Birth, Cross, or Resurrection?

A family member of mine had a devotional on a Christmas Eve and made the statement that the resurrection was the most important event of Christ's life on earth. The resurrection of Christ is monumental as we can read in 1 Corinthians 15. If Christ did not come back to life and ascend to heaven at the right hand of God, He is no better than other religious leaders such as Buddha, Mohammed, and etc. As believers, our faith would be hopeless without the resurrection.

However, I would not go so far as to say that the resurrection is more important than the crucifixion or virgin birth of Jesus. In order to fairly weigh the value of each of these major events in Jesus' life, we need to look at them individually. Jesus was not the first person to be raised from the dead. In the Gospels we can read that even Jesus brought other people back to life. Ezekiel saw the dry bones become flesh. Elijah, Elisha, Peter, and Paul were also used by the Lord in raising the dead. So Jesus was not the first, but He is the only one who was raised to life and would not taste death again. He is the only one who is seated at the right hand of God. But if we remove the virgin birth and crucifixion, we simply have a miracle of a man coming back to life.

Jesus also was not the only person to be crucified on a wooden cross. There were thieves crucified with Him and the Romans made crucifixions a public capital punishment. Jesus was probably not the first innocent person to be crucified either. So without the virgin birth of Christ and His resurrection, Jesus was simply another innocent man being unjustly executed.

Now the virgin birth of Jesus is a miracle not seen anywhere else in the Bible. Both of Jesus' parents were born of natural conception, but Jesus was a perfect, sinless child that was not conceived from a mother and father. Rather, the Lord overshadowed Mary and placed the child in her womb. Once again, without the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, He was simply a miracle child given by God.

Yet, when we place all three of these events together into the life of Christ as they happened, we have the Son of God. A perfect, sinless child born of a virgin, prophesied of centuries before, performing miracles, forgiving sins, and then only to unjustly die on a cross for sins He did not commit and then came back from the dead and ascended into heaven. It's an amazing series of events that are all tied together and cannot be separated. As believers, our sins could not have been paid for by a man full of sin himself. Our faith would be hopeless and pitiable without Christ's resurrection. Our sins could not have been paid for if Jesus had died a natural death of old age. He had to be the perfect, sinless, unspotted sacrificial lamb to atone for our sins. Because of His miraculous birth, atoning death, and resurrection, Christ is our Prophet, Priest, King, and Redeemer.