In a Bible study that I facilitated with a group of Christian youths in Silliman Church around five years ago, I began by asking the kids if their faith in Christ would be affected in any way if it so happened that Jesus Christ had not physically been resurrected from the dead.
To my surprise, more than half in attendance answered no: that their Christian faith would remain the same if there had not been a historical, factual, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As anecdotal as it is, it nonetheless indicates that upcoming generations of church youths do not know the theological significance of the Resurrection, and why they must know it.
And of course, this speaks of an even wider reality that the Resurrection is one of the most neglected points of biblical doctrine in mainline Philippine churches.
Biblically, however, the Resurrection is not just one pivotal and fundamental point of Christian theology; it is a historical fact upon which Christianity as a religion either lives or dies.
In the words of the Apostle Paul, “[I]f Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins…. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:14,17,19).
Paul declared in no uncertain terms that the very existence of the Christian faith hinges with no exaggeration on the actuality and veracity of the resurrection of Christ on the third day following His crucifixion. In short: no resurrection, no Christianity.
Of course, the Christian has to wonder at some point, So, did Jesus really exist? And if he did, did he actually raise himself from the dead?
As to the first question, well-known New Testament scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman, who professes to be an agnostic atheist, says in his book Did Jesus Exist?: “Despite the enormous range of opinion, there are several points on which virtually all scholars of antiquity agree. Jesus was a Jewish man, known to be a preacher and teacher, who was crucified (a Roman form of execution) in Jerusalem during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea.”
Ehrman also says in a later part of the book, “The idea that Jesus did not exist is a modern notion. It has no ancient precedents. It was made up in the eighteenth century. One might as well call it a modern myth, the myth of the mythical Jesus.”
So, if even this non-Christian expert on New Testament studies can attest to the fact that there was a historical Jesus whose life coincided with the Jesus as described in the New Testament Gospels, what about the second question? Was there also a real resurrection of Jesus?
I have read books and scholars answering this in a variety of ways. But for our time and purposes, let me present just two of my favourites.
Firstly, the witnesses were willing to die for their claim that they saw Jesus bodily resurrected. Paul even wrote that more than 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus, including Paul himself (1 Corinthians 15:3—8).
No one in their right mind would throw their life away for what they know to be a lie, so that if they knew that such a claim was false, it was in their best interest to deny such a claim in the face of intense Roman and Jewish persecution therefor.
And yet, these disciples and witnesses stuck with their testimonies even to the point of death.
Secondly, no one has been able to find the bones of Christ, after his well-established execution at the hands of the Romans.
It would have been easy for the Jews and Romans to disprove the claims of the early church that Christ had risen from the dead, by a simple demonstration and display of the corpse of Jesus in their custody. And yet, no such body could be found or produced.
Christ rose from the grave to prove his claim as Lord and Saviour of humanity, that those who by faith die in him are also raised with him in new life eternal.
Happy Resurrection Sunday.
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