If Jesus didn't die on the cross, then when he presented himself to the original apostles, he could not have been in the physical condition to make them think that he was resurrected from the dead, yet those original apostles who spent 3 years with Jesus set up the churches on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Those same apostles willingly were put to death for their eyewitness testimony proving they truly believed they had seen, talked with and touched Jesus after he raised himself from the dead.

Jesus could not have lied nor could the disciples have, nor would God deceive them, so we are left with only one conclusion: Jesus died and resurrected and this is no difficulty for Jesus because He created the whole universe with the Father and by the Spirit in the Trinity of God.

The disciples were not deceived because there would have to be deception in multiple group appearances of Jesus, yet we know Satan is unable to do this because according to modern psychology and the historical record there has never been group hallucinations (seeing something that is not there) though individual hallucinations can occur. There are at least twelve accounts of different groups of individuals claiming to have seen Jesus resurrected bodily.

Paul said he spent time with Peter (for 15 days) and James a few years after the cross, later on with John, and they met up again on several occasions, who imparted to Paul the early creed of the gospel of salvation through the atonement by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection unto eternal life they themselves had seen well testified in 1 Cor. 15, Gal. 1 & 2 and agreed by even most critical scholars this was truly Paul's very own words and writings.