The Resurrection Proved by What He Does

What we have said so far, then, is no small proof that death has been brought to nothing, and that the cross of the Lord is a sign of victory over him. But as for the resurrection of the body to immortality, which Christ, the common Savior and true Life of all, accomplished after this, the proof from facts is clearer than arguments to those whose mental sight is sound. For if, as our argument has shown, death has been brought to nothing, and because of Christ all trample him underfoot, much more did Christ himself first trample him down with his own body and bring him to nothing. But if death was slain by him, what could have happened except the rising again of his body, and its being displayed as a monument of victory over death? Or how could death have been shown to be brought to nothing unless the Lord’s body had risen? But if this demonstration of the resurrection seems insufficient to anyone, let him be assured of what is said from what takes place before his eyes. [a]

When a man has died, he can exert no power; his influence lasts to the grave and then ceases. Actions, and power over people, belong to the living only. Let anyone who wishes see and be the judge, and confess the truth from what is plain to see. For now the Savior is doing such great things among people, and day by day is invisibly persuading so great a multitude from every side, both from those who live in Greece and from those in foreign lands, to come over to his faith and all to obey his teaching. Will anyone, then, still keep his mind in doubt whether the Savior has accomplished a resurrection, and whether Christ is alive, or rather is himself the Life? Or is it like a dead man to be pricking people’s consciences, so that they renounce the laws of their fathers and bow before the teaching of Christ? Or if he is no longer active, for that is the mark of one who is dead, how does he stop the activity of those who are active and alive, so that the adulterer no longer commits adultery, the murderer murders no more, the one who wrongs others is no longer grasping, and the irreverent man becomes devout from then on? Or if he has not risen but is dead, how does he drive away, pursue and cast down those false gods that the unbelievers say are alive, and the demons they worship?

For where Christ and his faith are named, there all idolatry is overthrown and every deception of evil spirits is exposed. No spirit can bear even the name; on merely hearing it, it flees and vanishes. But this is not the work of one who is dead, but of one who lives, and above all of God. In particular, it would be absurd to say that the spirits he casts out and the idols he brings to nothing are alive, while he who chases them away, who by his power keeps them from even appearing, and who is confessed by them all to be the Son of God, is dead.