Why We Must Believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ

By Bishop Philaretos

The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh is not an abstract doctrine, nor a poetic expression of hope. It is the very bedrock of the Christian faith. To confess anything less than His bodily Resurrection is to fall outside the saving Faith delivered once and for all to the saints. We do not preach a metaphor, nor a mere spiritual awakening, but a historical and divine reality: Christ rose from the dead, in the same body that was crucified, buried, and glorified.
This is not a private opinion. It is the unbroken proclamation of the Church. The Apostle Paul speaks with terrifying clarity: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). To deny the bodily Resurrection is not to debate a secondary point—it is to reject salvation itself. The Resurrection is the seal of God upon the Cross. Without it, the Cross is a tragedy, not a triumph.
The Evangelists, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, give us no room for ambiguity. The Risen Christ appears to the Myrrh-bearing women, to the Apostles, to more than five hundred brethren at once (1 Cor. 15:6). He speaks. He walks. He eats. He shows His wounds.
To the doubting Apostle Thomas, Christ says: “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27). This is not a ghost, nor a vision, nor a psychological projection of grieving disciples. Christ Himself dispels all such notions when He declares, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have” (Luke 24:39).
From the Apostolic Fathers to the last breath of the desert ascetics, the Church has only ever spoken one word on this matter: Christ rose in the flesh.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, the disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian, writes with all the authority of one who knew the Apostolic mind:
“I know and believe that He was in the flesh even after the Resurrection. When He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them, ‘Take, handle Me and see that I am not a bodiless demon.’”
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons affirms:
“He raised His own body… that He might show that He Himself was the life of the dead.”
And Saint Gregory the Theologian insists:
“If He was not raised, neither are we; if He was not raised, our faith is in vain.”
These holy Fathers do not speak in riddles. They proclaim what the Church has always believed, what the martyrs have died for, and what the faithful still confess at every Divine Liturgy.
To deny the Resurrection is to deny our own. If Christ did not rise bodily, then neither shall we. But the Apostle comforts us: “Now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20). As He is, so shall we be.
In the Church, we do not attempt to simply only spiritualize the Resurrection. We stand in awe before it. We walk with Him in the feasts, and we proclaim Him until He comes again in glory.
This is our Faith. Let us not be ashamed of the Gospel, nor weaken its truth with the skepticism of the age. The Resurrection is not an optional belief—it is the very center of the Orthodox faith.
Let us say with Saint John Chrysostom:
“Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave!”
And let us respond not with vague assent, but with unshakable conviction. Christ is risen, truly risen, and in the flesh! This we believe, this we preach, and this we await for ourselves on the Last Day.
To Him be glory unto the ages of ages.