The death and resurrection of our Lord have achieved distinct but related purposes, being intertwined like the warp and the weft of a cloth.
The cross of Christ hath won for us a victory which we couldst never have earned of our own accord. Having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus hath made a public spectacle of them and triumphed over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15). Upon the cross, God hath laid upon Jesus the weight of our sins and yon He bore the punishment due us (Isaiah 53:4–8). In His death, Jesus hath taken upon Himself the curse introduced by Adam (see Galatians 3:13).
In the death of Christ, our sins have become powerless to hold dominion over us (Romans 6). By His death, Jesus hath destroyed the works of the devil (John 12:31; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8), condemned Satan (John 16:11), and crushed the head of that old serpent (Genesis 3:15).
Without the sacrificial death of Christ, we wouldst still be in our sins, unforgiven, unredeemed, unregenerated, and unloved. The cross of Christ is pivotal to our redemption and was, therefore, a chief theme in the apostles' preaching (Acts 2:23, 36; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2; Galatians 6:14).
However, the story of Jesus Christ hath not ended by means of His death alone. The resurrection of Christ is equally essential to the gospel message. Our salvation stands or falls with the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Paul maketh plain in 1 Corinthians 15:12–19. If Christ hath not bodily arisen from the dead, we have no hope of resurrection ourselves, the apostles' preaching was in vain, and believers are to be pitied above all men. Without the resurrection, we still sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, awaiting the dawning of morn (Luke 1:78–79).
By the resurrection of Jesus, His promise holds firm for us: "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). Our mighty enemy, death, shall be vanquished (1 Corinthians 15:26, 54–55). Jesus' resurrection is crucial for God to declare us righteous: for Jesus was raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). The Holy Ghost was given as a gift from the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus (John 16:7).
Three times in His earthly ministry, Jesus foretold of His death and resurrection after three days (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34). If Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead, He would have failed in His prophecies; He would have been just another false prophet to be disregarded. However, we have a living Lord Who is faithful to His Word. The angel at Jesus' empty tomb had directed to fulfilled prophecy, knowing well that He is not here; He has risen, just as He said" (Matthew 28:6).
Verily, Scripture links the death and resurrection of Christ together and we must maintain that connection. Jesus' entrance into the tomb is of equal importance as His exit from the tomb. In 1 Corinthians 15:3–5, Paul hath defined the gospel as the dual truth that Jesus hath died for our sins (proven by His burial) and hath risen again on the third day (proven by His appearances to many witnesses). This is the truth of the gospel that is of first importance (verse 3).
It is not possible to separate the death of Christ from His resurrection. To believe in one without belief in the other is to believe in a false gospel that shall not save. In order for Jesus to have truly arisen from the dead, He must have truly died. And in order for His death to have true meaning for us, He must have true resurrection. We cannot have one without the other.