The Doctrine of Christ

LESSON TWENTY-SEVEN The Resurrection as a Fundamental Truth of the Gospel

1. The apostles made very prominent in their teaching the fact of the resurrection. TDOC 73.1

a. As the explanation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:32, 33. TDOC 73.2

b. As the explanation of the healing of the lame man. Acts 3:12-16; 4:10. TDOC 73.3

c. As the basis of their message to the Gentiles. Acts 10:36-43. TDOC 73.4

2. Their testimony to the resurrection was attended with such results as showed that God approved of it. Acts 2:37-41; 4:1-4, 33; 5:29-33. TDOC 73.5

3. The apostle Paul emphasized in his teaching the fact of the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Acts 13:30-39; 17:18, 31; 25:18, 19; Galatians 1:1; Romans 1:14; 4:23, 24; 8:11; 10:9; Ephesians 1:19, 20; Colossians 3:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 4:14; 2 Timothy 2:8; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.. TDOC 73.6

4. Our hope of salvation from sin depends upon the resurrection of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. TDOC 73.7

NOTES: The corner-stone of Christ fan doctrine

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine. It is mentioned directly one hundred and four or more times in the New Testament. It was the most prominent and cardinal point in the apostolic testimony.” TDOC 73.8

The evidence of eyewitnesses

“The account of an eyewitness is readily distinguishable from the account of one who is merely retailing what others have told him. Any one who is accustomed to weigh evidence in court or in historical study noon learns how to distinguish the report of an eyewitness from mere here say evidence. Any careful student of the Gospel records of the resurrection will readily detect many marks of the eyewitness.” TDOC 73.9

Through His empty grave

Through his empty grave we see not only the smile of a pardoning God, but a bright vision of a new earth and heaven.” TDOC 73.10

A foundation truth

“Christianity itself, both historically and theologically, rests upon the belief that Christ rose from the dead, that he is the only begotten Son of God, and that he preached the gospel set forth in the New Testament. If this belief be not true, modern civilization and progress are conterminous with a deep delusion. TDOC 74.1

“From the above it is evident that to deny the bodily resurrection of Christ is to accept an alternative which contradicts all the known sequences of human life, and to reduce the history of the past into a complex tissue of impossibilities.” TDOC 74.2

“Beyond a question, the foundation truth preached in the early years of the church’s history was the resurrection. This was the one doctrine upon which the apostles were ever ringing the changes.” TDOC 74.3

An uncontradicted declaration

“If the facts were as recounted in the Gospels, there is no possible escaping the conclusion that Jesus actually arose. Still further, if Jesus had not risen, there would have been evidence that he had not. His enemies would have sought and found this evidence, but the apostles wept up and down the very city where he had been crucified, and proclaimed right to the faces of his slayers that he had been raised, and no one could produce evidence to the contrary. The very best they could do was to say the guards went to sleep, and the disciples stole the body while the guards slept. Men who bear evidence of what happens while they are asleep are not usually credible witnesses.” TDOC 74.4

Two simple facts

“Leaving for further and fuller consideration the general question of the church’s existence and progress, we are now concerned only With its commencement as recorded in the early chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and there we see two simple and incontrovertible facts: (1) The Christian society was gathered together by preaching; (2) The substance of the preaching was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostolic church is thus a result of a belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” TDOC 74.5

The choice between two things

“We must believe either that Christ rose from the dead or that they who gained for him the homage of mankind and through whom he became the Savior of the world, were in error, not merely touching his supposed resurrection, but also touching the gospel he preached and his relation to, God and the nature of God.” TDOC 74.6

One hundred and twenty proofs

“On the day of Pentecost the Jews saw before them a hundred and twenty proofs of the resurrection of Christ. Each believer was seen to be clothed with a life such as had never before been beheld, and each believer was to the astonished multitude as a risen Christ.” TDOC 74.7