Today I had a real interesting conversation with a friend. My friend just got a job offer from a prestigous firm, and we went to celebrate, three of us. At dinner, (which they bought- I'm the only one in the public sector,) we ended up talking about- religion. And they rose the question of- what is at the heart of the Christian faith that makes it so different?
I thought about it for a while, before telling them about the person of Jesus, and how Christianity is not about power or hierarchy or systems or texts or creeds or laws or good works or popes or anything like that- it's about one man: Jesus Christ. It's only Jesus who was able to completely revolutionise the world the way He did, with His death and resurrection. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:14, "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." Indeed, if Jesus didn't die and didn't prove Himself alive just as He prophesied, He would not have been able to demonstrate His spiritual authority over death- just like any other man.
I thought about it for a while, and came to this conclusion- for that act alone, I'm in love with Jesus. I have never met Him in person, or put my hands in His hands, feet and sides, but for His act of self-sacrifice and His suffering upon that cross, what else can I offer but everything I am and own in return? And I owe Him so much more than just that, for He died and rose, giving us all hope in His promises and His ability to conquer death. And He's blessed us all innumerably beyond measure- how great is our God!
1 Corinthians 14 goes on to read in verse 17, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." What if Christ never came back from the dead and fulfilled His promises? Paul says that we are wretched then- we are miserable and pitiful little things. But consider the opposite- if He did indeed rise, then what joy and immeasurable blessing we enjoy! There is hope for each new day, and for every moment we bless Him for His life, His death and His resurrection. Let us not fall into the trap of thinking of the empty tomb cliche or overrated, because it is that tomb that holds the hope for all Mankind, the redemption of our sins, personal access to Heaven, and restored relationship with the God of all grace! We really should be thanking Him, praising Him for His resurrection, and the hope it brings!
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A Word on Apologetics:
Did you know also, that the resurrection is documented outside of the Gospel- that is, there are other non-Christian historical sources that prove that Jesus existed, was crucified for His claims to divinity and that his tomb was indeed empty. These other sources include the writings of Flavius Josephus, Suetonius, Tactitus, Pliny, Thallus, the Talmud and the 'Acts of Pilate'. Also, http://www.themoorings.org/apologetics/resurrection/resur3.html provides us with insightful information about the nature of the Roman guard and the seal designed to 'keep Christ from resurrecting':
The guards used sophisticated methods. A Roman guard detail varied in size from four to sixteen men (3). When sixteen participated in overnight duty, each quaternion (group of four men) took the watch for about three hours (Acts 12:4), so that four men were awake at all times (4). The four on guard stood at the object to be secured, while the other twelve slept in a semicircle with their heads pointed inward (5). Each soldier was armed with a six-foot pike, a sword, and a dagger (6).
Dereliction of duty was punishable by death. Roman armies conquered the world in part because they were highly disciplined. The demands upon a soldier were rigorous, and if he failed to meet them, he could expect no mercy. Among the offenses punishable by death were striking an officer and disposing of arms (7). Another was failure in guard duty (8), which has been a capital offense even in modern armies. The punishment normally meted out to the offender was gruesome. He might be stripped naked and burned alive in his own garments (9). If a guard detail failed to carry out its mission, superior officers would, if possible, execute only those soldiers at fault. But if they could not identify the shirkers, they would pick one soldier by lot and execute him (10). The possibility that even an innocent member of a derelict detail might lose his life caused an uneasy sleep for all.
Professor Thomas Arnold, for 14 years a headmaster of Rugby, author of "History of Rome", and appointed to the chair of modern history at Oxford, said: "I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." Brooke Foss Westcott, an English scholar, said: "raking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it."
