THE RESURRECTION

By all the precedents of history, by all the known laws of nature, the story of Jesus should have ended with his burial. Not only was Jesus dead, but he had been brutally and publicly killed in such a humiliating manner that it seemed clear to all that he was not – and never had been – God’s Messiah. His followers had been humiliated and scattered. It was – very definitely – the end of the story.

But it wasn’t. Something happened, something that transformed Jesus’ followers and ultimately transformed the world, something that made the events of that Passover not the end of a story but the beginning of one. That this something was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the foundation of Christian belief, past and present.

Christianity would not exist without the resurrection. Around AD 53, Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth: ‘If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless . . . And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins.’’ Paul was making the bold statement that the Christian faith stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus.

The importance of the resurrection is still overwhelming. If the resurrection of Jesus did happen, then the implications are breathtaking. Everything the Bible says about Jesus is true: God can be known as Father, forgiveness is possible, heaven is attainable and death is just a short sleep before eternal joy. And if the resurrection of Jesus didn’t happen, then the implications are equally breathtaking, but in the worst and most devastating way: the Bible cannot be trusted, God – if any such being exists – is a distant deity, there is no certainty of forgiveness, no assured hope, no confidence in the face of death. Whether or not the resurrection happened isn’t just a fact of history; it is a fact that changes our future.

So as we look at the issues surrounding the resurrection we need to remember that, as it always did, everything hinges on whether it is true.