The short answer
Forgiveness depends on the resurrection because Christ’s atoning work continued after his death. In the law of Moses, sins were forgiven after the priest brought the blood into God’s presence. Hebrews says Christ did this as our high priest: he died, rose, and entered heaven “by his own blood” to appear before God for us. A dead Christ could not be that priest, so without the resurrection, as Paul says, we would still be in our sins.
What Paul Said in 1 Corinthians 15:17
First Corinthians 15 is Paul’s long chapter on the resurrection of the dead. He begins by reminding the Corinthians of the gospel he preached to them: “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,” that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
The first line of that gospel ties our sins to Christ’s death. A few verses later Paul says that if Christ had died and stayed dead, the Corinthians would still be in their sins:
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:17
So Paul places forgiveness in both events. Christ died for our sins, and without his resurrection those sins would remain.
The Usual Answer: Proof That the Cross Worked
Most Christians are taught that the atonement was made at the cross, and that the resurrection came afterward to confirm it. The resurrection does confirm many things. Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power . . . by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). In this same chapter Paul calls the risen Christ “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20), the promise that his people will rise as he did.
Both are true. But if the resurrection only proved that the cross had worked, Paul’s words in verse 17 become hard to explain. A failed proof would leave us without assurance. Paul says something stronger: we would be unforgiven. That points to a resurrection that is part of how forgiveness was won.
In Leviticus, Forgiveness Came After the Blood Was Brought In
The sacrifices of the law help explain Paul’s words. In Leviticus the words of atonement and forgiveness come after the priest applies the blood. The sin offering ends, after the blood has been put on the altar, with this promise: “the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him” (Leviticus 4:31).
The Day of Atonement follows the same order. The goat for the LORD was killed, and the atonement for the holy place was made when the high priest carried its blood behind the veil and sprinkled it on the lid of the Ark (Leviticus 16:15–16). The death supplied the blood. The atonement was made when the blood was brought before God. Leviticus explains why: “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).
Hebrews: The Risen Christ Enters the True Sanctuary
Hebrews is the one book of the New Testament that calls Jesus a high priest and explains his work by the Day of Atonement. It says that the tabernacle Moses built was a copy of a real sanctuary in heaven, “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2). Once a year Israel’s high priest went into the inner room “not without blood” (Hebrews 9:7). Then the writer turns to Christ:
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Hebrews 9:11–12
Christ entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). That entrance came after his resurrection and ascension. Hebrews counts it as part of how the atonement was made. The writer even says that if Christ were on earth, “he should not be a priest” (Hebrews 8:4). His priestly work, in the language of the Day of Atonement, was done in heaven by the risen Lord.
That explains 1 Corinthians 15:17. On the Day of Atonement, a death with no priest to carry the blood into the holy place would have left the people in their sins. If Christ had stayed in the grave, no high priest would have entered the true sanctuary with his offering.
Why Only a Living Priest Could Do It
Hebrews says that Jesus became a priest “after the power of an endless life” (Hebrews 7:16). The word translated “endless” means a life that cannot be destroyed or dissolved. Peter said the same thing on the day of Pentecost: God raised Jesus up, “because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24). Death had no claim on the Holy One who had no sin.
Aaron’s sons could serve only until they died, and the high priest could enter God’s presence only briefly, once a year, shielded by a cloud of incense (Leviticus 16:12–13). Christ entered once and remains:
But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:24–25
What Christ brought into God’s presence was his own life, the life he laid down at the cross and took up again. Leviticus said that the blood atones because of the life in it. A living Christ now stands at the place of atonement, and that is why his people can be forgiven.
This question is one step in a larger account. How Atonement Works traces the whole Day of Atonement through the work of Christ: the blood, the high priest in heaven, the scapegoat that carried sins away, and the defeat of the devil.
Get the Paperback on AmazonPaul Ties Forgiveness to the Risen Christ
Paul joins the resurrection to salvation in several other places.
- Romans 4:25. Christ “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” The death and the resurrection stand side by side as two halves of one statement about our salvation.
- Romans 5:10. “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
- Romans 8:34. “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Paul rests the believer’s safety from condemnation on the living Christ.
- Colossians 2:12–13. Believers are “risen with him,” and “you, being dead in your sins . . . hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.”
None of these passages lessens the cross. The same chapter that says “saved by his life” also says “justified by his blood” (Romans 5:9). The apostles spoke of the resurrection as part of the saving work itself, and that is why Paul could say that without it the Corinthians would still be in their sins.
What About “It Is Finished”?
The strongest objection comes from the cross itself. Jesus said, “It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). Many Christians take this to mean that every part of the atonement was complete when he died.
John’s Gospel shows what was finished. Jesus spoke of his food as doing the will of the Father and finishing “his work” (John 4:34). The night before he died he prayed, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). What was finished at the cross was the work the Father gave the Son to do on earth: his obedience and suffering, down to the vinegar. John then records things still to come. On resurrection morning Jesus told Mary, “I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17), and the Spirit was not yet given “because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39).
Hebrews describes what the risen Son went on to do in heaven. It also says that Christ “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever” and then “sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). The offering was made once and is never repeated. It was completed in the presence of God, by a high priest who had been raised from the dead.
What This Means for Christians Today
If forgiveness rests on a living high priest, then the believer’s hope rests on a person who is alive today. Christ is in God’s presence now, “for us” (Hebrews 9:24). Because he is there, believers have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). When they sin, they have “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” who is himself “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1–2).
So the resurrection is good news for forgiveness today, as well as a promise for the last day. The same Christ who died for our sins lives to intercede for us, and “he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:25).
Where This Understanding Comes From
The connection between the resurrection and atonement has been argued at length by biblical scholars. David M. Moffitt’s work on Hebrews, including Rethinking the Atonement (2022), argues that Jesus’ resurrection and ascension are part of his saving work and that Hebrews places his offering at his entrance into heaven. Jacob Milgrom’s study of Leviticus explains how sacrificial blood cleansed the sanctuary so that God could keep dwelling with his people. Early Christian writers also understood Christ’s offering to include his presentation in heaven. How Atonement Works builds on this scholarship and credits it.