(7) Consequently it is seen that the Resurrection of Christ is the fovndation of Apostolic Chris- tianity, and this for dogmatic just as truly as for evidential reasons. («) Their consciousness of its basal character is shown in the position it occupies in their witness. An Apostle is ordained to be a witness of the Resurrection (Ac 1-^). The content of St. Paul's Christianity is thought at Athens to be 'Jesus and the resurrection' (17^^). The early sections in the Acts reiterate the statement, ' This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses ' (2*^). {b) Moreover, negatively, the con- sequences to Christianity of a denial of the Resur- rection of Christ were drawn out with all the dialectic force of St. Paul. And it is surely sig- nificant every way that this acute and searching analysis of the doctrine was made by one of the first teachers of Christianity. The fearlessness with which he propounds his great dilemmas is in itself extremely valuable and reassuring. He saw, with a clearness never surpassed, what the Resur- rection of Chri.st involved ; and seeing that, was calmly prepared to risk everything upon it. It would seem indisputiible that St. Paul's entire exposition proceeds on the assumption that the Resurrection of Christ was not in controversy in the Churcli of Corinth. The section of Corinthian churchmen whom St. Paul has in mind accepted the Resurrection of Clirist, but rejected the future resurrection of tiie dead. Their philosophic^ antece- dents rendered sudi rejection entirely natural (see Heinrici, in loc; Kennedy, St. Pants Conception of the Last Things, 225), "while their Christianity (ionstr.ained them to make a concession to faith in the altogetlier exceptional case of Jesus Christ. They were practically combining incompatible ele- ments from the Old and the New, and had not the clearness of thought to realize the incompatibility. Tiiere is certainly nothing abnormal to human religious exj)erience in this. But to St. Paul's logical intellect it was intolerable. If there be no
514 RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
such thing as a resurrection of dead persons, then is not Christ risen (1 Co 15^^). The denial of the general principle will not permit the affirmation of particular instances.
St. Paul then proceeds to show the effect of this denial of Christ's Resurrection : first, on the proclamation of Christianity, whose sum and sub- stance become words lacking in contents and in truth, if Christ be not risen ; secondly, on the believer's faith, which in that case becomes equally empty, being created by a baseless message ; and thirdly, on the Apostolic proclaimers, who have delivered as fact what in reality is fiction, and have misrepresented God by affirming as His deed what He has not done. Thus in all three depart- ments the denial of Christ's Resurrection evapo- rates everything. The substance of Christianity has gone, the believer's faith has gone, the Ajios- tolic veracity has gone. To dwell on the second of these : The faith of a Christian depends on Christ's Resurrection, because forgiveness depends on the redemptive power of Christ's Death, and this is certitied by the Resurrection. If the Resurrection is not historic fact, then the power of death remains unbroken, and with it the effect of sin ; and the significance of Christ's Death remains uncertified, and accordingly believers are yet in their sins, precisely where they were before they heard of Jesus' name.
That St. Paul's estimate of the place of Christ's Resurrection in Christianity is profoundly true seems proved, conversely, by the invariable results which follow upon its denial. Witliout belief in the Resurrection there may easily exist a reverence for the moral sublimity of Christ's character, and a glad recognition of the religious value of His pro- phetic instruction. But these are widely different from faith in Him as understood by St. Paul. All distinctively Christian belief in Jesus has been founded on a knowledge of His Resurrection. It is this which has characterized and determined the nature of the faith Avhich men have placed in Him. To their minds there has been a revelation which the Risen Christ has made, and which He could not have made otherwise than as having risen.
As a historic fact, it has been His Resurrection which has enabled men to beliere in His official exaltation over humanity. It is not a mere ques- tion of the moral influence of His character, example, and teaching. It is that their present surrender to Him as their Redeemer has been promoted by this belief, and could not be justified without it. Indeed, those who deny His Resurrec- tion consistently deny as a rule His Divinity and His redemptive work in any sense that St. Paul would have acknowledged. "Pauline conceptions of Atonement are intimately bound up with Pauline conceptions of Easter Day. The former do not logically survive the rejection of the latter. Thus it comes naturally to pass that denial of the Resurrection issues ultimately in another religion, which, whatever may be said about it, is not Apostolic Christianity. The whole doctrine of reconciliation through the Word's assumption of the flesh, redemption by incarnation, moral death and rising again of the individual believer in and with Christ, are inseparable from Christ's own Resurrection.
Literature.— On the doctrinal significance of Christ's Resur- rection see Ph 310, Col lis ; and of., further, Griitzmacher, Moderne positive Vortrage, 1906, p. 113 ; Goguel, L'apotre Paul