The necessity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead should be intuitively obvious to even the casual observer of Christian teaching. Merely consider the alternative to His rising from the dead. It’s to have not risen from the dead. Other options are non-existent. Scripture reminds us, in the great chapter dealing with the resurrection, 1st Corinthians 15, “If the dead rise not, then is Christ not risen; and, if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” “Vain” means “to no purpose, empty, invalid.”
The resurrection of Christ from the dead is so utterly vital to Christianity there is no Christianity, and all it claims is vain, empty, and worthless if Christ be not risen. Do we, then, mean to say that all that is claimed to be Christian rises or falls on the reality and validity of Christ rising from the dead? Precisely so! Without the bodily resurrection of Christ from the grave, there is no Christianity. The Apostle Paul follows with the implications of Christ being not risen by stating, “What is more, all of those who have already died believing in Christ are also perished.” There is no hope for them beyond the grave, nor is there any hope for anyone else anticipating living again after this present life is concluded. No mistake about it, this is the critical issue of biblical Christianity. Christ did or did not rise from the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and there is no such thing as Christ rising from the dead “kind of”, nor will it suffice to say Christ rose from the dead for those who can believe it, but, for those who do not believe it thinking such a thing impossible, well, for those He didn’t rise from the dead.
But the reality, the historicity, of that event is not determined by human subjectivity. If Christ rose from the dead, no amount of denying it will mean He didn’t. And, if Christ did not actually rise from the dead, no amount of believing He did, no matter how sincerely, will make it so. The thing is what it is not matter who believes or disbelieves it. Thus, it behooves every rational being to give very serious thought to this claim set forth so clearly in the New Testament and predicted in the Old.
Added to the claims of Scripture is the stunning account that the first people to deny Christ had risen were His own apostles, whom He had earlier hand-picked. Nor would they affirm His resurrection till they had seen Him for themselves. They, then, went on not only to make the resurrection the centerpiece of their preaching but were willing to suffer persecution and, ultimately, death rather than deny the resurrection of their Lord. It alone provides the only and sufficient basis for our confidence in ever living again when this present life is over. Because He lives, we, too, shall live, but only because He lives, and we live in Him. This is all we have, and this is all we need.
Published by