There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
America has almost always had a president who has championed our Christian traditions and heritage as a nation — which is why we should be especially grateful that this year we again have a president who is willing to acknowledge Easter as the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Does it matter how the White House treats Easter and the Holy Week? How should Christians think about it?
Consider these two statements from two different administrations.
“On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union…”
That was the opening paragraph from the White House and President Joe Biden on March 31, 2024. Easter Sunday, one year ago.
Contrast that message with this:
“During this sacred week, we acknowledge that the glory of Easter cannot come without the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross. In His final hours on Earth, Christ willingly endured excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all His creation. Through His suffering, we have redemption. Through His death, we are forgiven our sins. Through His Resurrection, we have hope of eternal life. On Easter morning, the stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, and light prevails over darkness — signaling that death does not have the final word.”
This is the statement from the White House and President Donald Trump earlier this week.
What a difference just one year can make, but does it matter how the White House treats Easter? After all, we believe in religious liberty and not all Americans are Christians nor do all Americans champion the Christian faith.
But here’s the point: Religious Liberty in American civics and American law was not a modern secular notion nor an automatic safeguard for religious pluralism, religious equity, and especially paganism. America from its founding was a Christian nation and twice historically has been declared a Christian nation by the Supreme Court of the United States.
For nearly 250 years, America — with a Christian form of government, a Christian ethos, and a Christian history — has always had an American president that has championed our Christian traditions and heritage as a nation. Until more recently, that is, when the sexual revolution attempted to hold America hostage to a movement that sought to trample on our rights and blatantly use Biden’s White House and bully pulpit to insult Americans and millions of Christians on the most sacred day of the year.
Yes, it does matter how the White House celebrates Easter. Yes, it does matter that in a nation that affords religious liberty to all Americans, we do not fall prey to the notion of religious equity and religious pluralism.
Our Constitution was written for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other. Whose morality and what religion? There can be no doubt, it has been and always will be Christian.
And praise God that President Donald Trump has pledged to defend the Christian faith in our schools, the military, the workplace, and the halls of government.
This Easter when you celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christians should be grateful and self-aware that America is also undergoing a bit of a Lazarus moment. Our country does have some life in it, after all.
There are brave men and women — those who confess Christ as Lord — who are standing up against paganism, gross immorality, spiritual darkness, and even tyranny.
We should acknowledge with gratitude to God that we finally have an American president who understands his constitutional duty and who he represents in the Oval Office.
We should also recognize that while we may have no lasting city in this world but are seeking that eternal city that is to come, we still have an earthly home, an earthly vocation, and an earthly calling.
We would do well to remember, those who are living in the United States, that this is our country, the country where God planted us, and we should do our level best to ensure that it remains free and that the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the lampstand of the Church is never extinguished in the United States.
As you celebrate Easter, pray for revival in our nation. Pray for biblical reformation in our churches. And pray for courage and boldness — as it is needed now more than ever.
Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, led prayer at a White House Easter Prayer Dinner hosted by President Donald Trump last night. Franklin was also invited to share an Easter message today at the Holy Thursday staff worship service in the White House.
Before he prayed, Franklin expressed his thanks to Trump for his Palm Sunday message, which acknowledged Easter as a day to celebrate Christ’s resurrection.
“There’s been a spiritual drought in this city for the past few years,” Franklin said, “and so I’m very grateful for the Easter declaration you put out.”
Trump’s Easter presidential message announced that he and first lady Melania Trump were “celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—the living Son of God.” The White House Faith Office planned events throughout the week to observe Easter, including the Wednesday night event.
Franklin’s prayer focused on salvation through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His victory over death.
“Our Father and our God, we come tonight to say thank You. Thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to this Earth to take our sins,” Franklin prayed, “that He died on the cross, shedding His own blood for each and everyone buried in a tomb of sin; but on the third day, You raised Him to life. And Father we know that if we confess our sins and repent and believe on the Name of Your Son the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. And Father, it’s my prayer tonight that many people this Easter would turn from their sins and by faith believe on the Name of your Son. And it’s in His Name that we pray. Amen.”
Following Franklin’s prayer, Trump remarked on Christ’s death and thanked Franklin and other faith leaders in his life.
“Nearly 2,000 years ago, during this sacred week, the living Son of God entered Jerusalem in triumph,” Trump said. “Soon after, the Savior of mankind who brought truth and light into the world was betrayed, arrested, and tried, beaten, and nailed to a cross and crucified. For our sake, He gave up His life and as the very great Rev. Billy Graham once said ‘God proved His love on the cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world ‘I love you.’”
Trump referred to a memory he had attending a Billy Graham evangelistic Crusade with his father at the Yankee Stadium before speaking on Christ’s resurrection.
“Three days later, Christ-followers found the empty tomb,” Trump said. “Jesus had defeated darkness and death and promised new life to all of humankind, and that’s what we celebrate each year at Easter as we joyfully proclaim on Sunday: ‘He is Risen!’ The death and resurrection of Jesus are the essence of the Christian faith whether rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, or in times of peace and war.”
While Franklin was invited to preach in today’s Holy Thursday staff worship service, pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie was invited to pray and read Scripture. The White House also planned a time of communion, and Liberty University students were invited to lead worship music.
Every year at Easter, we, in one accord with the saints throughout the ages, declare, “He is risen indeed!”—the wondrous truth that two-thousand years ago, a Jewish man was dead for three days before He paced out of the tomb. Though the phrase He is risen! is recited annually in most Bible-believing churches in America, I suspect that many Christians find it difficult to articulate the abiding significance of the resurrection of Christ, particularly on a personal level. That is, they find it difficult to answer the question, What does the resurrection mean for me?
As with most redemptive elements of the Christian religion, the resurrection of Christ confers upon its beneficiaries a present and a future status. Presently and spiritually, the resurrection raises Christians to newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and seats them in the heavenly places with Christ (Eph. 2:6). His vindication serves as the foundation for the judicial status of righteousness received by those who trust Him alone for salvation (Rom. 4:25). This is what theologians define as the “already/not yet” tension that characterizes the New Testament, or what Herman Ridderbos defined as Paul’s inaugurated eschatology. In the Old Testament sense of redemptive history, the “day of the Lord” was a one-step event bifurcating the old age and the new age. In one sense, Paul splits the day of the Lord in half and applies it to the first and second comings of Christ. At the first coming, the new age was inaugurated. For Christians, the judgment aspect of the day of the Lord has already passed, God’s wrath having been poured out on Christ, who died in place of His people. In another sense, however, the day of the Lord remains not yet for us—it is still a future event to be fulfilled in the second coming of Christ. The second, consummate day of the Lord is characterized by judgment and resurrection; more accurately, it is a resurrection unto judgment. The resurrection that characterizes this event is a bodily resurrection wherein the bodies of believers, who have already been judged in Christ on the cross, will rise to new life in the new heaven and earth because God’s wrath against them has been satisfied. Those who are outside of Christ, however, will be raised bodily to eternal judgment, to the everlasting wrath of God, for their sins are not covered by Christ. The resurrection that characterizes this event is a bodily resurrection.
This is how the early church understood the resurrection that will take place in the second advent. I remember when I came to the realization that the “resurrection of the body” at the end of the Apostles’ Creed refers not to Christ, but to Christians:
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
This creedal acknowledgment means that for those believers who die before the second advent of Jesus Christ, their souls will experience a blessed reunion with their bodies, albeit without the corruption and decay felt so acutely in this life (Rom. 8:23). The Apostle Paul articulated a correlation between this body-soul reunion and the resurrection of Christ Himself:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor. 15:12–19)
Polemically, Paul is describing to the confused church in Corinth the logical conclusion of doubting the future bodily resurrection of Christians. His reasoning goes like this:
To deny that Christians will be resurrected is to deny that Christ was resurrected.
To deny that Christ was resurrected is to reckon our faith futile.
If our faith is futile, then we are still in our sins.
If we who trust in Christ are still in our sins, then those who have already died in Christ have perished, and we will experience the same fate.
This means that those who are in Christ are of all people the most to be pitied, because they will die in their sins.
Moreover, if Christ has not been raised, we have lied about God in saying that Christ has been raised.
The logical consequences of doubting the bodily resurrection of Christians are steep. For Paul, the resurrection of the body is not adiaphora—an indifferent matter—but a vital aspect of the totality of redemption. Nothing less than salvation is at stake here.
The logical consequences of doubting the bodily resurrection of Christians are steep. Nothing less than salvation is at stake here.
Paul argues that Christ truly was resurrected bodily and that this fact guarantees that those who belong to Him will be resurrected bodily. The explicit conclusion is that there is an unbreakable link between the validity of Christ’s resurrection and the validity of our resurrection such that if we won’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t raised. The converse is also true: if Christ wasn’t raised, then we won’t be raised. If the resurrection of Christ, then, is historically true, this informs how I should understand my body: death truly isn’t the end of it. The ground serves as the storehouse or temporary resting place for our bodies until the day we are called forth in glory to assume our corporeal stature once more, never to experience decay or corruption again.
There’s a memorable scene in the movie Hoosiers, the motion picture that recounts an unlikely state championship of a high school basketball team in a rural town in Indiana. The townsmen aren’t favorable toward coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman), the team’s new coach. What’s more, the team’s star player from years prior, Jimmy Chitwood, has decided against playing on the team for his senior season. This creates a perfect storm in the basketball town, culminating in an impromptu town-hall meeting to vote on Coach Dale’s termination. The voting results are overwhelming. But minutes before the results are announced, Jimmy walks in to announce his intentions to rejoin the basketball team, prompting an eruption of applause. To everybody’s surprise, including Norman Dale, he offers a stipulation that turns the tables and guarantees Coach Dale’s ongoing presence: “I play, coach stays. He goes, I go.”
Christ has promised and guaranteed by His work that we will accompany Him where He goes. Our identification with the risen Lord is such that where He goes, we will go. Where has He gone? As God in the flesh, Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, and when He returns in glory to finally consummate His kingdom, He will take us home with Him (John 14:2–3), not as merely spiritual beings but as beings with glorified bodies like His body. He’s the firstfruits of those sleeping in the grave, the token that guarantees we will join Him in glory. Jesus’ resurrection was the first, but it certainly won’t be the last (Acts 26:23). As such, we—the remainder of the harvest—will be with Him and like Him in His corporeal nature, possessing physical bodies that are like His glorified physical body, having been made suitable to enjoy an eternity in the presence of our triune God.
Indeed, He is bringing all of His people—regardless of the treatment of their bodies after death—to unimaginable glory with Him (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22; Col. 3:3; 1 Thess. 4:16–17; 5:9–10). Our union with Christ by faith implies that what happens to Jesus happens to us. As those living during the overlap of the ages, as Ridderbos put it, we’ve been “raised . . . up with him,” and seated “in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). Already, we’ve been spiritually resurrected, but we have not yet received one thing that Christ has received—the glorious resurrection of our bodies. This is what awaits Christians at the second coming. Our resurrection will be patterned after His resurrection—the historical event of pinnacle glory that was the eschatological domino, setting into motion the restoration of all things that will culminate in the bodily resurrection of those united to Him by faith. We’ll hear the voice of the risen One, come forth, and enter into the resurrection of life (John 5:28–29). His resurrection makes it so that ours is as good as done. This much we know, for the Bible tells us so.
Christian, when you recite “He is risen!” this Easter season—by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within you—remember that the truthfulness of this proposition guarantees that the same thing will one day be said about you: “We are risen; we are risen, indeed!”
Editor’s Note: This post was first published on March 26, 2018.
The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus will take place for many this Sunday. For most people these days, it is more-or-less a cultural event. I don’t necessarily mean they deny that the resurrection happened, but that they believe it based on their family and church affiliations, rather than as a result of their own serious consideration of the issue. Sometimes those who do contemplate and ask the hard questions are simply told to accept the claims of the celebration “by faith.” Faith then becomes little more than a blind leap of faith or a wistful hope. But faith is not supposed to be a “blind leap.” It really is a step taken based on what we know from the past to be true. We have faith the “sun will rise” tomorrow, based on it having done so every day in the past. We step on an elevator with every confidence (faith) that it will take us to the floor we requested based on past experience. Other life occurrences are rare or even singular events. Assassinations of US Presidents while in office is rare — it has only happened four times in our history. The beginning of the universe happened only once in all of history. There was nothing and then there was something! The creation event itself is not “normative” – it is not reproducible and so not scientifically testable. We can’t even come up with a statistical probability of the universe coming into existence. Since it only happened once, there is nothing to measure it by. Therefore, we must reach our conclusion about this event based on other questions and criteria. I like the statement in the instructions of the online quiz Historical Improbabilities:
You can view history as an inevitable progression of events-or you can see it as a kaleidoscope of strange details and small surprises.
I rarely engage in online debate but about ten years ago “Gary” and I had an interesting discussion about the resurrection when he posted a comment to our article, Response to an Agnostic. Gary’s comment posted on March 22 of that year posits two stories, one which follows the biblical account which has historically been held as true and the other which proposes the birth and development of a myth and then asks:
Which of the above two stories about Jesus is much more probable to be true?
That is an interesting question. There is no evidence for the second story but is invented mostly in the minds of The Jesus Seminar, Bart Ehrman and others and is based largely on a foundational belief that the resurrection didn’t happen. From that belief, assertions of late dating of the New Testament are made. Late dating is necessary order to have enough time for the “Jesus myth” to evolve. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have written on this in Interrupting Ehrman and other articles.
This has been along interest of our since it is the bedrock and heart of the Christian faith. MCOI was part of the team that put together the “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? William Lane Craig vs. John Dominic Crossan” debate in 1995. On the way from the airport to the debate location, one of our associates, who was driving Dr Crossan, discussed with him his views of the events following the crucifixion. Crossan agreed that the crucifixion had happened and that Jesus was taken down from the cross on the day which Scripture indicates, but that the body of Jesus “was buried in a shallow grave and eaten by dogs.” This view has been stated by Crossan in radio interviews and his writings as well. When asked what evidence he had for this view, he admitted he had none, but he believed it just the same.
On a different occasion another friend, the late Bob Passantino, met with the co-founder of The Jesus Seminar, Marcus Borg, at a book signing. Bob had an opportunity to talk with Borg and noted that Borg denies the resurrection and believes the Scriptures to be about a myth which grew up around a person named Jesus. Borg agreed that Bob’s assessment of his position was correct. Bob then asked him a question. What if someone, say a person like Jesus, did live, was crucified and then was raised from the dead three days later – what would a historical account of that look like? Borg stared out the window for a few moments as he contemplated his response and then to Bob’s surprise, as well as the others who were in line waiting to have Borg sign their copy of his book they had just purchased, he said, “It would probably look at lot like the New Testament.”
We have addressed the musings of The Jesus Seminar and Crossan in particular in The Hysterical Search for the Historical Jesus. To be sure, they have a story they prefer, but it is not a story that is provable. It is based largely on assumptions and assertions but is not really the stuff of scholarly rigor. The fanciful tale of Gary, Ehrman and the Jesus Seminar is outlined in Gary’s remarks:
…and forty years later, after Jerusalem has been destroyed and most of the disciples are dead, a Greek speaking Christian in Rome writes down the story of Jesus. However, the version of the oral story that this man hears circulating in Rome tells of an empty tomb, the tomb of a member of the Sanhedrin, …so “Mark” writes down the story.
How would I address this in short form, a sort or Reader’s Digest explanation of why I believe in the resurrection? As I point out in Interrupting Ehrman I generally like to start with the Book of Acts, as we can figure out when most of the New Testament was written through the events Dr. Luke records in that book. But an important element is that the early believers remained in Jerusalem, the very place where the crucifixion and resurrection occurred, as the headquarters of the followers of the Messiah for 8-10 years after the resurrection and ascension. The Nation of Israel’s leaders in Jerusalem never embraced the Messiah and eventually began a persecution of believers which scattered many of the followers of “The Way.” (Acts 8:1) who were continually and publicly proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. What is important is what the early followers believed and taught in Jerusalem in those very early years. We have an early church creed quoted by the Apostle Paul in text of 1 Corinthians 15:1-8:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you-unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
The creed (1 Cor. 15:3b-7) was something Paul received earlier and as we track it back in time, we find it was being used in the mid to late 30s A.D. It takes time to develop a creed (statement of belief) because there is first “a need for a creed” before one is developed. Creeds are developed in response to opposition, to clarify an already held doctrine and give the believer an easy way to remember it. Most scholars agree that the process takes about 3-5 years. Paul authored 1 Corinthians around 56 AD. He is quoting a creed he received earlier, perhaps 10-15 years earlier. That puts us within 3-5 years of the resurrection event. Not nearly enough time for the supposed “Jesus Myth” of Gary’s story to develop.
Given enough time, denying the claims of history becomes easier. Eyewitnesses are dead, places referred to can be difficult to find and claims of “doctoring the evidence” becomes easier to allege by those who want to deny what has been long held as historically true. In our day, we regularly see this with holocaust deniers. The holocaust was not denied right after it occurred. But after some decades had passed, people who did not want to believe it simply denied that it had occurred! They claimed that eyewitness accounts were mere fabrications, or extreme exaggerations at the least. The photos or films taken at the time are now scoffed at as “Hollywood hype,” and the deniers “know” that Hollywood is supposedly controlled by Jews. Many holocaust deniers I have met are well educated (some PhDs), and nice people but I have a difficult time taking them seriously when they take this position. In a similar way I have found that “Gary” has been respectful in tone, and I do not personally dislike John Dominic Crossan. He seems kindly and has a great accent. As for Bart Ehrman, he and I have a fair amount in common and I find him engaging. But, as with the Holocaust deniers, I am hard pressed to find any credibility in their attempts to deny the resurrection. So, as with the First Century believers, I leave you with the words that highlight the historical event we celebrate this week:
If Christ’s resurrection is not an absolute, space-time fact, if Christ is still dead in a grave somewhere, then the whole Christian faith is nonsense. If Jesus got up out of the grave (and he did), it means that everything he said is true, the teaching he gave is practical, and the life he lived and lives can make your life different. And if the dead man—Jesus—got up and walked away from death, you can too.
The whole superstructure of the Christian faith is built upon the evidences for the resurrection. I want to give you a series of six questions whose answers lead to only one conclusion…an empty tomb.
1. If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the testimony of the disciples?
If you had lived in the first century and had taken the time to look, you would have seen tears in the disciples’ eyes at the crucifixion. Everything for which they had worked, prayed and slaved over had died. If Jesus had not come back from the dead, Matthew would have gone back to his tax tables, Peter back to his fishing. The disciples would have been sadder-but-wiser men. Later on, gathering in the Upper Room, they were scared. After all, if Jesus was crucified, dying a horrible death, it could also happen to them. However, just 40 days later, you hear their voices throughout the whole land with shouts of excitement and joy: “We’ve seen a dead man walking! We’ve been with him and touched him.” What changed them?
2. If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the faithfulness of the disciples to the testimony of the resurrection even in the face of their own deaths?
Something happened to the disciples. Peter was crucified upside down on a cross because he didn’t want to die the way Jesus had died. Peter could have easily escaped death had he said, “Look, I made it up. It didn’t really happen.” The reason Peter didn’t say that was because he really did see a dead man walking.
Peter wasn’t the only one. James was run through with a sword; Bartholomew was hacked to pieces; later on Paul had his head chopped off outside the wall of Rome; Stephen was stoned to death. Of the original 12 disciples, only one died of old age—John—and he was exiled to the island of Patmos.
Unless the disciples were telling the truth, they were fools.
Instead of growing old in the wisdom and honor of days, these men died as martyrs with the story on their lips that they had been with Jesus after he died. Unless the disciples were telling the truth, they were fools.
3. If Jesus remained dead, why did 500 people say they saw him alive?
Take a look at 1 Corinthians 15:6. 500 people said they saw Jesus alive after he died. It wasn’t insanity, a joke or a conspiracy. It just couldn’t be explained away. With such a large number of supposed witnesses, one would at least go down and check out the coffin. That is what happened.
4. If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the credibility of the witnesses?
We’re so sophisticated. We think we’re the only ones in the world to ask a question, to even wonder about a dead man getting up from the grave. In the first century, though, they questioned just as much as we do, but with an important advantage. They could go and ask the witnesses. If the witnesses’ account proved to be accurate, the Christian faith would have grown to be the greatest religion in the history of the world. That is what happened. Their story checked out.
5. If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the inability of the first century skeptics to deal with the resurrection with an alternative explanation?
There was no corpse. That corpse got up and ruled at the right hand of God the Father.
All the power of Rome and of the religious establishment in Jerusalem was geared to stop the Christian faith. All they had to do was dig up the grave, get out the corpse and present it. No one did. There was no corpse. That corpse got up and ruled at the right hand of God the Father.
6. If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the reality of the Christian Church and its phenomenal growth in the first three centuries of the Christian era?
Christ’s Church covered the Western World by the fourth century. Do you seriously think that a religious movement built on a lie could accomplish that much?
Can you now at least grant the possibility of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? The truth is, the fact of the resurrection, if established, is important in so far as you draw implications from that fact. You can be forgiven. You can experience God’s power. You can understand the meaning. You can live forever.
We get lots of questions at Key Life. The ones above are questions we get regularly, so we hope this post helped. For more theology talk, check out Steve & Pete’s Friday Q&A’s here.
1. PRIORITIES: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received…” v3. It’s so easy for me to slide away from the big truths of Christianity, the really important truths, and into my own peculiar world of theological interests, spiritual side roads and churchy preferences that keep me from allowing God’s grace to marinate in my soul, prompting worship and openness to people. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, jolts me out of my individual ghetto and invites me back into the large, open realm where He roams. Easter reminds us of what is really important.
2. GOSPEL: “Now I would remind you…of the gospel” v1. Easter is about the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and is not less than that, but it is more! As Paul reminds the Corinthians, Easter, and Palm Sunday, and Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday before that, all bring Christians back to meditate on Christ’s death, and why He died; His burial, the grave, death; and His resurrection, and how that impacts us receiving the righteousness of Christ (see Romans 4:25). Easter reminds me of the deep and wide Gospel—the whole Gospel.
3. STABILITY: “In which you stand” v1. The world is in chaos and our emotional lives often reflect that chaos. When bad news makes the ground under my feet unsteady, I can stand, firm in God’s promises that are proved reliable by the resurrection. Easter reminds me, us, that God can be trusted no matter what we face in life.
4. SALVATION: “And by which you are being saved” v2. Easter pulls us back to the core of the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ, and reminds us that we will be saved, that we are now being saved, and we will be saved by Christ and His work, and not by our own work. How easy it is to act as though God saved us and now we’re working really hard to keep ourselves saved! No! All is grace, and Easter reminds us even as we fail, that He will never fail us.
5. EVIDENCE: “And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” v5-7. Christians cannot get through Easter without recounting the litany of the many eyewitnesses who saw Jesus alive after seeing Him clearly die. That’s as it should be! Easter, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, provides the evidential and rational basis for trusting our entire present and eternal life to Jesus, the King over death. Easter reminds us that we’re not foolish in following Jesus, and actually, that we would be foolish not to.
6. SCRIPTURES: “In accordance with the Scriptures” v3-4. The resurrection of Jesus was a part of the Triune God’s plan to redeem His people. As we reflect on the prophecies of Easter and their fulfillment, Christians are reminded that we can trust all of the Bible, on every subject, for all time! Easter reminds us that God’s Word never fails.
7. PAST: “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” v8-9. God used Paul’s past, but Paul was not defined by his sordid past any more than we are defined by our past. God’s grace in Christ radically accepts us where we are and transforms us into what surprises even us. Easter reminds us of our past and the new life and freedom that we now have.
8. IMPACT: “But by the grace of God I am what I am” v10-11. When Paul met the resurrected Christ (Acts 9), he was never and could never be the same. Paul was fully immersed in God’s unconditional favor because of Jesus, and his life can only be called extraordinary after that. While our lives might not be as extensively impactful as Paul’s, Easter reminds us that grace raises the dead and stirs the world through them. Grace creates risk takers with nothing to lose and nothing to prove.
9. LOGIC: “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can…” v12-49. Since Jesus was raised from the dead, so will we be raised from the dead! This life in Christ is preparation for an eternity that is bigger and grander than we can ever imagine. The logic of Christ’s resurrection leading to our own opens up for us a whole new future which we are invited to explore. Easter pulls us out of a this only life into an eternal future that kills the despair of “is this all there is?”
10. HOPE: “I tell you this brothers…” v50-58. Jesus’ resurrection is a model for what ours will be like. An instantaneous change, an imperishable body; immortality; the death of death; victory, triumph, not on our own, but in Jesus. Easter reminds us to hope, and pulls us into hope over and over and over again. Soli Deo Gloria
Anyway, let’s take a look at what explains the resurrection appearances. First, let’s observe the list of appearances:
• Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, shortly after his resurrection (Mark 16:9; John 20:11-18) • Jesus appears to the women returning from the empty tomb (Matthew 28:8-10) • Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Mark 16:12,13; Luke 24:13-35) • Jesus appears to Peter ( Luke 24:34, 1 Corinthians 15:5) • Jesus appears to his disciples, in Jerusalem. (Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-23). • Jesus again appears to his disciples, in Jerusalem. At this time Thomas is present (John 20:24-29). • Jesus appears to his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 28:16; John 21:1,2) • Jesus is seen by 500 believers at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6) • Jesus appears to James ( 1 Corinthians 15:7) • Jesus appears to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20). • He appeared to his disciples (Luke 24:50-53). • He appeared to Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3-6; 1 Corinthians 15:8).
I will go ahead and offer some comments from various scholars and what they say about the appearances and the experiences of the disciples:
E.P. Sanders:
That Jesus’ followers (and later Paul) had resurrection experiences is, in my judgment, a fact. What the reality was that gave rise to the experiences I do not know. “I do not regard deliberate fraud as a worthwhile explanation. Many of the people in these lists were to spend the rest of their lives proclaiming that they had seen the risen Lord, and several of them would die for their cause. Moreover, a calculated deception should have produced great unanimity. Instead, there seem to have been competitors: ‘I saw him first!’ ‘No! I did.’ Paul’s tradition that 500 people saw Jesus at the same time has led some people to suggest that Jesus’ followers suffered mass hysteria. But mass hysteria does not explain the other traditions.” “Finally we know that after his death his followers experienced what they described as the ‘resurrection’: the appearance of a living but transformed person who had actually died. They believed this, they lived it, and they died for it.”[1]
Bart Ehrman:
It is a historical fact that some of Jesus’ followers came to believe that he had been raised from the dead soon after his execution. We know some of these believers by name; one of them, the apostle Paul, claims quite plainly to have seen Jesus alive after his death. Thus, for the historian, Christianity begins after the death of Jesus, not with the resurrection itself, but with the belief in the resurrection.[2]
Ehrman also says:
We can say with complete certainty that some of his disciples at some later time insisted that . . . he soon appeared to them, convincing them that he had been raised from the dead.[3]
Ehrman also goes onto say:
Historians, of course, have no difficulty whatsoever speaking about the belief in Jesus’ resurrection, since this is a matter of public record.[4]
Why, then, did some of the disciples claim to see Jesus alive after his crucifixion? I don’t doubt at all that some disciples claimed this. We don’t have any of their written testimony, but Paul, writing about twenty-five years later, indicates that this is what they claimed, and I don’t think he is making it up. And he knew are least a couple of them, whom he met just three years after the event (Galatians 1:18-19).[5]
Reginald Fuller:
The disciples thought that they had witnessed Jesus’ appearances, which, however they are explained, “is a fact upon which both believer and unbeliever may agree.[6]
Fuller goes onto say:
Even the most skeptical historian” must do one more thing: “postulate some other event” that is not the disciples’ faith, but the reason for their faith, in order to account for their experiences. Of course, both natural and supernatural options have been proposed. [7]
What did the disciples see? Let’s now look at some of the comments by how some scholars account for the appearances:
Marcus Borg
The historical ground of Easter is very simple: the followers of Jesus, both then and now, continued to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death. In the early Christian community, these experiences included visions or apparitions of Jesus. [8]
Rudolph Bultmann
The real Easter faith is faith in the word of preaching which brings illumination. If the event of Easter is in any sense in historical event additional to the event of the Cross, it is nothing else than the rise of faith in the risen Lord, since is was this faith which led to the apostolic preaching. The resurrection itself is not an event of past history. All that historical criticism can establish is that the first disciples came to believe the resurrection.[9]
John Dominic Crossan
When the evangelists spoke about the resurrection of Jesus, they told stories about apparitions or visions. People have visions…. there is nothing impossible about that. But were these post-resurrection stories accounts of historical visions or apparitions? What sort of narratives were they? Were they histories or parables? [10]
Gerd Lüdemann
At the heart of the Christian religion lies a vision described in Greek by Paul as ōphthē—-“he was seen.” And Paul himself, who claims to have witnessed an appearance asserted repeatedly “I have seen the Lord.” So Paul is the main source of the thesis that a vision is the origin of the belief in resurrection….When we talk about visions, we must include something that we experience every night when we dream. That’s our subconscious was of dealing with reality. A vision of that sort was at the heart of the Christian religion; and that vision, reinforced by enthusiasm, was contagious and led to many more visions, until we have an appearance to more than five hundred people. [11]
So having read these comments, keep in mind that several early followers of Jesus certainly did experience supernatural visions such as Stephen (Acts 7:55–56), Peter (see Acts 10), see Paul (Acts 16:8; 18;9). Remember, a subjective vision is a specific type of dream or hallucination in that it has a religious subject. Nevertheless, it is still simply “a product of our minds and has no cause or reality outside of our mind (see Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004), pp. 111–112.
In the book he devotes two chapters to the resurrection. He tends to lean on the Lüdemann hypothesis that the disciples had visionary experiences. In it he says:
It is undisputable that some of the followers of Jesus came to think that he had been raised from the dead, and that something had to have happened to make them think so. Our earliest records are consistent on this point, and I think they provide us with the historically reliable information in one key aspect: the disciples’ belief in the resurrection was based on visionary experiences. I should stress it was visions, and nothing else, that led to the first disciples to believe in the resurrection. -Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (New York: Harper One, 2014), 183-184.
So here Ehrman sides with the visionary language that Crossan, Borg and Lüdemann use. The good news is that Ehrman goes onto to define what he means by “visions” of Jesus. He describes visions as something that are either “veridical” or “nonveridical.” Veridical visions means people tend to see things that are really there while nonveridical visions the opposite-what a person sees is not based any kind of external reality. It is the latter that leads to what is called the hallucination hypothesis. In other words, skeptics assert that nonveridical visions can be attributed to some sort of psychological explanation. Ehrman then punts to his agnosticism again and says he doesn’t care if the appearances can be attributed to either “veridical” or “nonveridical” visionary experiences or anything else. This is rather confusing in that Ehrman first says it is visions that can explain the resurrection appearances. Given Ehrman and others like Lüdemann punt to the vision hypothesis, Bryan goes on to say the following about the quotes from Bultmann, Borg, and Crossan.
In his book The Resurrection of the Messiah, Christopher Bryan responds to Lüdemann:
One may grant that such visions as Lüdemann describes were common in antiquity and are so still—I will confess to having had two such experiences myself. Yet however common such visions may have been or are (and in sense, the commoner they were or are, the stronger this objection becomes) neither in antiquity nor in the present are they normally regarded as evidence of resurrection. On the contrary they are taken to be at worst hallucinations, and at best (as I take them to be) genuine communications of the comfort about the departed from beyond the grave. But in neither case are they considered to be declarations that the departed one has risen from the dead. That, however, is what the texts claim about Jesus. That is what Peter and Paul actually do say. Why do they do that? Lüdemann’s hypothesis leaves that question unanswered. Hence, it does not explain what Ludemann himself says needs to be explained. [12]
Bryan goes on to say the following about the quotes from Bultmann, Borg, and Crossan:
If the experience of the first Christians was the kind of experience that Bultmann, Borg, and Crossan suggest—visionary and internal, simply the conversion of their hearts to God’s truth and the real meaning of Jesus life and death—then why on earth did they not say so? The language to describe such experiences was clearly available, so why did the first Christians not use it? Why did they choose instead to use the language of resurrection, words such as egeiro and anistemi, words which, we have noted, were normally used in quite different connections and whose use here was therefore inviting misunderstanding of experiences that would, in fact, have been perfectly acceptable to many in the ancient world who found resurrection ridiculous?” Why did the first Christians bring “resurrection” into their proclamation at all (other than future open)—unless they genuinely believed that something had happened that could be only be spoken of in this way? [13]
Building on what Bryan says, Peter Walker says:
“Resurrection” (anastasia) in Greek was a word which has already developed a clear meaning. It referred to a physical raising back to life within this world of those whom God chose –“the resurrection of the just” “on the last day” (cf. Matthew 22:28; John 11:24). So when the disciples claimed Resurrection for Jesus, they were claiming that God had done for one man what they were expecting him to do for all his faithful people at the end of time (what Paul refers to as the “hope” of Israel [Acts 23;26:6]. If they had meant merely that Jesus was a good fellow who did not deserve to die and whose effect on people would surely continue beyond his death, they would have used some other word. They would not have dared to use this word, which meant one thing and only one thing—God’s act of raising from physical death. That is what they meant. And that is what they would have been heard to mean. [14]
Furthermore, the use of the word “ōphthē” (the Greek word for appeared) shows the Gospel writers did believe that Jesus appeared physically. “There you will see ( ōphthē) him” (Matt. 28:7); “The Lord has risen and has appeared (ōphthē) to Simon” (Luke 24:24). When they used “ōphthē” here, it means that He appeared physically to them. So when Paul gives his list of appearances in 1 Cor. 15:3-8, the issue becomes whether the appearance to him is the same as it was to the disciples. Bryan says:
There is no indication that he wants to regard the last item in that series as essentially different from the others. Second, he uses the word “ ōphthē” of the appearances to himself as he uses of the appearances to the others. He regards it as the same kind. He saw the risen Lord as they did. There is no doubt the post resurrection body of Jesus (after the ascension) had to be somewhat different than the body the disciples saw. [15]
So in other words, Paul employs the same Greek verb as the tradition, (“he was seen”), to describe his personal experience of the risen Christ. Hence, Paul’s experience was the same in character as that of the preceding disciples. To see more, see our post called “What Did Paul See?”
Let’s return to Bryan’s comment: “Why did the first Christians bring “resurrection” into their proclamation at all (other than future open)—unless they genuinely believed that something had happened that could be only be spoken of in this way?”
Were there other options on the table other than “resurrection”? Let’s look at some of them:
Apparitions
We just saw some like Borg and Crossan postulate the possibility of apparitions or visions. Apparitions is a word used for visual, paranormal related manifestations of deceased loved ones. People in the ancient world as well were familiar with apparitions. Therefore, the witnesses to the resurrection could of described the appearances of Jesus as apparitions. Most of this is discussed in Dale C. Allision’s Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters. As far as apparitions Allison says, “I am sure that the disciples saw Jesus after his death. [16] But he concludes that the apparitions of the dead do not explain completely these appearances.[17] He goes onto say: “Typical encounters with the recently deceased do not issue in claims about an empty tomb, nor do they lead to the founding of a new religion. And they certainly do not typically eat and drink, and they are not seen by crowds of up to five hundred people.” [18]
Ironically, Crosssan says in his book with Jonathan Reed that resurrection is not the same thing as apparitions. They say:
Resurrection is not the same thing as apparition. The question is not whether apparitions or visions occur or how they are to be explained. The ancient world assumed their possibility; for example the slain Hector appears to Anchises at the end of the Trojan War and the start of Virgil’s Aenied. The modern world does too; for example, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders-IV judges them not as mental disorders but as common characteristics of uncomplicated grief. That might be especially so, then and now, after the sudden, tragic , or terrible death or disappearance of a beloved person. Even if, therefore, no Christian texts had mentioned apparitions or visions of Jesus after his crucifixion, we could have safely postulated their occurrence. But, and this is not the point, apparition is not the same as resurrection or anything like enough to invoke its presence. (19)
Translation/Exaltation
Translation is seen in Elijah and Enoch –they did not die, but were simply translated to heaven (2 Kings 2:11; Genesis 5:24). Jews were no doubt familiar with the translation stories. Also, within the extra-canonical Jewish writing called Testament of Job 40, an account of translation was given as a category to describe recently deceased people as well as to the living. Translation is defined as the bodily assumption of someone out of this world into heaven. But the witnesses to the resurrection didn’t utilize the translation category. Once again, Cross and Reed agree that Resurrection isn’t the same thing as exaltation. They say:
Resurrection is not the same as exaltation. Within Jewish tradition, certainly very holy persons were taken up to God rather than being consigned to an earthly tomb, for example, Enoch from among the Patriarchs or Elijah form among the prophets. The Greco Roman equivalent was apotheosis; for example, Augustan coins showed Julius Caesar’s spirit ascending like an upward shooting star to take its place among the heavenly divinities. Those were uniquely individual cases and had no relationship to the fate of others. If one wanted to say that about Jesus, the proper terms were exaltation, ascension, apotheosis, not resurrection. Put another way, with regard to Jesus, you could not have resurrection without exaltation, but you could have exaltation without resurrection. Jesus could be at the right hand of God without ever mentioning resurrection. (20)
On top of these comments, it should be noted that within the Jewish martyrdom tradition in 2 Maccabees 7 it tells the story of the torture and execution of the seven brothers, who refuse to violate the Torah. One of the brothers says to Antiochus, “The King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws” (v. 9). Another brother warns the tyrant, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life” (v. 14). In this case, we see that their martyrdom should lead to their exaltation. Thus, the Jewish martyrs in 2 Macc 7 believed they would be raised on the last day when God came. However, Jesus predicted His imminent death and resurrection, ahead of the general resurrection. This is unique. Also, Paul said “Christ is the first fruits of those who sleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). Hence, Jesus was not another Jewish martyr who had been vindicated by God. Instead, His resurrection was the first of its kind.
Immortality of the Soul
Paul nor the other witnesses refer to the resurrection of Jesus as immortality of the soul. And if Paul and others were trying to attract non Jews to the Jesus movement, it would have been pointless to push a material resurrection on them. As Ben Witherington says:
It is sometimes claimed that the stress on the physicality of the resurrection of Jesus is pure apologetics. I have always been mystified by this claim. If the gospels were written in the last third of the first century, when the church not only had a viable Gentile mission but also was already well on the way to being a largely Gentile community, why would a community trying to attract Gentiles make up a resurrection story, much less emphasize the material resurrection of Jesus? This notion was not a regular part of the pagan lexicon of the afterlife at all, as even a cursory study of the relevant passages in the Greek and Latin classics shows. Indeed, as Acts 17 suggests, pagans were more likely than not to ridicule such an idea. I can understand the apologetic theory if, and only if, the Gospels were directed largely to Pharisaic Jews or their sympathizers. I know of no scholar, however, who has argued such a case.[21]
Hallucinations
I believe the best explanation, consistent with both scientific findings and the surviving evidence . . . Is that the first Christians experienced hallucinations of the risen Christ, of one form or another. . . . In the ancient world, to experience supernatural manifestations of ghosts, gods, and wonders was not only accepted, but encouraged.”–Atheist Richard Carrier―The Spiritual Body of Christ‖ in Empty Tomb, pg. 184.
To posit the hallucination hypothesis, this puts us back to something like the apparition category. As N.T Wright says:
Everybody knew about ghosts, spirits, visions, hallucinations, and so on. Most people in the ancient world believed in some such things. They were quite clear that that wasn’t what they meant by resurrection. While Herod reportedly thought Jesus might be John the Baptist raised from the dead, he didn’t think he was a ghost. Resurrection meant bodies. We cannot emphasize this too strongly, not least because much modern writing continues, most misleadingly, to use the word resurrection as a virtual synonym for life after death in the popular sense. An important conclusion follows from all this, before we look at the Jewish material. When the early Christians said that Jesus had risen from the dead, they knew they were saying that something had happened to him that had happened to nobody else and that nobody had expected to happen. They were not talking about Jesus’s soul going into heavenly bliss. Nor were they saying, confusedly, that Jesus had now become divine. That is simply not what the words meant; there was no implicit connection for either Jews or pagans between resurrection and divinization. (22)
Resuscitation
Also, remember that resurrection is not the same thing as resuscitation. As Crossan and Reed say:
It did not mean that an almost revived Jesus had been revived once taken down from the cross. Individuals could survive an interrupted crucifixion, as Josephus mentions in his Life. He begged Titus for three acquaintances already on crosses after the destruction of Jerusalem , in 70 C.E. and, although, “two of them died in the physicians hands, the third survived.” (421). So also could criminals hung by strangulation be taken down from London’s eighteenth century Tyburn Tree and resuscitated (“resurrected” as they put it). But the Christian traditions’ on “after three days” or “on the third day” is its way of emphasizing that Jesus was really and truly dead. Only a visit to the tomb after such an initial period could certify the person was actually dead. That is why in John 11:17 notes that ‘when Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.” He was, in other words, certainly and securely dead. (23)
Back to Resurrection
It seems that no matter how hard scholars or skeptics punt to subjective visions, apparitions, or hallucinations, the real question at hand is why the early Jesus movement stuck with the resurrection category. Perhaps they stuck with “resurrection” because that is exactly what happened to Jesus! (John 11:25). As Crossan and Reed say,
To say Jesus had been raised from the dead was to assert that the general resurrection had begun. Only for such an assertion was “resurrection’ or “raised from the dead” the proper terminology. The general resurrection was, it were, the grand finale of apocalypse, the final moment when a god of justice publicly and visibly justified the world, turned it from a place of evil and violence to one of goodness and peace. To announce the resurrection of Jesus was to claim such an event had already started. (24)
One final thought: The lesson here is to try to attempt to understand the context of the resurrection claim. If we actually attempt to do this, false analogies like Big Foot, Elvis, and UFO sightings will begin to look incredibly silly!
Sources:
[1] E.P. Sanders , The Historical Figure of Jesus (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 279-280.
[2] Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, (Third Edition New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 276.
[3] Bart Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (New York: Oxford University, 1999), 230
[9] Rudolph Bultmann, “The New Testament and Mythology,” in Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate, ed. Hans Werner Bartsch, trans. Reginald H. Fuller (London: S.P.C.K, 1953-62), 38, 42.
[10] John Dominic Crossan, A Long Way from Tipperary: A Memoir (San Francisco: HarperSanFransisco, 2000), 164-165.
[11] Gerd Lüdemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology. Translated by John Bowden. London: SCM, 1994 (1994), 97, 100.
[12] Christopher Bryan, The Resurrection of the Messiah (Oxford University Press, USA, 2011), 163-164.
19. J.D. Crossan & Jonathan L. Reed. Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts 9New York: HarperSanFrancisco, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, 2001), 259-260.
20. Crossan and Reed, 259-260.
21. Ben Witherington III. New Testament History. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. 2001, 165.
22. N. T. Wright. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: HarperOne, 2008), 62.
For many people, superstition is associated with black cats, broken mirrors, or lucky pennies. Even in an age of so-called scientific advancement, many still knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or believe certain numbers bring fortune or doom. Superstition has a place in many cultures around the world, often blending folklore, religion, and personal habits. Some view it as harmless fun; others see it as a genuine force that influences lives.
Biblically, superstition is more than quirky behavior—it’s a spiritual distortion. It is the belief that specific actions, objects, or traditions are embedded with spiritual meaning and significance when God Himself has not made that connection. In the Areopagus, the Apostle Paul criticized the Athenians for being “very religious” or “superstitious” because their worship was directed toward the unknown—their worship was shaped by ignorance rather than the revelation of God.
Our hearts harbor that kind of superstition whenever we teach as doctrine the commandments of men (Matt. 15:9), attribute godliness to man-made regulations (Col. 2:21–22), or try to please God by ways other than what He has revealed in Scripture. That can be hard to acknowledge. Why? Because it means admitting that we all believe and practice certain things that have the appearance of being “very religious” but actually lack spiritual truth and power. When that’s done in the context of worship, superstition becomes a form of idolatry. A biblical view calls us to renounce it—not merely as irrational, but as spiritually dangerous.
Now, to apply this where it might hurt. In a few days, myriads of people will flow into churches for the celebration of “Easter Sunday”—an annual commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. Some who cross the threshold will not have been in church since last Easter, and I suspect there will be a few who won’t return until next Easter. In our broader culture, this day is esteemed as “very religious”—even by the very irreligious!
Easter superstition is a very real thing. Growing up in an evangelical context, I was told by some that Easter was the most important day of the year. Of the 52 Sundays on the calendar, it was the only one when church should not (could not!) be missed. I was encouraged by a mentor to make it my “favorite day” because it was the day Jesus rose from the dead—and that of all days, this one in particular deserved that I dress my best. In fact, it was the one time I thought wearing a suit and tie to church was non-negotiable. As a young man, I believed God required more of me on Easter than on any other day of the year. I did my best not to sin and dishonor Him—especially by not being more excited about Easter eggs and chocolate than singing with gusto, “Up from the grave He arose!”
I even remember feeling offended the first time I learned that some pastors don’t preach an Easter sermon on the resurrection of Christ. It was unthinkable to me that anything else could—or should—be preached. That wasn’t simply because everyone was thinking and talking about it and a pastor might be wise to accommodate his cultural context. It was more than that. To me, it was as unthinkable as not wishing my best friend a happy birthday on his birthday. To not preach the resurrection, I thought, was ungrateful and unholy—as if God Himself were displeased with any other biblical truth being preached on that day. To be honest, even though I don’t often preach specifically on the resurrection on Easter, to this day I feel a bit of that discomfort when I don’t.
But the truth is, it’s superstitious to treat Easter Sunday as the day-of-days. As significant as the resurrection of Jesus Christ is (and it is!), there’s not an iota of biblical evidence that God expects an annual celebration of it on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. There’s no biblical basis to think this one Lord’s Day is more important or special than the other fifty-one. There’s no biblical reason to believe we need to please God—or that He is more pleased—with a new outfit, man-made rules, or a tailored message on the empty tomb. It’s superstitious to believe there is unique spiritual significance attached to Easter Sunday, because, however “very religious” it may appear to be, it’s a tradition not shaped by the revelation of God.
In my own experience, it took a long time to unwind my attitude and heart from the superstitions that almost universally accompany Easter Sunday. It’s not that I’m ungrateful for the resurrection of Christ, there’s no hope without it! But our worship is to be directed by the revelation of God – by what God Himself has said. We don’t get to assign spiritual significance to traditions, practices, or expectations where God hasn’t. As the Westminster Confession of Faith rightly says: “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship” (20.2).
We may not like asking ourselves the question, but we need to: “Is God pleased with the unique religious significance given to Easter Sunday?” The only right way to answer that question – to discern what is and is not pleasing to God – is to answer it by the Bible. And the Bible doesn’t say God treats Easter Sunday with singular importance. Therefore, to do so is to assign spiritual significance to what God has not, and that’s superstitious.
So come to church this Sunday not because it’s Easter, but because Christ is risen, and that’s a gospel truth needing commemoration every Lord’s Day.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 In this week’s studies, we see that the victory we will one day experience in our own bodily resurrection has been achieved and secured by the victory Jesus won through the cross and empty tomb.
Theme
The Defeat of Death
One of the great Scottish divines of the last century was Robert Candlish (1806-1873), who for about eleven years was principal of New College at Edinburgh. He wrote an entire book just on 1 Corinthians 15, entitled Life in a Risen Saviour. In it he has several chapters at the end devoted to these last verses that conclude Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He reflects on that image of death being swallowed up or death swallowing up. That very aptly describes what death has done down through all the millennia of human history. Death has swallowed up every living thing. Here’s the way Candlish puts it:
Death in this world is the great devourer. It swallows up all living things. The tender babe, the fair youth, the blooming maid, the strong man in his prime, the veteran, tough and scarred, the feeble cripple tottering under the weight of years, all alike come to him. He swallows them all. Hungry and greedy, he prowls in all streets and lanes, and all highways and bypaths, in every city, village, hamlet, throughout all houses. And with all this, he never gets gorged. He craves for more, like the devil whom he serves. He goes about seeking whom he may devour. Bribes, entreaties, tears, all alike fail to move him from his purpose. Beauty has no charm, love no spell to mitigate his rage. Power has no weapons to resist his onset. Worth has no protection against his rancor, nor wisdom against his wiles. None are humble enough to be overlooked and pitied. None are good enough to be reverenced and spared. None are high enough to bid him stand at bay. The king of terrors, formidable to all, is himself afraid of no one. He sees us and swallows up remorselessly, the whole family of man, and even Jesus.
Jesus is the One who described Himself in John 14:6 as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” But when Jesus stood alone before this formidable foe, it seemed by any reasonable analysis, any objective appraisal, that it wasn’t Jesus who was victorious, it was death. Forget heroic conduct. Many people have been heroic in the face of death, but for all their heroism, death still triumphs and it seemed to triumph here. And not only did death seem to triumph, but so had Christ’s enemies, and so had the devil, and so had sin. But, you see, the point of it is that these were only Pyrrhic victories. For a very short while, the enemies of Christ and man did indeed seem to have triumphed.
But on Easter morning, that illusion was dispelled and these apparent victories were forever snatched away. Now we ask the question at that point, “Who has the victory?” And the answer is clear. It’s what our text is talking about. The victory belongs to Jesus. How does it belong to Jesus? It belongs in two ways: by His victory on the cross, and by His victory over the tomb. It’s not usual on Easter to talk about Christ’s victory over the cross because on Easter, we talk about the resurrection. We, more or less, reserve talking about the cross for Good Friday. But we mustn’t forget that the cross was a victory, too.
Good Friday for Christians is not to be some mournful time in which we try to put ourselves into the mood of the disciples between Good Friday and Easter, who didn’t know what had happened. We know what happened. We know that what Jesus Christ was doing on the cross was winning a victory. Thus, Good Friday as well as Easter is a victory celebration for us.
How is that? Why can Good Friday also be a victory celebration? Our text explains it, for when these verses talk about the victory of sin and the sting of death, it explains in verse 56 that the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. That’s what makes death so bad. Death is linked to sin. Death is the penalty for sin, and the strength of sin is the law of God, which we have broken. You see, if it weren’t for those things, there wouldn’t be anything to fear about death at all. But the reason we do fear death is that we sense, rightly, that through that portal, we come to face divine retribution for our many sins. That’s the problem that Jesus dealt with. He died on the cross for our sin. And when He died on the cross for the sin of His people, taking their punishment upon Himself, He broke all of that forever and He achieved a great victory. It absolutely transforms death for those who believe on Him and are His followers.
If the cross is a victory as well as the resurrection, we can ask how those two are linked. They are linked in this way: the resurrection is the evidence that the sacrifice that Jesus made upon the cross was accepted by His Father. If Jesus had only died and had not risen from the dead, how would any of us ever know that the atonement that He claimed to have made by His death was acceptable?
It had to be a perfect sacrifice. Jesus seemed to be a good man, but we can’t see the heart. Only God can see that. We would say, well, maybe He did sin. If He did sin, then when He died, He had to die for His own sin and not for our sin. We’d never know that we had a perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice. But when God raised His Son from the dead and gave Him a victory even over death, we look to His resurrection and we say, yes, that’s God’s seal upon the atonement. That’s the proof that Good Friday worked. It tells us that Jesus is our Savior, and God is satisfied with His death on our behalf.
Study Questions
Why is Good Friday also to be viewed as a victory? How does 1 Corinthians 15:56 explain it?
Since both Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection are to be seen as a victory, how are the two events connected?
Application
Prayer: Particularly during this Easter season, pray for the salvation of those around you, and seek out opportunities to talk with them about the meaning of Easter.
Key Point: If the cross is a victory as well as the resurrection, we can ask how those two are linked. They are linked in this way: the resurrection is the evidence that the sacrifice that Jesus made upon the cross was accepted by His Father.
For Further Study: Download and listen for free to James Boice’s message, “The Christian Faith.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
“He is not here, He has risen” (Matthew 28:6). Oh, what a glorious pronouncement. I wonder just how the angels rejoiced. How will we celebrate that day? How will we honor the death and resurrection of the creator of the universe?
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16
During this time of remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice I am prone to wonder about the angels.
I see them standing at attention internally grieving over the suffering of their creator. Jesus was not merely the creator of just mankind. The Bible says that it was by Him that all things were created. This was their creator in the flesh suffering a brutal death.
I imagine more than a few wishing to dispense with the humans who were causing this atrocity. Matthew records Jesus stating, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). What incredible self-control! What awesome love to bear the punishment of the cross when it could have all ended so easily.
In talking about the prophets, Peter reveals that the angels long to look into this whole business about redemption and the good news of the Gospel (1 Peter 1:12).
They didn’t understand why all this was happening. All they knew was their King was being murdered.
Then I hear amongst the mass chaos of the darkness and the rumbling of the earthquake as the Roman Centurion and the witnesses to Jesus death beat their chests proclaiming, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Read Luke 23:47-48 and Matthew 27:54).
It was over. Jesus was dead. Now it was time to bury Him in a borrowed tomb.
Three days later I imagine the angels clamoring to be on the special detail that was posted. Who would get to roll back the stone? Who would get to wait in the empty tomb to deliver the wonderful news?
Oh, what a glorious pronouncement. I wonder just how the angels rejoiced. Were they slapping each other on the back? Were they shouting in victory? Were they beaming with joy over the news that their King was no longer in the grave?
How will we celebrate that day?
How will we honor the death and resurrection of the creator of the universe?
Intersecting Faith & Life: When you make your Easter eggs this year do one with angel wings on it to remember the angel’s words, “He is not here, He has risen.”
Christian Evangelist Franklin Graham praised the Trump administration for devoting the week to recognizing the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, contrasting that with what occurred last year as former President Joe Biden made sure to highlight the “Transgender Day of Visibility” which fell on Easter.
“What a contrast to Easter last year at the White House when President Biden declared the most holy day of the year on the Christian calendar ‘Transgender Day of Visibility,’” Graham wrote. He pointed out a piece highlighting the Holy Week plans of the Trump White House this year which include “a Holy Week proclamation, a special presidential video message (and) host a pre-Easter dinner and White House staff Easter service,” as detailed by Jennifer Korn, faith director of the White House Faith Office.
Korn told Fox News Digital that it will be a “special time of prayer and worship at the White House to be shared with Americans celebrating the week leading up to Resurrection Sunday.”
“I’m thankful for President @realDonaldTrump and the White House Faith Office, and I look forward to being there this week,” Graham added.
Graham is expected to take part in the staff worship service taking place at the White House on Thursday, alongside Pastor Greg Laurie and Pastor Jentezen Franklin, per Fox News Digital.
Indeed, last year, Transgender Day of Visibility fell on Easter Sunday, and former President Joe Biden chose to highlight it, issuing a proclamation on Good Friday which read in part, “We honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives.”
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility. I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity.
At the time, Biden’s White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attempted to minimize Biden recognizing the Transgender Day of Visibility, which fell on Easter Sunday, asserting that Biden is “a Christian who celebrates Easter with family.”
RELATED — White House: Transgender Day of Visibility and Easter Sunday Debacle Is ‘Misinformation’
President Donald Trump on Sunday kicked off Holy Week with a powerful message, recognizing “the Crucifixion of God’s Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
“… and, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate His Glorious Resurrection and proclaim, as Christians have done for nearly 2,000 years, ‘HE IS RISEN!’” Trump wrote.
As historians evaluate the sources available for the resurrection of Jesus, a critical question is the dating of the sources. In relation to early testimony, historian David Hacket Fisher says, “An historian must not merely provide good relevant evidence but the best relevant evidence. And the best relevant evidence, all things being equal, is evidence which is most nearly immediate to the event itself.” (1) One key in examining the early sources for the life of Christ is to take into account the Jewish culture in which they were birthed. As Paul Barnett notes, “The milieu of early Christianity in which Paul’s letters and the Gospels were written was ‘rabbinic.’” (2)
Given the emphasis on education in the synagogue, the home, and the elementary school, it is not surprising that it was possible for the Jewish people to recount large quantities of material that was even far greater than the Gospels themselves.
Jesus was a called a “Rabbi” (Matt. 8:19; 9:11; 12:38; Mk. 4:38; 5:35; 9:17; 10:17, 20; 12:14, 19, 32; Lk. 19:39; Jn. 1:38; 3:2), which means “master” or “teacher.” There are several terms that can be seen that as part of the rabbinic terminology of that day. His disciples had “come” to him, “followed after” him, “learned from” him, “taken his yoke upon” them (Mt. 11:28-30; Mk 1). (3)
Therefore, it appears that the Gospel was first spread in the form of oral creeds and hymns (Luke 24:34; Acts 2:22-24, 30-32; 3:13-15; 4:10-12; 5:29-32; 10:39-41; 13:37-39; Rom. 1:3-4; 4:25; 10:9; 1 Cor. 11:23ff.;15:3-8; Phil. 26-11; 1 Tim.2:6; 3:16; 6:13; 2 Tim. 2:8;1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 4:2).
There was tremendous care in ‘delivering’ the traditions that had been received. Jesus’ use of parallelism, rhythm and rhyme, alliterations, and assonance enabled Jesus’ words not only ‘memorizable’ but easy to preserve. (4) Even Paul, a very competent rabbi was trained at the rabbinic academy called the House of Hillel by ‘Gamaliel,’ a key rabbinic leader and member of the Sanhedrin. It can be observed that the New Testament authors employ oral tradition terminology such as “delivering,” “receiving,” “passing on” “learning,” “guarding,” the traditional teaching. Just look at the following passages:
Romans 16: 17: “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.”
1 Corinthians 11:23: “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.”
Philippians 4:9: “The things you have learned and received and heardand seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
2 Thessalonians 2:15: “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”
1 Corinthians 15: 3-7: The Earliest Account
Paul applies this terminology in 1 Corinthians 15: 3-7 which is one of the earliest records for the historical content of the Gospel – the death and resurrection of Jesus. The late Orthodox Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide was so impressed by the creed of 1 Cor. 15, that he concluded that this “formula of faith may be considered as a statement of eyewitnesses.” (5)
Paul’s usage of the rabbinic terminology “passed on” and “received” is seen in the creed of 1 Cor. 15:3-8:
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
Rainer Riesner says the following about the creed:
“To the troubled church of Corinth, Paul, around 54 CE, wrote: I would remind you, brothers [including sisters], of the gospel [euangelion] that I proclaimed to you, which you received [parelabete], in which you also stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold to the wording [tini logō] in which I proclaimed it to you. . . . For I handed down [paredōka] to you under the first things what also I have received [parelabon]. (1 Cor. 15:1–3) Then the apostle cites a series of statements, a technique he knew from his rabbinical training, indicating certain traditions about Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection appearances (1 Cor. 15:3–7). There are some important things to be noted. Paul could call a summary of the last part of Jesus’s life euangelion. The apostle reminds the Corinthians that at the foundation of the community (around 50 CE), he taught them some Jesus traditions as part of “the first things.” This is confirmed by 1 Corinthians 11:23–24: “I received [parelabon] from the Lord what I also handed down [paredōka] to you”; then Paul cites the eucharistic words of Jesus in a form independent from, but very near to, the Lukan version (Luke 22:19–20). The formulation “from the Lord” (apo tou kyriou) points back to Jesus as the originator of the tradition (1 Cor. 11:23). Paul is silent concerning those functioning as intermediaries from whom he received the eucharistic words; but 1 Corinthians 15:5–7 shows that the Jesus tradition was connected with known persons such as Peter, James, and the Twelve. Obviously it was not an anonymous tradition. The nearest philological parallel to the Greek words paralambanō (to receive) and paradidōmi (to hand down) are the Hebrew technical terms qibbel and masar, denoting a cultivated oral tradition (m. Abot 1:1). This is in agreement with Paul’s insistence on the “wording” (1 Cor. 15:2) of the catechetical formula in 1 Corinthians 15:3–5. In addition, the strong verbal agreements between the Pauline and the Lukan forms of the eucharistic words point to a cultivated tradition.” (6)
There is an interesting parallel to Paul’s statement in 1 Cor. 15:3-8 in the works of Josephus. Josephus says the following about the Pharisees.
“I want to explain here that the Pharisees passed on to the people certain ordinances from a succession of fathers, which are not written down in the law of Moses. For this reason the party of the Sadducees dismisses these ordinances, averaging that one need only recognize the written ordinances, whereas those from the tradition of the fathers need not be observed.” (7)
As Richard Bauckham notes, “the important point for our purposes is that Josephus uses the language of “passing on” tradition for the transmission from one teacher to another and also for the transmission from the Pharisees to the people.”(8)
Bauckham notes in his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony that the Greek word for “eyewitness” (autoptai), does not have forensic meaning, and in that sense the English word “eyewitnesses” with its suggestion of a metaphor from the law courts, is a little misleading. The autoptai are simply firsthand observers of those events. Bauckham has followed the work of Samuel Byrskog in arguing that while the Gospels though in some ways are a very distinctive form of historiography, they share broadly in the attitude to eyewitness testimony that was common among historians in the Greco-Roman period. These historians valued above all reports of firsthand experience of the events they recounted.
Best of all was for the historian to have been himself a participant in the events (direct autopsy). Failing that (and no historian was present at all the events he need to recount, not least because some would be simultaneous), they sought informants who could speak from firsthand knowledge and whom they could interview (indirect autopsy).” In other words, Byrskog defines “autopsy,” as a visual means of gathering data about a certain object and can include means that are either direct (being an eyewitness) or indirect (access to eyewitnesses).
Byrskog also claims that such autopsy is arguably used by Paul (1 Cor.9:1; 15:5–8; Gal. 1:16), Luke (Acts 1:21–22; 10:39–41) and John (19:35; 21:24; 1 John 1:1–4).
As just mentioned, the word “received” παραλαμβάνω (a rabbinical term) means to receive something transmitted from someone else, which could be by an oral transmission or from others from whom the tradition proceeds. This entails that Paul received this information from someone else at an even an earlier date.
As Gary Habermas notes, “Even critical scholars usually agree that it has an exceptionally early origin.” Ulrich Wilckens declares that this creed “indubitably goes back to the oldest phase of all in the history of primitive Christianity.” (9) Joachim Jeremias calls it “the earliest tradition of all.” (10) Even the non-Christian scholar Gerd Ludemann says that “I do insist that the discovery of pre-Pauline confessional foundations is one of the great achievements in the New Testament scholarship.” (11)
The majority of scholars who comment think that Paul probably received this information about three years after his conversion, which probably occurred from one to four years after the crucifixion. While we can’t be dogmatic about this, we do know at that time, Paul visited Jerusalem to speak with Peter and James, each of whom are included in the list of Jesus’ appearances (1 Cor. 15:5, 7; Gal. 1:18–19). This places it at roughly A.D. 32–38. Even the co-founder Jesus Seminar member John Dominic Crossan, writes:
“Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus in the early 50s C.E. But he says in 1 Corinthians 15:3 that “I handed on to you as of first importance which I in turn received.” The most likely source and time for his reception of that tradition would have been Jerusalem in the early 30s when, according to Galatians 1:18, he “went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas [Peter] and stayed with him fifteen days” (12).
E.P. Sanders also says:
Paul’s letters were written earlier than the gospels, and so his reference to the Twelve is the earliest evidence. It comes in a passage that he repeats as ‘tradition’, and is thus to be traced back to the earliest days of the movement. In 1 Corinthians 15 he gives the list of resurrection appearances that had been handed down to him. (13)
And Crossan’s partner Robert Funk says:
The conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead had already taken root by the time Paul was converted about 33 C.E. On the assumption that Jesus died about 30 C.E., the time for development was thus two or three years at most.” — Robert Funk co-founder of the Jesus Seminar.(14)
This means that Paul received this information from someone else at an even earlier date. How can we know where he received it? There are three possibilities:
In Damascus from Ananias about AD 34
In Jerusalem about AD 36/37
In Antioch about AD 47
One of the clues as to where Paul got his information, is that, within the creed, he calls Peter by his Aramaic name, Cephas. Hence, it seems likely that he received this information in either Galilee or Judea, one of the two places where people spoke Aramaic. Therefore, Paul possibly received the oral history of 1 Cor. 15:3-7 during his visit to Jerusalem.
In Galatians 1:18 Paul says, Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. Here, “acquainted” happens to derive from a Greek word (historesai) that means “inquire into” or “become acquainted.” (15) Interestingly enough, the word “history” also derives from the Greek word “historesai.” So, the work of the historian is to find sources of information, to evaluate their reliability, to make disciplined “inquiry” into their meaning and with imagination to reconstruct what happened. (16) Paul’s first trip to Jerusalem is usually dated about AD 35 or 36.
Why does this matter?
I was once talking to a Muslim about the dating of the Qur’an and the New Testament. Islam states Jesus was never crucified, and therefore, never risen. The Qur’an was written some six hundred years after the life of Jesus which makes it a much later source of information than the New Testament. It seems the evidence that has just been discussed tells us that the historical content of the Gospel (Jesus’ death and resurrection) was circulating very early among the Christian community. As I just said, historians look for the records that are closest to the date of event. Given the early date of 1 Cor. 15: 3-8, it is quite evident that this document is a more reliable resource than the Qur’an. Furthermore, to say the story of Jesus was something that was “made up” much later contradicts the evidence just presented.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Romans 6:5.
Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have been through crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a decided likeness to Him. The incoming of the Spirit of Jesus into me readjusts my personal life to God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him authority to impart the life of God to me, and my experimental life must be constructed on the basis of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus now, and it will show itself in holiness. The idea all through the Apostle Paul’s writings is that after the moral decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus invades every bit of my human nature. It takes omnipotence to live the life of the Son of God in mortal flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a Guest in a house, He invades everything. When once I decide that my “old man” (i.e., the heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything, my part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals. When I have made the moral decision about sin, it is easy to reckon actually that I am dead unto sin, because I find the life of Jesus there all the time. Just as there is only one stamp of humanity, so there is only one stamp of holiness, the holiness of Jesus, and it is His holiness that is gifted to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new order spiritually.
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
As we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection this month, we should consider why His resurrection happened. According to the New Testament there is nothing in Scripture more relevant to the issues, temptations, problems, and sins believers are facing right now than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ resurrection was His victory over sin and death. Christ’s victory, though, was not for Him alone but guarantees our victory as well. His resurrection secures not only our justification but also our sanctification.
How is that Jesus rising from the grave almost 2,000 years ago can give us the victory over sin? The answer to that question is what Romans 6:8-11 is about. We must understand that Jesus’ victory over sin and death through His resurrection guarantees our victory, and we need to know how to appropriate that resurrection power in our lives. Paul gives three basic steps to living by the power of Jesus’ resurrection in the context of our daily lives and battle against sin.
We must first understand our relationship with Christ.
A believer’s relationship with Christ is one of spiritual union. Whatever happened to Jesus happened to us. And whatever happens to us, happens to Him. God recognizes Jesus’ death and burial as our death and burial, too. This union is the primary concern of the first part of the chapter (Romans 6:1-7). We have died with Christ.
If we are in a relationship with Jesus, then, we are assured that God will not stop halfway (verse 8). His victory is our victory. Jesus died and received resurrection life, and we believe that we die and receive resurrection life in Him. We experience Jesus’ victory over sin and His resurrection life now by faith.
How do we have resurrection life while we are still in a body of flesh that is bent toward sin? To answer this question, Paul wrote that Christ has defeated death and sin by dying and rising again (verses 9-10).
This truth is precisely where our battle against sin almost always goes wrong – when we try to muster willpower from within ourselves to conquer sin. Paul says, ‘No, That’s the wrong way to fight against sin. The only way His resurrection can empower us to conquer sin is to fix our eyes upon Him and see His battle against sin.’
Christ’s resurrection tells us He is no longer subject to death. He has defeated death through His resurrection! He now possesses an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16). Paul says we need to know this truth. To understand who we are in Christ, we need to know He has won the victory over death.
Paul adds that when Jesus died, He died to sin. Christ’s death assaulted the power of sin. His death defeated sin once for all. Jesus’ death is a unique, sufficient, unrepeatable event in which He destroyed sin’s power.
Additionally, Jesus, in His resurrected, indestructible, glorious life, lives to the glory of God in perfection without any relationship to sin. Through His resurrection, sin is a vanquished foe. Christ now lives in God’s presence where no sin can enter in and dwell, where everything is for the Lord’s glory.
Understand Jesus’ relationship to sin was never like ours. Our relationship to sin is one of committing sins. Jesus relationship to sin was one of bearing the sins His people had committed (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24). When Christ died to sin, He accomplished the destruction of His people’s sins. His death was so effective and powerful, that it ended His relationship with sin because He completely dealt with our sins on the cross. It is finished!
Our relationship with Christ is one of union with Him, and Christ has defeated death and sin by virtue of His death and resurrection. When we put those two facts together, we realize what we are in Christ. We are dead to sin but alive to God.
Our relationship with the Lord is through faith, as one of union. What happened to Jesus in His death and resurrection belongs to us. If Christ broke the power of sin in His death and resurrection, then we are no longer under sin’s power if we are in Him. We are to consider ourselves finished with sin and its power to be broken in our lives and alive to God, so we live for Him as free from sin through new, resurrection life.
Being dead to sin and alive to God is independent of what we think about it; it is reality. Like all reality, it does not depend on us but on God. Paul is not telling the Romans to make it so by believing it to be so. He is telling them to accept the truth about what they are in Christ and to think rightly about themselves and their relationship to sin and to God. The Romans needed to come to terms with the fact that Jesus’ death and resurrection had irrevocably changed their relationship with both sin and with God, so they are now dead to sin but alive to God.
Now, if sin has been defeated and if we are alive to God, shouldn’t we just stop sinning altogether? Jesus, by His death and resurrection, has broken sin’s power over us. But we are not yet resurrected as He is. We are still in bodies of flesh that lust after sinful things. That explains why we not only battle sin but so often find ourselves giving in to it.
We deal with this dilemma by looking at Christ and remembering what is ultimately true about us because we see what is true about Him and understand our union with Him through faith. Rather than letting what we feel determine what we believe, we allow God’s Word and the truth about Jesus direct our feelings and guide us into obedience.
If there is one word that goes with Jesus’ resurrection, it is hope. Christ has broken the power of sin over us. His resurrection has completely dealt with our sin. Don’t give up. Remember what we are in Christ. Remember that our relationship with sin has been severed. Hold fast to His promise.
Why was Christ raised from the dead? Jesus was raised to conquer sin and to slay death. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness in His death and resurrection. What a glorious Resurrection Sunday promise!
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? Luke 24:26.
Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life: His Resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the risen Lord His very life. Our Lord’s Resurrection destiny is to bring “many sons unto glory.” The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We are never in the relationship to God that the Son of God is in; but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When Our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life, to a life He did not live before He was incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before; and His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know now the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life. “I would know Him in the power of His resurrection.” “As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” “Holy Spirit” is the experimental name for Eternal Life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the Deity in proceeding power Who applies the Atonement to our experience. Thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey Him.
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. Mark 9:9.
Say nothing until the Son of man is risen in you—until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you understand what the historic Christ taught. When you get to the right state on the inside, the word which Jesus has spoken is so plain that you are amazed you did not see it before. You could not understand it before, you were not in the place in disposition where it could be borne. Our Lord does not hide these things; they are unbearable until we get into a fit condition of spiritual life. “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” There must be communion with His risen life before a particular word can be borne by us. Do we know anything about the impartation of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His word is becoming interpretable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we have not His Spirit. An obstinate outlook will effectually hinder God from revealing anything to us. If we have made up our minds about a doctrine, the light of God will come no more to us on that line, we cannot get it. This obtuse stage will end immediately His resurrection life has its way with us. “Tell no man …”—so many do tell what they saw on the mount of transfiguration. They have had the vision and they testify to it, but the life does not tally with it, the Son of man is not yet risen in them. I wonder when He is going to be formed in you and in me?
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
SCRIPTURE READING: 1 Corinthians 15:12–19 KEY VERSE: John 20:25
The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
After the Resurrection, the disciples were overcome with joy that sprang from the realization that God had not forgotten them. Jesus was alive! However, not everyone shared the same enthusiasm. Thomas, one of their own, proclaimed, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25 NASB). Eight days later, Jesus came once again to them. That time Thomas was among those present. Turning to him, Jesus said, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27 NASB). In Lectures in Systematic Theology, Henry Thiessen writes, “The Resurrection is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity … In 1 Corinthians 15:12–19 Paul shows that everything stands or falls with Christ’s bodily resurrection. If Christ has not risen, preaching is vain (v. 14), the Corinthians’ faith was vain (v. 14), the apostles were false witnesses (v. 15), the Corinthians were yet in their sins (v. 17), those fallen asleep in Jesus have perished (v. 18), and Christians are of all men most to be pitied (v. 19).” We are made fully alive because Jesus Christ lives within us. Death had no authority over Him. As Thomas learned, He truly is our risen Lord and Savior!
Jesus, I praise You that I am fully alive because You live within me. You are my risen Lord and Savior.
Stanley, C. F. (2002). Seeking His face (p. 97). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
In their 2004 book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, historians Mike Licona and Gary Habermas argued that the best explanation for the highly evidenced facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus is that God rose Jesus from the dead. One of the 5 facts1 cited by Licona and Habermas is that Jesus’ disciples believed that He rose and appeared to them.2 Some have claimed that it is inconsistent to believe the eyewitness accounts of the risen Jesus while rejecting the numerous reports of encounters with the late Elvis Presley. However, Licona and Habermas demonstrate why no inconsistency actually exists. They write:
“It is possible to find people who honestly believe that there is no body in the tomb of Elvis Presley or that he rose from death but no one has found the evidence convincing enough to dig up the casket to see what it contains. Jesus’ tomb, however, was demonstrably empty.
Elvis sightings are best explained by various opposing theories such as mistaken identity, especially since many Elvis impersonators are about. It is also conceivable, if highly unlikely, that Elvis faked his death. All such explanations of Jesus’ resurrection fail.
The religio-historical context for a resurrection is not present with Elvis as it was with Jesus. Elvis never claimed divinity; Jesus did. Elvis did not perform deeds that appeared miraculous; Jesus did. Elvis never predicted his resurrection; Jesus did.”3
When one compares the appearances of Jesus with Elvis sightings, I think it is fair to say that they are fundamentally different. Even for those who have “suspicious minds,” this seems clear.
Courage and Godspeed,
Chad
Footnotes:
1. The facts Licona and Habermas include are:
a) Jesus died by crucifixion.
b) Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them.
c) The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed. d) The skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.
e) The tomb was empty.
2. To see the evidence supporting this fact, see The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas and Mike Licona, p. 49-62. 3. Ibid, p. 186; for more on the evidence for Jesus’ empty tomb, see p. 69-74.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:12–26, ESV
Jesus lives! thy terrors now Can, O death, no more appal us; Jesus lives! by this we know Thou, O grave, canst not enthral us. Hallelujah! Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, 1715–69 tr. Frances Elizabeth Cox, 1812–97
Manser, M., ed. (2015). Daily Guidance (p. 105). Martin Manser.
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