Why He Died and Rose Again

What remains now, but to give the reasons for those facts that crown them all? I mean his death, so widely known, the manner of his suffering, and the mighty miracle of his resurrection after death; and then to establish the truth of these events by the clearest testimony. For the reasons given above, he made use of a mortal body as an image worthy of his divine majesty, and like a mighty sovereign he used it as his interpreter in dealing with men, doing everything in keeping with his own divine power. Suppose, then, that at the end of his stay among men he had withdrawn himself suddenly from their sight by some other means. Suppose he had secretly taken away that interpreter of himself, the form he had taken on, and had hurried to escape death, and afterward had by his own act given his mortal body over to corruption and dissolution. Then surely everyone would have taken him for a mere phantom. Nor would he have acted in a way worthy of himself if he who is Life, the Word and the Power of God, had abandoned this interpreter of himself to corruption and death. Nor, again, would his war with the spirits of evil have been brought to its completion by a struggle with the power of death. The place where he had withdrawn would have remained unknown, and those who had not seen him for themselves would not have believed that he existed. There would have been no proof that he was stronger than death, nor would he have freed mortal nature from the law of its natural weakness. His name would never have been heard throughout the world, nor could he have inspired his disciples to despise death, or encouraged those who received his teaching to hope for the enjoyment of a future life with God. Nor would he have kept the assurances of his own promise, nor fulfilled the predictions of the prophets about himself. Nor would he have gone through the last contest of all; for this was to be the struggle with the power of death.

For all these reasons, then, and because the mortal body that had served the divine Word so well had to meet an end worthy of the holy one who lived in it, the manner of his death was ordered to match. Only two choices remained. Either he must give his body over entirely to corruption, and so bring the story of his life to a dishonorable close; or else he must prove himself victorious over death, and make the mortal immortal by an act of divine power. The first of these would have gone against his own promise. For as it is not in the nature of fire to cool, or of light to darken, so it is not in keeping with life to take life away, or with divine reason to act against reason. How would it be reasonable for him who had promised life to others to let his own body, the form he had chosen, perish under the power of corruption? Or for him who had inspired his disciples with hopes of immortality to let this interpreter of his divine purposes be destroyed by death? The second choice, then, was necessary: I mean, that he should show his mastery over the power of death. But how? Was it to be a hidden and secret act, or done openly in the sight of all? So mighty an achievement, if it had stayed unknown and unrevealed, would have done nothing for the good of humankind; but the same event, if openly declared and understood, would by its wonderful character bring benefit to all. So, since his body had to be shown victorious over death, and that not secretly but before people’s eyes, he rightly did not shrink from the trial. To shrink would indeed have shown fear, and a sense of being weaker than the power of death. Instead he kept up that contest with the enemy which has made the mortal immortal: a contest undertaken for the life, the immortality and the salvation of all.

Suppose someone wanted to show us that a vessel could withstand the force of fire. How could he prove it better than by throwing it into the furnace and then taking it out whole and unburned? In just this way the Word of God, the source of life to all, wanted to prove the triumph over death of the body he had taken for the salvation of humankind, and to make this body share his own life and immortality; and he followed a course suited to that purpose. He left his body for a little while, and gave it up to death to prove that it was mortal. And soon he redeemed it from death, to vindicate that divine power by which he has shown that the immortality he has promised is wholly beyond the reach of death. The reason for this is clear. His disciples needed to see with their own eyes proof of the certainty of the resurrection. He had taught them to rest their hopes on it, so that they might rise above the fear of death. It was indeed most necessary for those who meant to live a life of godliness to receive a clear impression of this essential truth; and more necessary still for those who were destined to proclaim his name in all the world, and to pass on to humankind that knowledge of God which he had long before appointed for all nations. Such people needed the strongest conviction of a future life, so that they could keep up the fight against the error of the pagans and their many gods with fearless and unflinching zeal: a fight whose dangers they would never have been ready to face unless they had learned to despise death. So in arming his disciples against the power of this last enemy, he did not hand on his teaching in mere spoken precepts, nor did he try to prove the soul’s immortality with persuasive and plausible arguments. He showed them, in his own person, a real victory over death. [a] This was the first and greatest reason for our Savior’s contest with the power of death. By it he proved to his disciples the nothingness of what terrifies all humankind, and gave visible evidence of the reality of the life he had promised. He presented, as it were, a firstfruits of our common hope: of future life and immortality in the presence of God. [b]

The second reason for his resurrection was that the divine power living in his mortal body might be made known. Humankind had in the past given divine honors to men who had given way to the power of death, and had given the titles of gods and heroes to mortals like themselves. For this reason, then, the Word of God showed his gracious character and proved to humankind that he was stronger than death. He called his mortal body back to a second life, showed everyone an immortal triumph over death, and taught them to acknowledge the author of such a victory, even in death itself, as the only true God. I may give a third reason as well for the Savior’s death. He was the victim offered to the supreme Sovereign of the universe for the whole human race: a victim consecrated for the needs of humankind, and for the overthrow of the errors of demon worship. For as soon as the one holy and mighty sacrifice, the sacred body of our Savior, had been slain for humankind, as a ransom for all the nations who until then had been caught up in the guilt of impious superstition, from that moment the power of unclean and unholy spirits was utterly done away, and every earthborn and deceiving error was at once weakened and destroyed. So this saving victim, taken from among men themselves, I mean the mortal body of the Word, was offered on behalf of the whole human race. This was the sacrifice given up to death of which the sacred oracles speak: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” And again, as follows: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before its shearer.” They also declare the reason, saying: “He bears our sins and is in pain for us; yet we considered him to be in trouble, and in suffering, and in affliction. But he was wounded because of our sins, and bruised because of our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we were healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray; everyone has gone astray in his own way; and the Lord gave him up for our sins.” [c] Such were the reasons why the human body of the Word of God was offered. But since he was the great high priest, consecrated to the supreme Lord and King, and therefore more than a victim, being the Word, the Power and the Wisdom of God, he soon called his body back from the grip of death. He presented it to his Father as the firstfruits of our common salvation, and he raised up this trophy for the blessing of all humankind: a proof at once of his victory over death and Satan, and of the end of human sacrifices. [e]