Questions & Answers with Dr. Bob Burrelli


Just how important is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, anyway?


This question has not come from our listening and reading audience, but from Songtime. Relax. We have not gone the way of all flesh. Perish the thought! Songtime remains a sound ministry that continues to communicate God’s one true message of salvation through many voices. Nor are we entertaining this question. We have no need to, for we know the truth. Rather, we are raising it! It’s time to. Sadly, American Christianity has reached the point where such a question has to be put to it, because it has managed to invent a faith that is no longer founded on the bodily resurrection of our Lord. And though we raise it, we are not expecting an answer. It is rhetorical. By it, we are really declaring that the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ is paramount to the faith. It is the foundation, the hallmark of Christianity. Without the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, there would be no faith. Christianity would collapse. That is the Apostle Paul’s view. He said so in his first letter to the Corinthians: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).” What a grim state of affairs for someone who serves a Christ who has not been raised and, consequently, is powerless to raise anyone else who dies. All hope is lost.

We needn’t spend any time debunking this most recent heresy of American Christianity. It is enough to point to the testimony of Scripture that Christianity ceases to be Christianity without a risen Savior. We would be better served by trying to account for this strong push to rid the faith of its most precious and foundational doctrine. There are many reasons, but two head the list. The first reason is because the resurrection of Jesus Christ confirms God’s purpose in the sending of Christ; namely, to save sinners. Without the resurrection, God’s purpose for sending Jesus Christ becomes subjective and ambiguous. Of course, there is comfort in ambiguity, which brings us to the second reason. If the risen Lord needs to be the object of one’s faith for one to be saved, then the one who rejects the risen Lord will perish. This was part of Paul’s argument to those Stoic philosophers in the Areopagus, tying Jesus’ resurrection to His authority to save as well as to judge those who remain in their unbelief: “He (God) commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

The doctrine of the resurrection brings condemnation to those who reject the risen Lord. The answer is not to redefine the faith, but to repent and believe. In this Easter season, as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, rejoice, be glad, be comforted, and remember the words of the two angels who appeared to the women on that Sunday morning: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.” He is risen indeed!

Dr. Burrelli is a regular contributor to the Songtime Newsletter and also on the Songtime Bible Book-a-Month Series, recently teaching the epistles of Jude, 2 & 3 John, as well as Paul's letter to Titus. Get your copy any of these when you contact Songtime today!