The death on the Cross for us was therefore fitting and appropriate, and its cause has been shown reasonable in every respect. There are sound reasons why the salvation of all had to take place through the Cross and not in another way. Even on the Cross He did not leave Himself hidden. Far from it: He made creation bear witness to the presence of its Maker. He did not allow the temple of His body to remain long in death, but, after merely showing it to be dead through its encounter with death, immediately raised it on the third day, bearing in His body incorruption and freedom from suffering as trophies of victory over death.
He could have raised the body immediately after death and shown it alive again. But the Savior, wisely foreseeing this, did not do so. If He had displayed the Resurrection at once, someone might have said that He had not died at all or that death had not fully touched Him.
Perhaps, too, if the interval between His death and Resurrection had been only two days, the glory of His incorruption would have remained unclear. Therefore, so that the body might be shown dead, the Word allowed one intervening day and on the third day showed the body incorruptible to all.
Thus, in order to show that death had taken place in the body, He raised it on the third day.
Yet He did not allow the body to remain for a long time and become completely corrupted before raising it, lest people disbelieve and suppose that He was carrying another body rather than the same one. With the passing of time, someone might distrust what he saw and forget what had happened. For this reason He waited no more than three days and did not keep those who had heard Him speak about the Resurrection in suspense for long.
While His words still echoed in their ears, their eyes were still waiting, their minds remained in suspense, and those who had killed Him were still alive and present as witnesses to the death of the Lord's body, the Son of God Himself, after an interval of three days, showed the body that had been dead to be immortal and incorruptible. It became clear to all that the body had died not because of any natural weakness in the Word who dwelt in it, but so that death might be abolished in it by the Savior's power.