The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is foundational to Christianity. This truth must be believed to become a Christian. Romans 10:9 says you must confess the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead in order to have salvation. Some among the Christians in Corinth, perhaps influenced by Greek philosophers (Acts 17:32), started to say that there was no resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:13). To show the seriousness of such an error, Paul lists to the Corinthians the unacceptable logical consequences of this position, which would include the following: Christ would not have risen, our preaching is empty, your faith is empty, we are false witnesses of God, you are still in your sins, those who have died in Christ have perished, and Christians are of all men most pitiable (1 Cor. 15:13-19). The resurrection is that crucial to Christianity.

When one is baptized, one becomes united with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3-5). Baptism saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 3:21). God has begotten Christians to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3).

God has not only raised Jesus from the dead, He has also glorified Him (1 Pet. 1:21). Jesus is seated at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been placed in subjection to Him (1 Pet. 3:22). To Jesus belongs the glory and the dominion forever and ever (1 Pet. 4:11).

The resurrection of Jesus gives Christians hope of a future resurrection. We have hope beyond the grave (1 Cor. 15:12-20). The dead in Christ will rise when Jesus returns (1 Thess. 4:16). However, we will not have physical  bodies; a change will occur (1 Cor. 15:51). Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). Paul makes a contrast between the body that dies and is buried in the earth and the body with which one is outfitted for eternity (1 Cor. 15:35-49). “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53).

Notice these words: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20, 21). What exactly this will be like we do not know, but we with faith look toward it. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2).

Abraham did not know how God would fulfill the promise to make a great nation from his seed if he sacrificed Isaac (Gen. 21:12; 22:2, 18). He had an idea about what God would do, which was mistaken (Heb. 11:17-19), but nonetheless he followed God’s instructions by faith and was rewarded according to the promise (Rom. 4:13-22). We today must also follow in the steps of faith of Abraham (Gal. 3:7-9, 26-29). We may not have all the details figured out about what heaven will be like, but we must by faith follow God’s commands to inherit it (1 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 22:14).