Karl Barth’s Doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ -- By: Fred H. Klooster

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 24:2 (May 1962)
Article: Karl Barth’s Doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Author: Fred H. Klooster


Karl Barth’s Doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Fred H. Klooster

[*This article is a revised and expanded version of a lecture delivered at Westminster Theological Seminary on March 6, 1961.]

And if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain….Ye are yet in your sins….If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.1

With these striking alternatives the inspired apostle Paul indicates the great importance of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ Our Lord. But because the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead has actually taken place, these awful alternatives are not real possibilities. By means of a moving doxology Paul emphasizes that the Gospel is “good news” indeed, so that preaching, faith, the forgiveness of sins, and the Christian hope are not in vain.

But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive….Death is swallowed up in victory….But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.2

Reflecting upon these stirring words of Paul in First Corinthians, the influential contemporary theologian, Professor Karl Barth, acknowledges that what Paul says is certainly true. Barth asserts that the resurrection of Jesus Christ must be acknowledged, for it is basic to the entire gospel. It is here, he says, that one sees “the real dividing point where revelation as a whole and with it the entire Christian faith is either affirmed or denied”.3

The fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord of life with power to forgive sins requires just as thoroughgoing a proof as did his death, Barth adds. And this proof consists in the resurrection, that is, in

the transfiguring and glorifying of the man Jesus Christ. In His unity with man the Son of God endures death; then conversely it must be in His unity with man that He conquers it. The content of the Easter message is that this has happened, that this dead man, as such, has appeared in a new life to His own people and as man is God for ever and ever….For if Jesus Christ has not risen, if He has not risen as man, and therefore visibly and corporally risen from the dead, then He has not revealed Himself as the Son of God, then we know nothing about His having been so, nor do we know anything of the infinite value of His sacrifice.

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