the 

working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead 

humanity and called it to the glorious state of 

Lordship.  

649 As for the Son, he effects his own 

Resurrection by virtue of his divine power.  Jesus 

announces that the Son of man will have to suffer 

much, die, and then rise.  Elsewhere he affirms 

explicitly: “I lay down my life, that I may take it 

again... I have power to lay it down, and I have 

power to take it again.”  “We believe that Jesus died 

and rose again.”  

650 The Fathers contemplate the 

Resurrection from the perspective of the divine 

person of Christ who remained united to his soul 

and body, even when these were separated from 

each other by death: “By the unity of the divine 

nature, which remains present in each of the two 

components of man, these are reunited. For as death 



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is produced by the separation of the human 

components, so Resurrection is achieved by the 

union of the two.”  

 

As John Navone explains: 

Belief in the resurrection is not the same as 

believing in the immortality of the soul.  There was 

nothing automatic about the resurrection, that is, it 

was not the automatic survival of the spiritual part 

of a man or of the soul.  God raised Jesus from the 

dead, not his soul, but the whole Jesus in his total 

existence.  It was the whole of Jesus of Nazareth 

who was changed and transformed into new life 

and existence.  The whole Jesus had to die and be 

raised from the dead, transformed into what Paul 

calls “spiritual” existence.10  

 

Meaning and Implications of Jesus Resurrection  

The consequences of the Resurrection are far-reaching and have the 

utmost significance in Christ and in the history of Christianity.   

 

For Jesus  

From the gospel narratives two characteristic reactions to Jesus are 

evident to us: the one before the Resurrection the other after it.  There 

was a deepening of the evaluation made of Him before.  This would 

not have been so if a change had not taken place in Jesus.  

 

a. “Lord”, “Son of God”, “Christ”  

Henceforth certain titles were to stand out in the minds of those who 

believed in Jesus: “Our Lord”, “True Son of God”, “Christ”.  These 

titles given to Jesus at Easter evoke a new messianic reality.  The 

Resurrection proved his claims and vindicated the character of Jesus.  

 The characteristic title of the risen Christ - Lord - was given 

to Jesus with the same meaning it had when applied to God (Cf. Phil. 

2:9; Jn. 20:28.) in the fullness of His sovereignty. It is the 

Resurrection that has established Jesus in his Lordship (Cf. Acts 

2:24-36; Mt. 28:18).  Many apologetic writers have presented the 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      207 
 

 

 

Resurrection exclusively as the convincing demonstration of the 

claims of Jesus or of His divinity.  Therein the full and profound 

significance of His earthly life is fully revealed.  In Lohfink’s erudite 

words, it was exactly through the Resurrection that “the man Jesus 

was shown to be ‘the one’ through whom God had definitively and 

unsurpassably revealed Himself; and in whom He had acted in a 

definitive and unsurpassable way”.11  

 It is the Resurrection, for the earliest Christian preaching, 

that designates Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God (Cf. Acts 2: 36; 

Rom. 1:4.).  This is the point at which his resign as Messiah begins, 

when so far from returning to the confines of the present age, he 

enters upon and inaugurates the age of glory. At the hour when Jesus 

is glorified, (Cf. Lk. 24:26; Jn. 12:23; 1 Pet. 1:21) God’s messianic 

act is complete and the age to come has begun to supersede this one.  

And conversely, it is because in it Jesus is declared unequivocally to 

be the Messiah that the raising of Jesus can be spoken of as “the 

resurrection - as the beginning of the last day.  

 

b. Vindication of Jesus by God  

Another important aspect of the resurrection is the way in which it 

links the person and work of Christ. The Resurrection above all 

constitutes the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings.  

This is its Christological significance. The Resurrection expresses 

God’s satisfaction with what Christ has done.  It is the seal the Father 

put on the life, the death, the words, and the deeds of his Son, Jesus 

Christ.  The act of Resurrection is always an act of God, although 

Jesus claimed the power to take up his life again after laying it down, 

(Cf. Jn. 10:18) the New Testament does not suggest that the 

Resurrection was an independent act of Jesus Christ.  The power 

behind it was the power of God.  Indeed, the Resurrection of Jesus 

Christ is viewed as the supreme display of divine power.  It is an all-

encompassing action of God in the history of humankind. The 

constant New Testament emphasis is not simply that Christ has risen, 

but that God has raised him or that he has been raised, not from the 

underworld back to earth, but up to heaven.  The exaltation of the 



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person is the vindication of his mission.  It is as His son that God 

raised Jesus from death.  If Christ had not been raised there would 

have been no certainty that his death had effected anything. Man 

would, as St. Paul says, still be in his sins.  The Resurrection is seen, 

therefore, to be indispensable to man’s salvation. His exalted 

position has a direct bearing on his present activity.  His capacity for 

effectively acting on behalf of his people in his continued ministry 

is as unlimited as his sovereignty.  Hence the Epistle to the Hebrews 

drew from its study of the Resurrection the title “Eternal High Priest” 

and assigned it to Christ.  

 

c. Completion of Redemption  

The Resurrection is essentially part of God’s plan for the redemption 

of mankind.  In fact, it demonstrates the completion of redemption.  

It is the salvific event par-excellence. Jesus died to save the world.  

Had he remained permanently in the state of death he could not have 

redeemed the world.  Had he not come from the grave no gospel 

message would have been given to the world. The work of 

redemption was completed in the Resurrection. Death plus the 

Resurrection equals perfected redemption.  It was by being raised to 

anew life, not less than by dying to this old existence, that Christ 

now presents the picture of man-redeemed, or as St. Paul states it 

“the redemption in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).  The Resurrection of 

Jesus Christ is central within the whole act whereby we are saved.  

Isolated from the earlier life of Jesus, the Resurrection becomes 

something unnatural and nothing more. However related to the 

whole gospel of the deeds and teaching of Christ, the Resurrection 

is seen to be its crowning point.  This aspect is developed in the papal 

discourses:  
 

Christ’s Resurrection is closely connected with the 

mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.  It is 

its fulfillment, according to God’s eternal plan.  

Rather, it is the supreme crowning of all that Jesus 

had revealed and wrought throughout his whole life, 

from his birth to his passion and death, by his deeds, 

miracles, teaching, example of perfect holiness and 

above all by his transfiguration. He had never 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      209 
 

 

 

revealed directly the glory, which he had with the 

Father ‘before the world was made’ but he concealed 

this glory in his humanity until the definitive 

emptying of himself through his death on the cross.12  

 

The Resurrection is a saving event because it is not until Jesus has 

received the fullness of life, which is properly His as Son of God and 

Son of Man that his redemptive work is complete and effective.  He 

is the first-born of those who rise (Cf. Col. 1:18.), “the first-born of 

all creation” (Col. 1:15), the germinal cell of the New world and the 

figure of it in its final form, “the Alpha and the Omega” (Apoc. 1:8; 

21:6; 22:13).  Jesus is the second Adam, the true Adam (Cf. Rom. 

5:12-21). The saving effect of the Resurrection that Jesus 

communicates a new life to those who believe in Him.  

 

d. Fulfillment of Prophecy   

The Resurrection is the fulfillment of Christ’s own prophecies and 

as such, is the most sublime proof of his divinity.  As Pope John Paul 

II points out, “the Resurrection of the Crucified proved that he was 

really the ‘I AM’, the Son of God.”13 Christ had referred on a number 

of occasions to the glory that would be manifested in his death and 

resurrection as the eternal Son of the Father (Cf. Jn. 2:19-22; 11:4; 

Phil. 2:9-11).  This doctrine was subsequently expounded by St. Paul 

as the high point of Revelation in the way he based his evidence of 

the Resurrection on the evidence of Scriptures.  The announcement 

of the death and the Resurrection of the Son of Man (Cf. Mk. 9:34; 

10:32-34) pertains to the preaching of the eschatological kingdom.  

It means that it is through death and then in a Resurrection that Jesus 

will enter into the glory of the kingdom (Cf. Lk. 24:26).  Jesus thus 

fulfills the prophecy of Daniel chapter 7 on the heavenly coming of 

the Son of Man through that of the suffering servant. Thus, 

theologically, we may conclude that the coming of the kingdom in 

which is the eschatological fullness of salvation is identical with the 

mystery of the Resurrection.  

 



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e. Victory over Death  

The first Christians did not just say that Jesus lived beyond death.  

They said that he overcome (conquered) death (Cf. Acts 2:24).  The 

Resurrection of Jesus meant that the kingdom of God, which was 

present in Jesus, had also conquered death.  The Messiah had risen.  

The reign of God had come ‘with power’.  Christ has conquered sin 

and death and has promised us that we shall conquer it too.  This 

Easter Mystery is one that throws a continuous challenge to us to 

rise above the fear of our precarious, tenuous and finite existence 

here on earth.  Our belief in Christ’s Resurrection is a radical 

expression of man’s conviction that no matter what happens, good 

and godliness will triumph over evil in the end.  Hence, with the 

risen Christ, we can triumphantly say, “O death, where is thy 

victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).  C. F. Gellert 

rightly wrote:  
 

Jesus lives! thy terrors now can, O death no more 

appaul us. Jesus lives! By this we know Thou O 

grace cannot enthrall us Halleluiah!  The powers of 

death have done their worst.  But Christ their legions 

hath dispersed. Let shouts of holy joy outburst: 

Halleluiah! 14  

 

The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ is one we can share.  The Holy 

Father, Pope John Paul II, reminds us that the definitive victory over 

death, already won by Christ, is shared by him with humanity in the 

measure in which we receive the fruits of redemption, bringing with 

it admission to the “new life”.15 The importance of Jesus’ victory 

over death is the Christian mystery that underlies resurrection 

language.  This sharing with humanity leads us to examine as well 

the theological implications of Jesus’ Resurrection in all men.  

 

For All People  

Apart from being the culminating point of Revelation, the 

Resurrection has a number of consequences, which affect us directly.  

What Jesus is in virtue of his resurrection, he is in relation to man 

and creation.  Far from Him alone being affected by his resurrection, 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      211 
 

 

 

all men and women are affected.  As the Second Vatican Council 

emphasized:  
 

All this holds true not for Christians only but also for 

all men of goodwill in whose hearts grace is active 

invisibly.  For since Christ died for all, and since all 

men are in fact called to one and the some destiny, 

which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit 

offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in 

a way known to God in the paschal mystery.16 

 

a. Gift and Union with the Life of Christ  

In the first place, Jesus’ Resurrection is also seen by the New 

Testament, in addition to its application to Christ, as the moment 

when Christ “opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers” and 

inaugurated the “new and living way” (Heb. 10:20) between man 

and God.  The Risen Christ is the principle and source of a new life 

for all men since he makes available to us a sharing in the divine life 

of grace and in that victory over death caused by sin (Cf. Eph. 2:4-

5).  The Resurrection is the point of release, when the “life” that 

Jesus came to bring (Cf. Jn. 10:10) is poured forth in power and let 

loose in the entire world.  This new life is characterized in a special 

way by our becoming adopted children of God (Cf. Gal. 4:4-5; Rom. 

8:14) as a result of being freed from the slavery of sin.  The grace of 

adoptive sonship or divine filiations makes us brothers and sisters of 

Christ.  Jesus is restored to his friends, never again to be parted from 

them.  He lives with and in his people. This vital union of the believer 

with Christ becomes more precious after the Resurrection. The 

believer is risen with Christ and Christian life is the outliving of the 

in living Christ (Cf. Gal. 2:20).  This restoration is not a mere human 

reunion but a permanent divine indwelling (Cf. Jn. 14:23).  Salvation 

is realized in Christ alone, with whom it is identified. Thus the 

Resurrection that brought about salvation in Christ also puts this 

salvation at the disposal of men.  Men will not be saved except by 

communion with Christ in this salvation.  

 



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b. Pledge and Principle of our own Resurrection  

Another effect of Christ’s Resurrection is its causal relationship with 

our own Resurrection.  Pope John Paul II thus writes:  
 

When he foretold the institution of the Eucharist, 

Jesus referred to himself as the sacrament of eternal 

life and of the future Resurrection: ‘He who eats my 

flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will 

raise him up at the last day’.17  

 

We derive our title and hope for bodily immortality our supernatural 

union with him by faith in his divinity and by partaking of his life-

giving flesh.  Scheenben makes a penetration comment on this point:   
 

‘The flesh of the Lord is life-giving Spirit’ says St. 

Athanasius, ‘because it was conceived by the life-

giving Spirit’.  Thus the Spirit of God abides in it and 

the son of God, from whom the Spirit proceeds, has 

taken it to himself as a fire takes iron. This 

indwelling spirit did not, it is true, actually preserve 

it from death, but guarded it from dissolution and 

decay; and once death had embraced it, the Spirit 

called it back, in a way that was all the more 

miraculous, in a new, immortal life.  This same Spirit 

brings the flesh of Christ, as the organ of his Spiritual 

might, upon the alter, there to unite it to the flesh of 

the faithful.18  

 

For St. Paul, too, the strongest argument for our Resurrection is that 

Christ, the God-man, one head, has risen from the dead by the power 

of his divinity (Cf. Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:12; Rom. 8:11).  Since the best 

way of bringing about this union is to partake of the life-giving flesh 

of Christ, the Fathers point to the Eucharist as the primary source 

and chief title of our immortality and the Resurrection of the body. 

That Christ is risen from the dead, and that through communion with 

him in the Eucharist we already participate in this new life of Christ 

in a very real way is the key to our own bodies on the last day.  The 

resurrection of Christ is our inheritance as well.  In view of the 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      213 
 

 

 

finality and banality of human mortality, and more so of its 

frequency in nations like ours where both life-saving and prolonging 

devices are in short supply, the hope and purpose of life to be reposed 

in the Resurrected Jesus becomes the more urgent. It is this 

resurrected Jesus who transforms and explains the meaning of 

human existence and materiality in all its ramifications.  

 The Resurrection of Jesus, therefore, is the principle of the 

Resurrection of the Christian to the eternal life of glory. Only 

because God has done this for His Son are new possibilities opened 

for His many children who have come to believe in what He has 

done.  The Father who raised Jesus will also raise the Christian (Cf. 

2 Cor. 4:14).  Nowhere is this theme more fully elaborated than in 1 

Corinthians 15. The risen Christ is at once the prototype of 

redemption and the effective cause of the Resurrection of all other 

men (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:20f; Col. 1:18).  He is the first to return from the 

dead.  What takes place in him will take place in all.  So closely 

bound together are Christ’s Resurrection and that of the Christian, it 

must be said that if the Christian will not rise from the dead, then 

Christ is not risen (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:13) and mankind is not saved.  

Salvation means union with the risen Lord and through him peace 

with God and between all men, and this is meant not merely in a 

spiritual sense but in a real, corporeal sense.  The Resurrection of the 

faithful completes the victory of Christ over sin and death. The 

Resurrection is not a return to the conditions of the present life, but 

to a life of the spirit, the life already possessed by the risen Jesus and 

communicated from him to those who believe in Him. What the 

Resurrection or man in Christ means is not only a deliverance from 

physical death into eternal life.  It also means – and this is in some 

ways more primary – the here-and-now deliverance of man from 

spiritual death into a life lived in Christ and in consciousness of the 

power of his Resurrection.  According to the apostle, we shall share 

in Christ’s Resurrection principally for the reason that the divine, 

life-giving Spirit of Christ and His Eternal Father abides in us, the 

living members of Christ (Cf. Rom. 8:11).   

 



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c. Gift of the Spirit  

This last passage again draws attention to the Holy Spirit as the vital 

link, not only between Christ’s Resurrection and ours, but also 

between our present and our future state. That “What is mortal” will 

be swallowed up by life is even now guaranteed by the gift of the 

Spirit (Cf. 2 Cor. 5:4-5).  For Christ “will change our newly body to 

be like his glorious body, by the power, which enable him to subject 

all things to himself (Phil. 3:21); and this power is the Spirit”.  

Indeed, the Spirit, the principle of the new life of the Christian, is not 

given until Jesus is raised and glorified (Cf. Jn. 7:39; 16:7), and the 

first thing the risen Lord did when he appeared to the disciples 

behind locked doors is to breathe the Holy Spirit upon them (Cf. Jn. 

20:19-23).  In fact St. Paul regards the giving of the Spirit as the 

characteristic activity of the risen Christ (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:45).  He is 

raised by the Spirit, is transformed by the Spirit and becomes source 

of the Spirit for the Christian. It is arguable that it is at the 

Resurrection that the Holy Spirit enters history and the Christian 

Church is established as the new people of God. St. Paul also 

identifies the Spirit’s operation within the Christian with that of the 

risen Christ.  Our very bodies are given life through the Spirit, which 

now possesses us (Cf. Rom. 8:11). The very same Spirit who gave 

assurance to Jesus can assure us in the midst of our struggles and 

problems and even in the face of death itself.  It is the Spirit who 

gives us confidence that we too will rise, not only as individuals, but 

as the whole and perfect body of Christ.  The process by which we 

are “transformed” ultimately to be “conformed” to the body of his 

glory (Cf. Phil. 3:21) is but the same process by which Christ himself 

is formed in us.  And this begins at Baptism where, by incorporation 

into the body of Christ, we come to “belong to another, to him who 

has been raised from the dead” (Cf. Rom. 7:4). By such language St. 

Paul relates the risen life at present known in Christ to the 

Resurrection yet to come. The agent of this continuity through 

change is, from the divine of side, the Spirit; the vehicle, from the 

human side, is the Body.   

 

 

 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      215 
 

 

 

Caveat  

Where then does the mystery of the Resurrection stand in the work 

of Redemption?  What is its role and its aftermath in the life and 

mission of the Church?  What is the relevance of all this to our life 

as Christians?  Of what significance is it to us today as Christians?  

 Faith in the resurrection is something that has such a deep 

effect on life and has such profound repercussions on all that we do 

that it cannot be dependent on a few shaky arguments that not 

everyone accepts.  It must have a more solid basis. Faith in the 

resurrection holds two poles together very firm; one in the past, and 

the other in the future.  What about the present?  Is there a wire that 

connects one pole to the other and, as it passes through the present, 

lights up the lamp of life, lets us see the road surface and starts the 

engine of existence? What use do people who are alive today make 

of their faith in the resurrection in their lives?  Is there any 

resurrection in their lives?  For most of us Christians today, to all 

intents and purposes the resurrection has little to do with our lives 

here and now.  It is one of those difficult mysteries of the faith, 

hidden in the wake of the past and the future, that we’re not very 

sure what to do with in everyday life. 

 For the first Christians, faith in the resurrection was the 

necessary condition for talking about the life that sprang from the 

resurrection.  Faith in the resurrection was the environment within 

which they lived and out of which they spoke.  It was like the air 

they breathed.  Both those who talked about the resurrection and 

those who listened to them lived within this new environment.  Faith 

in the resurrection was the root of everything, just as the life we have 

is the root of everything we do in life. 

 There are two very different ways of approaching and living 

the same truth of faith.  Today we situate the object of faith in the 

resurrection in the past and in the future. The first Christians situated 

it in the present. The way the New Testament talks about the 

resurrection contains many elements that can help us to rethink our 

way of seeing and living the resurrection. 



216       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

 To believe in the resurrection is not just to accept a fact from 

the past and another in the future, but is, first and foremost, an 

attitude to life arising out of the discovery of a friend, alive in our 

lives, thanks to the power of God. Believing in the resurrection, 

therefore, is believing, not in a thing, not in arguments, but in 

Someone who acts in us and through us, with immense power, 

capable of bringing life out of death and making old things new, 

guiding us toward a future of vast dimensions and possibilities. 

 The key point to faith in the resurrection is that we should 

discover in our lives this ever-present power of God who is a God 

of the living.  Only in this way will we too rise and, once risen, 

realise the scope of faith in the resurrection. The scientific 

arguments will not give faith in the resurrection its importance, but 

the lived experience of the resurrection will give importance to the 

arguments we discover to defend it.  Our faith in the resurrection of 

Jesus is not out of human reason alone but reliance on God’s power 

at work in Jesus.  The power of God is great.  His ability is certain.  

His faithfulness is sure.  His promises never fail.  He has promised 

and he will never fail. We stand on the unconquerable rock of our 

maker. The only truly convincing proof of the resurrection is life 

that rises again and is renewed today, that overcomes the powers of 

death today and enables the repressed and shackled powers of life to 

be discovered and released to give us all happiness and hope.  This 

is the proof that there is a power stronger than death acting in human 

beings, the power of the risen Christ. Where are these signs of the 

resurrection in our lives to give backing to our words about the 

resurrection? This is the almighty question we need to search for and 

answer during this Easter season.  

 

Conclusion  

Christ’s Resurrection occupies, as asserted in creedal statements, an 

essential part of Christian faith.  It is, as Pope John Paul II says, “the 

greatest event in the history of salvation and indeed, we can say in 

the history of humanity, since it gives definitive meaning to the 

world”.19  Things can never be the same again. On this great event 

of Good News revolves time and eternity. It completes the 

revelation of God, who has been trying, since the time of Abraham, 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      217 
 

 

 

to make Himself known to us.  It is the supreme “Epiphany”, for in 

the risen Jesus we have, as John says, seen the “Glory” of God (Cf. 

1 Jn. 4:15; 5). At the same time we have the pledge and the first 

realization of the final state to which the whole human history and 

with it the whole creation must attain.  As found in the Easter preface 

II “His Resurrection is our rising to life”.   

 However this consequence of the Resurrection is not just 

automatic.  Each one of us must make room for the risen Christ in 

our thoughts, words and deeds.  The faith in the Resurrection of Jesus 

should have a great influence in our everyday life.  If we do not die 

with Him, then we cannot return to life with Him (Cf. Rom. 6:5-11; 

2 Tim. 2:11).  The sacraments of the Church, especially Baptism and 

the Eucharist, incorporate us with the risen Christ, make us become 

the physical body (people) of the risen Christ.  That participation in 

the new life of the risen Christ, however, must, if it is to be authentic, 

be reflected in an external apostolic dynamic, as it was in the lives 

of the disciples in the post-paschal period.  The Christian people of 

every generation have the responsibility to continue this task.  As 

John Paul II points out:   
 

Every Christian in every age and place is a witness 

to the risen Christ.  He sees with the eyes of Peter and 

the apostles; he is convinced of the glorious 

Resurrection Christ crucified and therefore believes 

completely in him who is the Way, the Truth, the Life 

and the Light of the world, and proclaims him with a 

serene courage.  The ‘Paschal Witness’ is thus the 

specific characteristic of the Christian.20  

 

To be credible witnesses of the Resurrection, the Pope says that our 

lives must be characterized by three elements:  

- (a) Clarity of Doctrine;  

- (b) Ascetic Struggle and Consistency of Behaviour;  

- (c) Apostolic Commitment.21    

 



218       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 

This is life-long program.  It is in fact the Christian response to that 

call to holiness, which was articulated so eloquently by the Second 

Vatican Council.22  This also has been explicated in practical detail 

in the Papal document on the vocation and mission of the laity.23  

However in fidelity to proclaiming the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, 

we should never become so defensively governed by apologetics that 

we do not do justice to the element of transformation and mystery in 

the risen state (glorified) of Christ.  

 On the final note, the call to give witness to the paschal 

events is not an invitation to an optional commitment.  The words 

of the Risen Christ, “Go therefore into all the world and preach the 

gospel to the whole of creation” (Mark 16:15), have an imperative 

ring about them.  This is one of the most abiding and onerous duties 

given to the pilgrim Church. It is an immortal tradition for every 

generation of Christians. This unchanging nature of Christ’s 

injunction, however, does not affect the means of realizing in 

concrete its requirements.  The Church would not be faithful to her 

own identity and vocation, did she not heed the urgent command to 

bring the Good News to all people.  In fact the Church cannot avoid 

this divine commission without doing violence to herself.  Thus as 

Rev. Fr. (Dr.) John K. A. Aniagwu wrote: “Evangelization belongs 

to the very essence of the Church; so that the Church can only be 

Church if she evangelizes. If the Church were ever to cease to 

evangelize, then she would cease to be the Church, at least the 

Church founded by Christ.”24  Hence the necessity and relevance of 

a new era of evangelization worldwide to revive methods, to seek 

every means by which we can bring the Christian message to 

modern man.  Such a Christian message and mission rested heavily 

on the Resurrection as its essential instrument just as it was in the 

lives of the disciples in the post-paschal period. Without the 

Resurrection of Jesus there would have been no message.  Christians 

today, as ever before, have no message more central or more 

important to give to mankind. Therefore the Resurrection is of 

central importance in the Mystery of Redemption and is at the very 

heart and seal of Christian Faith - a living faith.  

 Above all, the resurrection is the seed of our hope. To believe 

in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to believe as well in the 



The Resurrection of Jesus: Our Life     |      219 
 

 

 

possibility and reality of change in one’s life.  What happened in the 

life of Jesus can and will surely be brought about again in the life of 

his followers who truly believe in him as the Resurrection and the 

Life.  Jesus resurrection life is not a promise that will only be 

fulfilled in some future existence.  This life is available to us here 

and now even as we await its complete fulfillment at the end of time.  

 
ENDNOTES  

1.  K. Stendahl, Immortality and Resurrection (New York: 1968) in RoseMary 

Edet. “Leadership in the New Testament - Resurrection/Feminist Perspective,” 

The Nigerian Journal of Theology vol. 1 No.  (April, 1990), p. 94.  

2.  Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 

1981), p. 372.  

3.  Ferdinand Holtz, S. C. J. “The Soteriological Value of the Resurrection of 

Christ,” Theology Digest vol. 3 (1955), p. 101.  

4.  Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith, translated by Willian V. Dych 

(London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1976), p. 266.  

5.  Eugene Joly, What is Faith? (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1958), p. 78.  

6.  Address, 1 March, 1989, no.1.  

7.  Address, 1 March, 1989, no. 3.  

8.  Jean Guitton, The Problem of Jesus: A Free Thinker’s Diary  (London: Burns 

& Oates, 1955), p. 216.  

9.  John Navone, “The Resurrection,” in Faith - promoting a new synthesis of 

faith and reason, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Mar - Apr 2002), p. 17.  

10.  Ibid.  

11.  The Nigerian Journal of Theology Vol. 1 No. 2 p. 41.  

12.  Address at General Audience of 8 Mar. 1989, No. 9.  

13.  Address at General Audience of 8 Mar. 1989, No. 3.  

14.  “Easter, the Message of Hope”, Sunday Tribune, 31 March 1991, p. 11.  

15.  Cf. Address at General Audience of 15 Mar. 1989, Nos. 4, 5.  

16.  Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 

Gaudium et Spes, no. 22.  

17.  Address at General Audience of Mar. 1989, No. 4.  

18.  M. J. Scheeben, The Mysteries of Christianity, St. Louis (1961), p. 518.  

19.  Address, 1 Mar. 1989, No. 8.  

20.  Address at General Audience of 29 Mar. 1989, No, 2.  

21.  Cf. Ibid. No. 3.  

22.  Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, no. 42.  

23.  Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici of His Holiness 

Pope John Paul II on “The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the 

Church and in the World”, 30 December 1988.  



220       |     Ekpoma Review, Volume. 5 No. 1., 2019   

 
24.  A Talk on ‘The Call to Holiness and Evangelization’ given on 10th October 

1990 to Nigerian Federation of Catholic Students (N.F.C.S.) U. C. H., Ibadan 

Branch, 1990 Federation Week.  

 

 


