Why Jesus Rose from the Dead

Why did Jesus rise from the dead? The Resurrection is the central, defining event of the Christian faith, so it seems like this should be an easy question to answer. However, I think that many Christians today are unable to do so. At best, they might say that Jesus’ resurrection vindicated his life and ministry, but even then, it still seems like a strange, anomalous event that sticks out like a sore thumb in God’s plan of salvation. So why did Jesus rise from the dead? What did his resurrection actually accomplish?

Hope Beyond Heaven

First, Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of the general resurrection of all God’s people. St. Paul tells us:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)

As Christians, we hope that our souls will go to heaven when we die, but that’s just a temporary resting place, not our final destination. Just as Jesus got his body back, so too do we hope to get our bodies back when he comes again (Catechism of the Catholic Church 989-991, 1016-1017). See, we’re not just souls trapped in bodies. No, we’re body-soul composites, so as long as our souls are separated from our bodies, we’re incomplete. This is why death is such a tragedy. God made us with both bodies and souls, and he wants us to spend the rest of eternity with him that way. As a result, far from being an anomaly, Jesus’ resurrection was in fact the beginning of the ultimate hope of all God’s people.

The Source of Our Sanctification

However, there’s more to it than just that. Jesus’ resurrection was also an essential part of our salvation. We normally think of his death on the cross as his real saving work and his resurrection as a more or less optional add-on, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. No, as St. Paul tells us, Jesus “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 654). We are saved by his death and resurrection, not by his death alone.

So what exactly did his resurrection accomplish? What did it add that his death alone didn’t do? Simply put, Jesus’ death gained for us the forgiveness of our sins (he was “put to death for our trespasses”), and his resurrection obtained eternal life for us (he was “raised for our justification”). People today often think of those two things as synonymous, but they’re actually not.

The forgiveness of sins is the negative element of salvation. It simply means that God won’t hold our sins against us when he judges us, but that is not all that our salvation requires. No, it has a positive element as well: our sanctification. We need to have our sins forgiven and to be made holy in order to enter into the eternal, blissful communion with God that we hope to enjoy in heaven and then later in the life of the resurrection. That communion is one of perfect love, so even if our sins are forgiven, we cannot enter it unless we are sanctified and enabled to love like God loves. As a result, our salvation required Jesus to die and rise again. Our sins are forgiven by his death, and we are sanctified and enabled to love perfectly by his resurrection.

From Jesus’ Resurrection to Ours

And how exactly is Jesus’ resurrection the source of our sanctification? When Jesus rose from the dead, he entered into the fullness of eternal life, the fullness of the life and love that we hope to one day have as well. However, even though we will obtain that fullness in the future, we can already begin to participate in it here and now (1 John 5:13). This participation, this beginning of eternal life, is nothing other than our sanctification, and it comes to us through our union with Christ in his risen state (Romans 6:4, 8:10; Galatians 3:26-28; Colossians 3:1-4).

Moreover, when the eternal life we now have flowers into its fullness, the life of the resurrection, that flowering will also have its source in Jesus’ resurrection (Catechism of the Catholic Church 658). Think of it like a married couple who conceive a child. When that child grows up, he owes his full physical maturity as an adult to his parents because it’s simply the full flowering of his life and development, which all started when he was conceived. Similarly, Jesus’ resurrection is the source of our resurrection because our rising from the dead will simply be the full flowering of the eternal life we received from him in this life.

Not an Anomaly

From all this, we can see that Jesus’ resurrection was much more than just a vindication of his life and message. Yes, it was that as well, but if our understanding of the event stops there, it’s woefully inadequate. More than just a vindication, Jesus’ resurrection was an essential element in our salvation. It was the beginning and source of the sanctification and resurrection of God’s people, so without it, we would never be able to reach our ultimate goal. Only through Jesus’ resurrection can we hope to spend all of eternity in blissful communion with God as body-soul composites, just like he always intended.