Resurrection Faith
5 min read
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
John 12:17-19
In the apologetics study that just finished, the overall goal was to equip the students to have an answer for anyone who asks them to give a reason for the hope that they have in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 3:15).
As Christians, if we ever find ourselves in a conversation about our faith, we might feel a strong desire to “school” all the haters by sharing that one argument that definitively proves that the Christian faith is the one true faith. Unfortunately, there is no one argument or proof that does that. On the other hand, there are many reasonable points that might compel a person to put their hope in Jesus. But every reason for the hope that we have must ultimately point to the truth of the historical life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In other words, the ultimate reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ is that we believe in the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles. And because of their testimony, we believe that the Bible has been given to us by God, and therefore it is completely true.
If a believer cannot articulate the reason for their trust in the absolute truth of the Bible, then that believer cannot “defend” the faith, because our faith is effectively defined by the Bible.
The heart of the gospel message is that Jesus is literally the Son of God, that He died to literally pay the penalty for the sins of all of humanity, that He was literally resurrected to eternal life to prove the truth of His claims, and that He will literally return one day to usher in the end of sin, evil, and death and to usher in a new world where the faithful will live in the literal presence of God forever.
The “proof” of the absolute truth of the Christian faith is historical—Jesus’s resurrection. And, yes, it does take a step of faith to believe. But no matter what a person believes, it takes a step of faith. And for Christians, believing in the historical resurrection of Jesus is abundantly reasonable because of the historical evidence. On the other hand, the only “proof” that the smartest skeptics have provided to debunk the eyewitness, apostolic testimony (after almost 2,000 years) is that “resurrection is impossible.”
But if this whole universe can be created out of “nothing” (which is what the big bang tells us), if life can exist because of the convergence of trillions upon trillions of pieces of matter and the interaction of forces we know very little about, if humans exist and think and feel and create and destroy—surely, nothing is impossible.
If we don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus, we have nothing to stand on. But if we do believe in the literal, historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, then, like the crowd, we might be compelled to spread the word.
Father, Thank You for Your word. Your ways are beyond comprehending. You know the end from the beginning. You count every hair on every head. Forgive me when Your word is like mythologies to me. I confess that my attitude is like that sometimes. But by Your Spirit, make the resurrection of my Lord so real, as if I was there. And use me to spread the word of something so amazing and awesome. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
