- St Thomas Aquinas Ia IIa, q.24, a. 3, ad 2
The Resurrection of Christ: the basis of our Faith
"Now God hath both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up also by his power. "
- 1 Corinthians 6:14
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the turning point in human history and is the basis of the Christian Faith. It completed the work of man's salvation and redemption by which "the gates of Heaven," closed since the sin of Adam, were again opened. The Passion, death and Resurrection of Our Lord constitute the most momentous event in the history of the world.
St. Paul summed it all up when he stated: "And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain ... And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins." (1 Cor. 15:14, 17). Thus the Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our faith. If it did not happen, Christianity is based on a lie and we have no hope of our own resurrection.
The fact of the Resurrection is so important that St. Peter declared that the characteristic of an Apostle was to be a witness to it. When the followers of Christ were gathered together to choose someone to replace Judas, St. Peter stated that from among the men who had known Jesus, "one of these must be made a witness with us of his resurrection." (Acts 1:22). The writings of St. Paul contain numerous references to the Apostles' preaching the Resurrection of Christ - in Jerusalem (Acts 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40), at Antioch (Acts 13:30 ff.), at Athens (Acts 17:31), at Corinth (1 Cor. 15), at Rome (Rom. 6:4-5), and in Thessalonica (I Thess. 1:10).
The Resurrection of Christ from the dead was possible only because He was both divine and human. He was the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity from all eternity, but He had also taken to Himself a human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus could suffer and die in His human nature, but because He was a Divine Person, all that He suffered had a divine value that purchased universal redemption for all mankind. All men would not make use of that redemption, so all would not be saved, but Christ had made salvation available to all.
God's perfect wisdom expressed itself in the way He planned and arranged the entire Incarnation and Redemption. Our Lord might have appeared suddenly, with great display, as a full grown man. He could have saved humanity in some other, easier manner.
But this would have prevented man from having many wonderful blessings of Divine Providence. Moreover, there would likely have been allegations that it was just a spirit or apparition that had appeared on earth in such a brief redemptive action, and not really the true God-Man. Indeed, even with His long life to prove His humanity, there were early heresies denying the fact of Our Lord's real, true human nature.
But the full Christmas story of a real Babe, of Herod's swords being aimed at His infant head, of His long family life at Nazareth amidst flesh-and-blood cousins or "brethren," and of His final three years of open public ministry, solidly established the fact of His genuine human nature. Thus His familiars could ask, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matt. 13:55). And Jesus could say, "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners." (Matt. 11:19).
It is obvious, then, that both Jesus' fellow townspeople of Nazareth and His irreverent enemies were convinced that He was human: "because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." (John 10:33). Because His enemies considered Jesus a mere man, they crucified Him for His "blasphemy." But because He was God, He rose by His own power.