Jesus Rose From The Dead – So What?
Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity. It is that important. And if one could disprove this event, then Christianity is a house of cards that would fall flat on it’s face. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, “If there is no resurrection for the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
Why is our faith useless if the resurrection didn’t take place? You couldn’t trust Him nor the Word of God. Matthew 16:21 states, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Though He said it elsewhere, He didn’t say here that this is what the Prophets said or what the Tanach (aka Old Testament) taught. No, Matthew records that Jesus Himself taught this truth about Himself. These are His words. You can’t just say that He was mistaken about what the Law and the Prophets said (see Luke 24:44-49); thus it doesn’t matter whether He rose or not.
No, He actually taught His disciples that He was going to die and rise again. If He doesn’t, He is wrong and His teachings can’t be trusted. For if He was wrong at that point, on what other points was and is He wrong? Was He wrong when He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” How is that possible if He Himself is still dead?
Can He be trusted to meet all your needs? Give you power to live? Offer you strength to change your life in order to make it better? What makes Him different than any other religious leader of any era? He laid His entire credibility on the line with one statement. “I will die. And I will rise to life in 3 days – not 1, not 5, but 3.” If He doesn’t and one can prove He didn’t, throw Him out. But if He did and it can be proven, you have something rock solid to trust. Because if He said and did that, what else did He say He could do for you? He drew the proverbial line in the sand. He crossed it, will you?
