I’m not quite sure what theistic evolutionist Christians celebrate in the Resurrection. Since the resurrection of the Savior is presented in scripture as the undoing of death and decay brought upon man by the sin of Adam, what is celebrated by those who teach that death not only pre-dates sin in this present world, but that it was God’s mechanism to bring about the current creation?
The Bible is essentially the story of life and death (destruction). Evolutionists cannot possibly understand or fully appreciate what was accomplished in the resurrection nor what was accomplished in the grave.
It is not only His resurrection that is central to the faith, but His lack of decay in the grave that we celebrate. Peter makes David’s prophecy concerning the Holy One’s lack of decay (corruption) in the grave central to the message of Judaism and Christianity (Acts 2:27). Paul makes the resurrection the ultimate hope for those doomed to die in Adam’s sin.
The Bible presents no other hope than resurrection for those who die.
As the Resurrection of the Lord is contemplated, its full meaning can only be appreciated when one understands that death is an enemy. Scripture, in fact, calls death “the last enemy” which is conquered in the resurrection of the believer. The story of man, begins and ends with death (death inflicted, death undone).
In evolution death is good, necessary and a mechanism of God to preserve the strong over the weak. In the Bible, death is an enemy which is the result of sin. God has sought to rescue the weak from the strong with the promise of resurrection life through His name.
Death and decay were conquered in three days and three nights. Eventually death will be destroyed. That is what was accomplished by the Savior. In order to be a theistic evolutionist one must do away with the creation account in Genesis (as C. S. Lewis did by equating it with Pagan myth). However, to do so is to contradict the witness of the entire Bible. Paul, Peter, the Prophets and the Lord Himself base all truth and hope on the creation account as given by Moses in Genesis.
There Are Also Other Robbers
There are also those who rob from the accomplishments of the Resurrection by preaching "bodiless souls" in bliss. We do not have souls, we are souls. God alone is immortal. Paul tells us that it is in resurrection that we "put on immortality" and not before.
David has not yet ascended (Acts 2:34). He awaits resurrection in the grave. He has "made his bed in hell" (Ps 139) and his life is hid in God waiting to be revealed in resurrection.
Resurrection is the only hope presented by the Savior to Martha (John 11) and by Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 4). It is the central hope of the believer (1 Cor 15). When we see this truth, what was accomplished in the death, burial, lack of decay and Resurrection of the Lord bursts forth in greater glory and clarity.
“You shall surely die… the soul that sins, he shall die… I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live… the last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Since death is the result of the sin of one man (Adam), and resurrection is the result of the righteousness of one man (Christ), it cannot be right to make the result of Adam's sin to be the experience that will usher us into the blessings of Christ. We should be willing to reexamine any teaching that causes the hope of men in Christ to be in death rather than in resurrection. God's answer to death is resurrection. God's remedy for death is resurrection. We dishonor God's testimony when we make resurrection to be the reversal of a disembodied condition. Resurrection is the reversal of death. – Otis Sellers