Why is the Resurrection So Important?

  As I mentioned last week, I’m switching gears just a bit for the next several weeks as we finish out this current blog series on Why Believe in God? Last week we reviewed the 5 free miracles modern science asks for and then they'll explain reality without God. And we said we don't give them their free miracles but instead, we look at the evidence and opt to believe in God. Having said that, there are still some things that challenge the minds of thinking Christians. So, we want to close out this blog series by looking at five additional questions facing Christians who want to be comfortable with their faith and comfortable sharing their faith with others. The biggest problem Christianity faces is the problem of pain, evil and suffering. But I have written about that several times before, so we won’t address that now. If you haven’t read those posts, or if you want to review them, the links* are below. The second greatest challenge for Christianity has to do with the resurrection of Jesus. Why is the resurrection of Jesus so important? We've already discussed that everything rises or falls on the resurrection. If the resurrection is true, Christianity is true. If the resurrection is false, Christianity is false. Christianity does not ask us to believe things made up out of thin air, or to commit our eternal destiny to fables. The distinction of Christianity among other religions is that it is based on historically verifiable facts. However, some people question whether Jesus ever even existed, which, until that is settled, makes the question of the resurrection moot. The thought that maybe Jesus never even existed can be discomforting for Christians to deal with if they've never been challenged on that before. Are we even sure Jesus existed? I remember one of my cousins rocked my teen-aged world by asking me, “How do you know if Jesus even existed? Maybe somebody just made all this up!” I had simply trusted the ones who told me about God and Jesus and Christianity. It had never occurred to me that it might not be true. As I said, it rocked my world. So, I was comforted, years later, when I heard credible evidence for its all being true… beginning with the fact that Jesus really had lived. I learned that no serious scholarship doubts that Jesus was a real historical person. Of course, the Bible talks about Jesus, but that doesn’t count, because if Jesus were made up, then people could have made up the Bible as well. So, for this question, we need sources outside the Bible. In his book The Case for the Real Jesus, Lee Strobel includes this partial list of historical sources that referenced Jesus:

• The first-century Roman historian Tacitus, mentions Christians.
• Suetonius, the chief secretary to Roman emperor Hadrian refers to a man named Christ, who lived during the first century.
• Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian who wrote for Emperor Vespasian, in his book, Antiquities (which you can buy on Amazon today), mentions “James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” Then he references amazing things that were said about Him.
• Julius Africanus quoted the historian Thallus, in a reference to the darkness that followed the crucifixion of Christ.
• Pliny the Younger, a first-century Roman lawyer, referenced Jesus, who was "worshiped as God."

  As I said, there is rock-solid evidence for the existence of Jesus in secular history. So that brings us back to the question of "why is the resurrection of Jesus is so important?" The resurrection is vital to the Christian faith

• It validates that everything Jesus said could be trusted. If someone prophesied that he was going to be killed and then raised to life again three days later, everything He said could be trusted (Matthew 28:6). If it was not true, we cannot trust anything He said.
• It validates who Jesus claimed to be: the Son of God and Messiah. According to Jesus, the resurrection was a “sign from heaven” that authenticated His ministry (Matthew16:1-4)
• It validates our resurrection. If Jesus was not resurrected, there is no hope for us to be resurrected. If Jesus was resurrected, and promised that, therefore, we will be resurrected as well, it gives us the same hope (1 Corinthians 15:20 NLT).
• It encourages and motivates us to be true to our faith and to sharing our faith with others. After Paul spends time talking about our resurrection, he says, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Because we know we will be resurrected to new life, we can endure persecution and danger for Christ’s sake (verses 30–32), just as our Lord did.

  Conclusion Jesus actually lived. No serious scholarship doubts that He lived. And His resurrection is important because:

• It proves who Jesus is and validates that everything He said can be trusted.
• It shows that God has the power to raise us from the dead.
• It guarantees that the bodies of those who believe in Christ will be resurrected to eternal life.
• It encourages and motivates us to be true to our faith in hard times and to sharing our faith with others.

  This week, we have looked at the question of why the resurrection is so important. But, since it is so important, next week we're going to look again, but in more depth than we have before, at why can we believe that the resurrection actually happened. I hope to see you then. *Some of my past blog posts on the problem of pain, evil and suffering:

• The Biggest Problem Christianity Faces
• How Can You Believe God is Good in Spite of All the Evil in the World?
• The Second-Best Evidence for the Resurrection
• Moving Toward a Good God