The resurrection of Christ is His bodily rising from the dead on the third day—the historical, physical return to life of the same body that was crucified and buried, now glorified—the first and foundational act of His exaltation and the cornerstone of the Christian faith. He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification; He rose according to the Scriptures, was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, then of above five hundred brethren at once; and Paul stakes the entire faith upon the fact: if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins. The resurrection was bodily and real, not a vision, a myth, or a spiritual survival—the tomb was empty, the grave-clothes lay folded, the risen Lord ate, was touched, and showed His wounds. Its significance is immense. It is the Father’s public vindication of the Son, declaring Him to be the Son of God with power, and the divine receipt that His sacrifice was accepted and the penalty fully paid—raised for our justification. It is His personal triumph over death, sin, and Satan, the abolishing of death and the bringing of life and immortality to light. It is the ground and pledge of the believer’s own resurrection, for Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept, and because He lives, His people shall live also. It is the source of the believer’s new life and power, for we are raised with Him to walk in newness of life. And it is the guarantee of the coming judgment, for God hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. The resurrection is thus no appendix to the gospel but its very heart: a dead Christ saves no one, but the living Christ, risen and reigning, is mighty to save and able to keep His people unto the resurrection of the last day.