He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
John 3.36
As I think about this, one of the issues which strikes me is that believing in the resurrection of Jesus, you have to, first of all, believe who Jesus is.
If Jesus is just a prophet or a ‘good man’, then believing in the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus is far fetched. And you could even say it’s impossible to believe.
If, on the other hand, you believe that Jesus is the Lord of glory, the Son of God, the Emmanuel who became man and dwelt amongst us in order to redeem us, He is God in the flesh, then it’s quite logical to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus and in the resurrection of the dead.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3.22-24
In fact, if God was to become a man and dwell amongst us, He would have to come in an unusual way, because He’d have to come in a way which was not tainted by the original sin which comes from Genesis chapter 3. He’d have to come in a body which would be perfect and which would be without sin, without the corruption of a sinful human nature.
That was why Jesus had to be born in the way He was to the virgin Mary. The seed had to be implanted in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit, in order that He might be fully man, son of man, but also Son of God, without the taint of original sin.
Additionally, if Jesus is God and He is Immanuel – God with us – and someone was to put Him to death in His physical body, could He remain dead? No, because God can’t be dead.
Therefore, it’s logical that Jesus could rise from the dead. Logical that the resurrection would happen, showing that He conquered sin and death, and opened The Way for all who repent and believe to come, be restored to relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, once you understand this, once you understand this basic principle of who Jesus is, the Bible makes total sense. It makes total sense that God, if He is to become man, should come in the way that He did come.
It makes total sense that, if God was to be put to death as Jesus was put to death, He would rise from the dead.
And it also makes sense that, if we have to believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (when you come to people like Dawkins, they’ve rejected the idea of special creation and the idea that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth), if you believe this, then you have to believe that God created a perfect world.
There is another one who exists who is called the Devil. And to understand the Bible’s cosmology, you have to believe that there is a God who exists, who is able to communicate and to influence what takes place on the earth. There is also the opposite factor who is called Satan.
The Devil/Satan is in rebellion against God. He is also communicating with humans and seeking to bring them into bondage to himself, to sin, and into rebellion against God. The Bible tells us very clearly in Genesis that God created a perfect world, that the Devil came along and fouled it up by making humans disobey God, and also that God would provide a rescue plan in order to bring humans back to God.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. 1 John 5.19-21
The rescue plan revolves around Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate, who had come to save us from the power of the Devil in our sins through His death and resurrection.