“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.” (I Corinthians 15:3-8)
Thoughts… Did you know that while 85% of Americans claim to be Christian, 35% of those believe that Jesus Christ, though crucified, never had a literal, physical resurrection?
That fact suggests that as a nation we’re fascinated with Jesus, we respect him, you might even say that we love the idea of Jesus, but we’re uncomfortable with the resurrection and we’re uncertain that it really happened. Why then, are we so enamored with Jesus? Perhaps one of the reasons is that buried deep within our hearts is a irrepressible longing for the resurrection to be true. You see, we just know instinctively that if the resurrection is not true, we’re hopeless.
It’s like the four friends who were talking about death one day when one asked the other three, “When you are in your casket and people are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?” The first man said, “I’d like to hear them say that I was a fine physician in my time and a great family man.”
The second said, “I’d like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and a school teacher who made a huge difference in the lives of children.” The third man said, “I’d like to hear them say, ‘Look, he’s moving!’”
We’re a lot like that last guy, aren’t we? We want resurrection. But the truth is, this universal hope of resurrection is only possible by the reality of Christ’s resurrection. It’s this reality of his resurrection that’s at the heart of Christianity. Take away the resurrection and you might as well throw away your Christian faith. If there’s no empty tomb, then Jesus was the biggest fraud who ever lived, and so is Christianity. But if Jesus conquered death and rose from the tomb, as the Bible says he did, that’s the biggest news to ever hit this planet, and it is the basis for your hope in this life and in the one to come.
Paul says the resurrection isn’t just a little sidebar to your faith, it is the centerpiece to Christianity. It is so important that Paul says if you are not going to stake your life and eternity on the reality of the resurrection, you’re wasting your time being a Christian. But if you’re going to take your stand on this belief, then you can be confident that the resurrection is not just some myth, it is based on solid, eyewitness, irrefutable proof.
I don’t know if you’ve ever realized this, but there is an enormous amount of evidence that Jesus rose from the grave. Many skeptics have converted to Christianity trying to disprove it, because of the evidence they find. I won’t go into all the proofs here, but let me take the one Paul talks about here in I Corinthians 15: The visual proofs.
In the accounts of 5 different New Testament writers, the risen Christ made 13 separate appearances to a total of 557 witnesses who saw him with their own eyes. When Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, he said most of these 500+ eyewitnesses were still alive, and all you had to do was just go ask them about what they saw with their own eyes. Put them on the witness stand, cross examine them, but what you’ll find is overwhelming and convincing proof that they saw the resurrected Christ with they own eyes.
Dr. William F. Albright, famous Johns Hopkins archaeologist said, “For a mere legend about Christ…to have gained circulation and to have had the impact it had [in the 1st century], without one shred of basis in fact, is unbelievable.”
In other words, to deny the resurrection would be harder to swallow than the truth.
The story is told of a Muslim who became a Christ-follower, and he was asked by his friends, “Why have you become a Christian?”
He answered, “Well, it’s like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which way to go, and there at the fork were two men, one dead and one alive—which one would you ask which way to go?”
The Bible says if you choose to follow the One who is alive, you will experience resurrection power. Follow the proof and you will find the power. Find the power and you will find God’s provision for your life now and for all eternity.
Prayer… Lord Jesus, I reaffirm my belief in the historical reality that you died on the cross for my sin and in your your literal, physical resurrection from the grave. And I rejoice that in both your death and resurrection, God the Father made you, though you had never sinned, to be the offering for my sin, so that I could be made right with God through you.
One More Thing… “Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.” —Watchman Nee
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.