Theolocal Reflections

Volume 2, Issue 1 – April 2025

The Crucial Role of the Resurrection in the Gospel and Evangelical Faith

Date: 20 April 2025

Author: Dr. Chansamone Saiyasak (Professor of Religious Studies and Missiology), Theological Commissions & Religious Liberty Commissions of Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand & Asia Evangelical Alliance (a WEA-Regional Alliance) | Author’s Profile

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just a beautiful ending to the story of the Cross—it is the powerful vindication of all that the Cross achieved. In historic Protestant and Evangelical theology, the Resurrection plays a role that is both theological and historical, affirming not only that Jesus died for our sins, but that He truly is who He claimed to be: the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the Lord over life and death.

While the Cross is where atonement is accomplished, the Resurrection is the divine declaration that the work is accepted. As the Apostle Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). The Resurrection, then, is not an add-on to the Gospel—it is its essential core. Paul makes this even more explicit in Romans 4:25 when he says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” This is why the historic Protestant confessions—from Luther to Calvin to the modern Lausanne Covenant—emphasize that without the Resurrection, the Gospel collapses.

Among contemporary Evangelical voices, N.T. Wright has been especially influential in restoring the Resurrection to its full theological and historical weight. In his monumental work The Resurrection of the Son of God, Wright argues that the early Christians’ belief in the bodily Resurrection of Jesus was utterly unprecedented in Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. He writes, “The early Christians did not invent the empty tomb and the meetings or sightings of the risen Jesus. Nobody was expecting this kind of thing... no kind of conversion experience would have invented it.” For Wright, the Resurrection is the launching point of new creation and the theological anchor of Christian hope.

Gary Habermas, one of the foremost evangelical apologists on the Resurrection, reinforces its importance through what he calls the “Minimal Facts Approach”—using historically agreed-upon data to build a case for the Resurrection. Alongside Michael Licona, he shows in The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus that belief in the bodily resurrection is not only biblically affirmed but also historically defensible. Licona himself, in The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, treats the event as the best explanation for the post-crucifixion appearances and the transformation of the early disciples. Both scholars argue that the Resurrection is not a theological abstraction but a historical event with theological power.

From a more systematic theological lens, Wolfhart Pannenberg, though not evangelical in the American sense, deeply influenced Protestant theology by asserting that the Resurrection is the cornerstone of all Christian truth claims. He boldly declares, “The evidence for Jesus' Resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: it is a very unusual event, and if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.” This captures the dual nature of the Resurrection—it is both rationally defensible and existentially demanding.

John Stott, while best known for his work on the Cross, also underscores the Resurrection's necessity as a divine response to Christ’s death. In The Cross of Christ, Stott notes that the Resurrection did not achieve atonement but confirmed that atonement was successful. He writes, “The resurrection did not achieve our forgiveness... All these blessings are ascribed in the New Testament not to the resurrection but to the death of Jesus” (The Cross of Christ, p. 234). For Stott, the empty tomb is God’s “Amen” to the Son’s cry on the Cross: “It is finished.”

Tim Keller, a beloved voice in the Reformed Evangelical world, connects the Resurrection to the deep human need for hope in a broken world. In his book Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter, Keller writes, “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said. If he didn’t, then why worry about anything he said?” For Keller, the Resurrection is not only doctrinal truth—it is existential certainty. It gives meaning to suffering, grounds justice, and breathes purpose into every act of love and obedience.

This truth takes on remarkable relevance in Southeast Asian contexts, particularly among Thai and Lao communities shaped by Theravāda Buddhist thought. In this worldview, human suffering (dukkha) is driven by craving (tanhā) and perpetuated through the law of karma, leading to samsāra, the cycle of rebirths. Liberation (nibbāna) is understood as an escape from this cycle through detachment and self-effacement. But even devout practitioners live under the burden of karmic debt, knowing they can never quite erase their past.

It is here that the Resurrection of Christ offers an answer not just theological, but deeply existential and liberating. The Cross confronts the weight of sin and guilt—Christ bore the moral and spiritual consequences in full. But the Resurrection breaks the cycle. Jesus does not only die to pay the debt—He rises to set us free. As Paul says, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead... For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20–22). The Resurrection is not only His victory—it is ours. Through it, we are not merely released from rebirth, but welcomed into eternal life.

Where karma says, “You must repay,” the Resurrection says, “It is paid.” Where samsāra threatens endless repetition, the Resurrection declares a new beginning. Where suffering seems inevitable, the Risen Christ proclaims: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

To Thai and Lao hearts longing for peace, forgiveness, and freedom from guilt and karma, the Resurrection is not a Western idea—it is a universal invitation. It is not detachment from the self but communion with the living God. It does not lead to extinction, but to resurrection life.

So what is the role of the Resurrection in Evangelical faith? It is the seal of salvation, the foundation of future hope, and the power by which believers live today. It affirms the Cross, fuels the Church, and points to the coming renewal of all things. The empty tomb is not just a miracle—it is the inauguration of new creation, the assurance that the powers of sin and death have been broken forever.

To preach Christ crucified without preaching Christ risen is to preach only half the Gospel. The Cross is where salvation was won; the Resurrection is how we know it is ours. The Gospel is both blood-stained and victorious—marked by a Roman cross and an empty garden tomb. Together, they proclaim that the God who died for us is the God who now lives in us—and will one day raise us with Him. And that same Risen Lord extends His hand across nations and cultures—even into the Theravāda heartland—with a message not of endless striving, but of complete and eternal grace.

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