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. Rather, 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 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 the difficulty this would cause, 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 truly dead, the Word allowed one full day to intervene and on the third day showed the body incorruptible to all.
Thus, in order to show that death had truly 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.
No, while the affair was still ringing in their ears and their eyes were still straining and their minds in turmoil, and while those who had put Him to death were still on the spot and themselves witnessing to the fact of it, the Son of God after three days showed His once dead body immortal and incorruptible; and it was evident to all that it was from no natural weakness that the body which the Word indwelt had died, but in order that in it by the Savior's power death might be done away.