How do we know that Jesus Christ has secured salvation for us?
Our assurance of Christ’s victory is that he rose again, after having died and lain in the tomb for three days. His resurrection has laid the foundation for our own resurrection, which is our blessed hope: “In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep… But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ” (1Co 15:20, 23; see Q271, Q368).
The Christian faith stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in which we believe through a reasonable faith: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain… If it is only in this life that we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable of all human beings” (1Co 15:14–19). In the same passage, the Apostle gives the grounds of this proclamation, an official, received testimony older than any written Gospel: “that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to over five hundred brethren at once, most of whom remain alive until now… Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all… he appeared to me also” (1Co 15:4–8). The lives of the saints in every generation provide living proof that, as St John of Kronstadt loved to say, “Christ is in our midst, alive and active!”
