Friends, this is exactly why Jesus allowed himself to be nailed to the cross. As God in the flesh, He was the one who had been sinned against and somebody had to pay. He could've chosen Option A and demanded that the whole human race pay for it, but instead he chose to pay for it himself. In essence, on the cross, Jesus traded places with us. The innocent died for the guilty so that the guilty could be declared innocent.

There are basically only two religions in the world. There is the religion of those who want to get heaven on their own efforts, and there is the religion of those who will get to heaven on the efforts of someone else. Christianity stands alone as the only religion where you must rely on someone else, namely Jesus Christ, to get to heaven. Christians believe it's not what THEY do, but what JESUS has done, that makes them acceptable in the eyes of God.

How could a God who is supposedly so far beyond anything we could understand or even begin to think about... how could He stoop to our level and talk to, relate to, understand or empathize with us as human beings? And why would He even want to?

Without a resurrection, the cross of Christ is just another Roman execution. Without a resurrection, there would've been no reason for the cross to become the predominant icon of the Christian faith. Without a resurrection, the cross would've come to be seen as a symbol of defeat, not a symbol of victory. Without a resurrection, the movement of Jesus would have gone the way of every other movement - dead and forgotten, just like their leaders.

But none of those happened. The cross is the icon. It stands for victory. The movement that Jesus started - the church - continues to this day. And it's all based on the outrageous and mind-boggling claim that He rose from the dead.