Creator, Father, King #245

In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.

WHY DO SO MANY people debate Jesus’ resurrection?

As we discussed in yesterday’s devotion, the empty tomb was a sore subject for first-century Jewish religious leaders, who spread lies in a futile attempt to quell the gospel truth. Two thousand years later, the Resurrection continues to be a divisive issue.

Need proof? Just type “Did Jesus rise from the dead?” (or something similar) into an Internet search engine, and you’ll get millions of results. Not hundreds. Not thousands.

Literally millions.

The question remains: Why do people reject the resurrection of Christ?

What’s It Mean?

Nowadays, few serious scholars deny the historicity of Jesus. Yet the Resurrection continues to cause great controversy, even though no one has offered a plausible reason for the empty tomb in two millennia. What gives?

Because the Resurrection changes everything! A dead Jesus is a “safe Jesus” for people. If Jesus is dead, he was nothing more than an impassioned martyr, not someone that anyone has to radically orient their lives around. After all, why would anyone place their eternal hope in a dead man?

But . . .

If Jesus really rose from the dead . . .

• He truly is God incarnate who took on flesh (John 1:14).
• His sinless life and sacrificial death were acceptable to God as the atoning sacrifice for humanity’s sins (Hebrews 10:1-18).
• Everything he claimed about himself is true, including this statement: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
• All other religions or belief systems are spiritual dead ends, and ultimately apathy or agnosticism is the same as rejection of Christ (Revelation 3:15-16).

If the Resurrection is true, Jesus has a claim on our lives as the all-powerful Son who will one day return to set up his eternal Kingdom, separating the wicked from the righteous. Many people refuse to accept that. They don’t want to submit their life to someone else now, and they’d prefer not to think about the repercussions of sin, death, and judgment in the future.

Believing in Jesus’ resurrection takes faith. It takes God’s Spirit opening spiritually hardened hearts to accept gospel truth.

Jesus is alive! And yes, it changes everything.

Do you believe?

Now What?

Read Luke 24:13-35; Acts 2:14-41; and Acts 10 to see how God opened the hearts of various early Christians to believe in Christ’s resurrection.

Did You Know?

Some biblical commentators believe that 1 Corinthians 15:3-5—where the apostle Paul delivers a message of “first importance” (ESV) about Jesus’ death, resurrection, and subsequent appearances—was an oral creed in the early church.