BASIC BIBLE STUDIES
# 016
The Resurrection Of Christ
Our last two Studies focused on the death of Christ. In these we saw that the
death of Christ was: (1) a violent death, one in which He was
humiliated, beaten, and subjected to the cruelest death devised by
man--crucifixion; (2) a voluntary death, one from which He
could have been delivered by summoning "more than twelve legions of angels"
(Matthew 26:53), but one which He chose to suffer in order to fulfill God's
plan for human redemption from sin (Matthew 26:54); and (3) a
vicarious death, that is, a death--not for His own sins (of which He
had none)--but for the sins of the world (I Corinthians 15:3; II Corinthians
5:21). But the death of Christ was also a victorious death
as we shall now proceed to show in a study the resurrection of Christ.
In a beautiful summary of the gospel, the apostle Paul explains that "Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and
that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was
seen of Cephas (Peter), and then by the twelve" (I Corinthians 15:3-5). The
rest of I Corinthians 15 is devoted to proofs of the resurrection--first of
Christ's, then of all who have ever died. In proof of the resurrection of
Christ, Paul affirms that in addition to being seen by Cephas and then by the
twelve, on other occasions Christ "was seen by over five hundred brethren at
once" (verse 6), "by James, then by all the apostles" (verse 7), "and last of
all He was seen by me (Paul) also..." (verse 8). These people were all
eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection--credible witnesses who could have been
interviewed by anyone in the area of Judea interested in knowing
the facts about what had happened.
As Paul develops his arguments for the resurrection of Christ he reminds the
Corinthian Christians (some of whom were denying the general resurrection of
all the dead at the end of time) that if there is no resurrection of the dead
in general "then Christ has not been raised" (verse 13). He further states
that "if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith also
is vain (meaningless) (verse 14). Paul goes further and asserts that if
Christ has not been raised then all the apostles (and others) who testified to
Christ's resurrection "are found false witnesses of God, because we have
testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up--if in
fact the dead do not rise" (verse 15). Finally, Paul affirms: "And if Christ
is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" and "those who
have fallen asleep (died) in Christ have perished" (verses 17-18). The
overwhelming conclusion of denying the general resurrection of all the dead,
involving as it does a denial of Christ's resurrection, is this: "If in this
life only we have hope in Christ (in other words, if there is nothing beyond
the grave), we are of all men most pitable" (verse 19) and we may as well "eat
and drink, for tomorrow we die" (verse 32) and that is it! Thus, the
consequences of not believing in the resurrection of Christ are indeed many
and tragic!
It is interesting to observe that not all the Gospel writers--Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John--tell of the birth of Christ. None of them claim to tell all
that Christ did and taught (John 20:30-31; 21:25). But all four Gospel
writers tell of the resurrection of Christ! (Matthew 28:1-8;
Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10). Not only do they record the fact
of His resurrection, but they each tell of individuals and groups to whom
Jesus appeared after His resurrection, thus providing credible witnesses to
the reality of the resurrection.
Through the years, religious liberals and modernists have sought to explain
away the resurrection. They do this because they cannot bring themselves to
accept anything that that is beyond the boundaries of their human reasoning.
Thus, they deny both the virgin birth of our Lord and His literal, bodily
resurrection from the dead. It is with this mindset that they also deny the
divine inspiration of the Bible.
The resurrection of Christ has been "explained" by asserting that Christ did
not actually die, that He only fainted (this is known as the "swoon" theory),
later revived, and escaped from the tomb. However, the Roman soldiers who
pierced His side knew that Jesus was dead (John 19:33-34), and Pilate the
Roman governor verified the death of Christ before granting permission for the
burial of the body (Mark 15:44-45).
The resurrection also has been "explained" by suggesting that the disciples of
Jesus stole the body and then claimed a "resurrection." In fact, this is the
oldest "explanation" that has been made for the resurrection, one that the
Jews had continued to make at the time Matthew wrote his Gospel (Matthew
28:11-15), and one that unbelieving Jews and other infidels continue to make
until this day. But guards had been placed at the tomb of Jesus to prevent
this very thing from happening (Matthew 27:62-66), and after the resurrection
they were bribed to say: "His disciples came at night and stole Him away while
we slept" (Matthew 28:13). But consider this: If the guards did "go to sleep
on the job," how did they know what had happened? If they were asleep how
could they know if the disciples (or anyone else) had come and stolen the
body? And if the disciples had stolen the body and faked the resurrection,
how do we explain their later dying the deaths of martyrs--all for what they
knew to be a lie, a fable?!
Still again, in their insistence on denying the reality of the resurrection,
modernists have "explained" the resurrection by asserting that the apostles
only saw Christ in their imagination, that they wanted so badly to believe
that He arose from the dead that they "saw" Him in their minds, but that He
did not literally, physically, and actually arise from the dead. How then do
we account for the "over five hundred brethren" who all saw Him "at once" (I
Corinthians 15:6)? Were they all possessed of an "over-worked and
highly vivid imagination"? And how do we explain Christ being seen by Saul of
Tarsus, the arch-enemy of Christ, and the last person on earth who would want
to see Him (I Corinthians 15:8-9)?!
The facts are these: Christ lived, He was crucified, He was buried, and three
days later He arose from the dead. As Peter preached so convincingly to the
Jews on the Day of Pentecost: "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of
Nazareth, a Man attested (approved) by God to you by miracles, wonders, and
signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know--Him,
being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up,
having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should
be held by it (death)" (Acts 2:22-24). Indeed, Christ has been "declared to
be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4) and therefore "He is able to
save to the uttermost (completely) those who come to God through Him, seeing
He ever lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
If this essay has blessed your life, feel free to forward it to others who may
benefit from it.
Hugh Fulford