Hi, in my philosophy of religion class this week, we are talking about religion and death and the topic of the immortal soul in Christianity comes up and one question raised was if the soul is immortal then what is the point of Jesus’s resurrection?
I’m wondering this. Could someone help?
Human soul is immortal. It is from God, and if the sin of disobediece had not been commited by first man and his wife, it had to end to God for all eternity. But because of this sin, human soul must live eternally even after a mere death (separation of body and soul) but either back to its Creator (expressed by notions like “heaven” “eternal peace” “perfection” “supreme good” etc), or prohibited from reuniting its Creator (expressed by notions like “hell” “eternal fire” etc).
However, to Christians, the possibility of overcoming a committed sin is in the faith that Christ died and resurrected. The point that you are asking is that, in order for the hereditary sin committed by Adam and Eve to be forgiven a sacrifice was to be offered. This is the way that Jesus Himself chose to be the price. This sacrifice was to immitate the Semitic (Jewish in particular) understanding of sacrifeces of which lambs and other cattle seemed appropriate. Jesus chose Himself as the Lamb of Sacrifice to pay the price for reconcilliation of man to his Creator. Therefore He had to die.
But his death could have meant nothing if He hadn’t rise. It could have become very hard to make it understandable this much while He was treated as a mere stuborn person, legally charged guilty and was sentenced to die. Just a mere scene!
But it was not that way. Yes, He died under natural law, which up to now says less about the real intention.
His Resurrection changed everything. What was thought to have been a mere scene is no longer so, but a long founded plan, foretold by prophets who lived more than 500 years before the very scene. It was not a mere death! The Lamb was slain already, but in order to make it clear that it was not a slain for nothing, He rose in glory and was witnessed by all whom He chose and were strengthened to make these things understood by other peoples. Faith in these Mysterious Scenes and leading a non-contradictory life leads to Justification. And as one is baptised, it meas he/she
essentially believe in these scenes as true and sacrificial for reconcilliation. (In your time refer to the Catholic Creed).
This means that the Resurrection of Jesus was the peak of the reconcilliation process. This reconcilliation is that which gives a chance to the **immortal soul **to taste eternity back with its Creator which is referred to as Heaven. Therefore the effect of Jesus’ Resurrection is to bring about a possibility of eternal peace which was lost by sin.
