Apart from it, the incarnation and the ministry would lose all their significance, the
crucifixion would be but a martyrdom, and the cross a symbol of the victory of
death over life. By the Resurrection it was that the Crucified One was "declared to
be the Son of God with power," the great truth on which the Christian's faith is
founded, and to which his hope is anchored. That Christ died for our sins is the
Gospel of the Christian religion regarded as a human cult. The Gospel of
Christianity goes on to declare "That He rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:4). And to show the immeasurable importance of the added
words, the Holy Spirit testifies that if Christ be not raised, our faith is vain, we are
yet in our sins...The empty tomb, and not the manger of Bethlehem, is the
earthly symbol of the great birth upon which Christianity is founded. Were it
not for Bethlehem there could be no Calvary; but, apart from the Resurrection,
Calvary were but a stupendous disaster, of which the Cross would be for all time
the emblem.