(1Co 15:16) “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:…. (18) Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” If Jesus remained a corpse, so would all others, even though they believed in Him. We are promised a future resurrection because our Lord’s body rose alive from the grave. All of our hope: payment for our sin – thus forgiven; our soul’s presence in heaven upon our body’s death; and the hope of a future resurrection of our body is all based upon Jesus’ resurrection from the dead!