Paul gives us the implications of a non-resurrected Jesus in his letter to the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 15 he writes:

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If Jesus did not rise from the dead then everything He said and claimed can be discredited since He promised that He would rise from the dead. If Jesus did not rise from the dead then we have no guarantee of the forgiveness of our sins, which means we have no guarantee of God’s love, approval, and affirmation of us, which means we cannot be confident in His unconditional love, which means our fears and insecurities and self-centered motivations remail. If Jesus did not rise from the dead then death has the final word and our suffering has no ultimately greater purpose in this life. As Paul said, the resurrection of Christ is not just a historical argument, it is at its very core an argument of identity for all to claim to follow Him.

Fortunately, the evidence of His resurrection is simply overwhelming. Not only can we see the sociological argument for the resurrection in that cultures spanning across space and time, over the history of the world, have continually be transformed by the name and power of Jesus and His resurrection, but we also have actual, historical records of the resurrection taking place. Yes, we have the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all of which are eye-witness accounts. But, we also have extra-biblical, historical accounts of people claiming to have seen and experienced the resurrected Christ.

Jewish, Roman Historian, Josephus, in his work, Jewish Antiquities, a lengthy history of the Jewish people from the early, first century, writes:

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.  For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease.  He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.  And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. “– Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63 

Tacitus, a Roman Historian, when writing the history of the Great Fire of Rome which occured in 64 AD references this in regards to Nero assigning the blame for the fire to Christians:

“Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”

The “Mischievous Superstition” is a reference to the claim of Jesus’ resurrection by those called Christians.

As you can see, not only were all the disciples willing to give their lives for the claim that Jesus had risen from the dead, within the 30-40 years following Jesus’ death people were still willing to die for the claim that Christ had been risen. Many of these people were alive and around when the disciples were claiming the resurrection, and when Paul was writing about the resurrected Christ appearing to over 500 witnesses at once. Point being, these people who are willing to die for the claim of the resurrected Jesus would have had ample opportunity to disprove it or discredit it and instead they are willing to affirm it with their own persacution and crucifixion.

The resurrection of Jesus accomplished way more than what it has come to be associated with within the western church. Ask the average American Christian what the resurrection means to them and he/she will likely respond with some form of, “it means my sins are forgiven and I get to go to Heaven when I die.” However, this is a sentiment rarely expressed by Jesus, His disciples, or by Paul in his letters. Yes, forgiveness of sins is closely connected to the resurrection of Christ all through the New Testament, but not to the effect of going to heaven when you die. Rather, the forgiveness of sins as proven by the resurrection of Christ predominantly points towards followers of Christ being a New Creation kind of people who are participating in God’s Kingdom coming on Earth as it is in Heaven within their present-day realities.

What Paul, and the other New Testament writers, say about the resurrection is that it ushered in God’s reign as King of the Universe, it conquered the dark powers that had held God’s people in slavery to sin, it ended the exile humanity had experienced because of our idolatry, and it has, and, is reconciling all things back to God’s original purpose of humanity ruling over creation as God’s image-bearers.