JESUS CHRIST-RESURRECTION
We need not wonder that so much importance is
attached to our Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and headstone of the great
work of redemption, which He came to do. It is the crowning proof that He
has paid the debt which He undertook to pay on our behalf, won the battle which
He fought to deliver us from hell, and is accepted as our Surety and our
Substitute by our Father in heaven. Had He never come forth from the prison of the grave, how could we
ever have been sure that our ransom had been fully paid? (1 Cor. 15:17.) Had He
never risen from His conflict with the last enemy, how could we have felt confident,
that He has overcome death, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil? (Heb. 2:14.) But thanks be unto God, we are not left in doubt. The Lord Jesus really
“rose again for our justification.” True Christians are “begotten again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” They may boldly
say with Paul, “Who is he that condemns – it is Christ that died, yes rather
that is risen again” (Rom. 8:34. Rom. 4:25. 1 Pet. 1:3).
J.C. Ryle
Matthew Commentary, Chapter 28.
The
resurrection is not merely important to the historic Christian faith; without
it, there would be no Christianity. It is the singular doctrine that elevates
Christianity above all other world religions. Through the resurrection, Christ
demonstrated that He does not stand in a line of peers with Abraham, Buddha, or
Confucius. He is utterly unique. He has the power not only to lay down His
life, but to take it up again.
Resurrection, W Publishing Group, 2000, p.
15.
What happened
as a result of the resurrection is unprecedented in human history. In the span
of a few hundred years, a small band of seemingly insignificant believers
succeeded in turning an entire empire upside down. As has been well said,
"They faced the tyrant's brandished steel, the lion's gory mane, and the
fires of a thousand deaths," because they were utterly convinced that
they, like their Master, would one day rise from the grave in glorified,
resurrected bodies.
Hank Hanegraaff
Resurrection, W Publishing Group, 2000, p.
57.
If Christ is
truly God, His claim to be the only way has to be taken seriously. If on the
other hand, He is merely one more person in a pantheon of pretenders, His
proclamations can easily be pushed aside. That is precisely why the
resurrection is axiomatic to Christianity. Through the resurrection, Christ
demonstrated that He does not stand in a line of peers with Buddha,
Baha'u'llah, Krishna, or any founder of a world religion. They died and are
still dead, but Christ is risen. Ultimately,
resurrection and reincarnation are mutually exclusive because the former is a
historical fact, while the latter is but a Hindu fantasy.
Hank Hanegraaff
Resurrection, W Publishing Group, 2000, p.
128.
But who is
this that cometh from the tomb, with dyed garments from the bed of death? He that is glorious in His appearance, walking in the greatness of
strength? It is thy Prince, O Zion! Christian, it is your Lord! He hath
trodden the wine-press alone; He hath stained His raiment with blood; but now
as the first-born from the womb of nature, He meets the morning of His
resurrection. He arises, a conqueror from the grave; He returns with blessings
from the world of spirits; He brings salvation to the sons of men. Never did
the returning sun usher in a day so glorious! It was the jubilee of the
universe!
Author Unknown
Christianity
begins where all the religions of the world end, at death, and it starts with
resurrection.
Author Unknown
We understand
and acknowledge that the Resurrection has placed a glorious crown upon all of
Christ's sufferings!
A.W. Tozer
Renewed Day by Day, Christianity
Today, v. 40, n. 4.
The
resurrection discloses…that there is an intimate and indissoluble coherence
between Jesus’ exaltation as the suffering Servant of the Lord and His glory as
the Son of Man invested with all power and authority in heaven and on earth.
Herman Ridderbos
The Coming of the Kingdom, P&R,
1962, p. 466, Used by Permission.
From the very
first, the conviction that Jesus had been raised from death has been that by
which (the Christians) very existence has stood or fallen. There was no other
motive to account for them, to explain them... At no point within the New
Testament is there any evidence that the Christians stood for an original
philosophy of life or an original ethic. Their sole function is to bear witness
to what they claim as an event – the raising of Jesus from among the dead... The
one really distinctive thing for which the Christians stood was their
declaration that Jesus had been raised from the dead according to God's design,
and the consequent estimate of Him as in a unique sense Son of God and
representative man, and the resulting conception of the way to reconciliation.
C.F.D. Moule
The Phenomenon of the New Testament,
1967.
Had the
crucifixion of Jesus ended His disciples' experience of Him, it is hard to see
how the Christian Church could have come into existence. The Church was founded
on faith in the Messiahship of Jesus. A crucified
Messiah was no Messiah at all. He was one rejected by Judaism and accursed by
God. It was the Resurrection of Jesus, as St. Paul describes in Romans 1:4,
which proclaimed Him to be the Son of God with power.
H.D.A. Major
The Mission and Message of Jesus, Dutton,
1946, p. 213.
The truth of
the resurrection gives life to every other area of gospel truth. The
resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which
none of the other truths would much matter. Without the resurrection,
Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all
other human philosophy and religious speculation.
John MacArthur
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 398.
The basic truth of the resurrection undergirds a number of other truths.
1. It gives evidence that the Word of God
is totally true and reliable. Jesus precisely when and in the way He had
predicted (see Mt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:9, 23).
2. The resurrection means that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as He claimed to be, and that He has power over life and death.
3. The resurrection proves that salvation
is complete, that on the cross Christ conquered sin, death, and hell and rose
victorious.
4. The resurrection proves that the
church has been established. Jesus had declared, "I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower
it" (Mt. 16:8)... His resurrection proved that death itself could
not prevent Christ from establishing His church.
5. The resurrection proves that judgment is coming. Jesus declared that the heavenly Father "has given all judgment to the Son" (Jn. 5:22), and since the Son is now risen and alive, His judgment is certain.
6. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that heaven is waiting. Jesus promised, "In My house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you" (Jn. 14:2). Because Christ is alive by the resurrection, believers have the assurance that He is now preparing a heavenly dwelling for them.
John MacArthur
Matthew 24-28, Moody, 1989, p. 314-315.
If the
Resurrection is not historic fact, then the power of death remains unbroken, and with it the effect of sin; and the
significance of Christ's Death remains uncertified, and accordingly believers
are yet in their sins, precisely where they were before they heard of Jesus'
name.
W.J. Sparrow-Simpson
A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, ed.
James Hastings, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909, p. 514.
Without the
belief in the Resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being.
The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even had they
continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, His crucifixion would
have forever silenced any hopes of His being the Messiah. The cross would have
remained the sad and shameful end of His career. The origin of Christianity
therefore hinges on the belief of the early disciples that God had raised Jesus
from the dead.
William Lane Craig
Knowing the Truth About
the Resurrection, Moody, 1981. p. 116-117.
Furthermore,
a close study of the text nowhere suggests that the stone of the tomb was
rolled away from the tomb to let Jesus out. The earthquake and rolling back of
the stone recorded in Matthew (28:2) as a sign of a wonderful event, not as the
event itself. There can be only one conclusion: the body of Jesus was gone
before the stone was rolled away. It did not need to be removed for Him to
escape the tomb; He had already escaped it. The removal of the stone was for
the disciples, not for Jesus.
George Eldon Ladd
A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans,
1993, p. 361.
For many
years, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been the central certainty of my
life, as it has for thousands and hundreds of thousands of Christians. To me
the great value of Easter Sunday lies right here. Amid all the question marks
of this questioning age in which we live, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is
God's great exclamation point. And if you are aware of the questions, the
doubts, and uncertainties that surround us today, I think you will agree with
me that we are very much in need of exclamation marks in this day. The belief
of Christians this Easter Sunday morning is an island of faith in the midst of
an ocean of doubt and uncertainty.
Ray C. Stedman
The
Note of Certainty, #0184, www.RayStedman.org,
Used by permission.
Remember that
grace and truth cannot finally be crucified. Remember that all the high things
that make humanity beautiful cannot be forever laid in the dust, spattered with
blood. And most of all, remember that He who rose from the dead, rose to pour
out His Holy Spirit into human lives, and, by that Spirit, to make available to
any individual all the fullness of Himself, twenty-four hours a day.
Ray C. Stedman
The
Note of Certainty, #0184, www.RayStedman.org,
Used by permission.
The bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of
Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a
false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian
faith is absolute truth.
Henry Morris
Christianity
does not hold the Resurrection to be one among many tenets of belief. Without
faith in the Resurrection there would be no Christianity at all. The Christian
church would never have begun; the Jesus-movement would have fizzled out like a
damp squib with His execution. Christianity stands or falls with the truth of
the Resurrection. Once disprove it, and you have disposed of Christianity.
Michael Green
Man Alive, IVP, 1968, p. 61.
1. Jesus himself testified to his coming resurrection from the dead (Mk.
8:31; cf. Mt. 17:22, Lk. 9:22).
2. The tomb was empty on Easter (Luke 24:3).
3. The disciples were almost immediately transformed from men who were
hopeless and fearful after the crucifixion (Lk. 24:21; Jn. 20:19) into men who
were confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection (Ac. 2:24; 3:15; 4:2).
4. Paul claimed that, not only had he seen the risen Christ, but that 500 others had seen him also, and many were still alive when he made this public claim (1 Cor. 15:6).
5.
The sheer existence of a
thriving, empire-conquering early Christian church supports the truth of the
resurrection claim.
6.
The Apostle Paul’s conversion
supports the truth of the resurrection (Ac. 9).
7.
The New Testament witnesses do
not bear the stamp of dupes or deceivers.
8. There is a self-authenticating glory in the gospel of Christ’s death and
resurrection as narrated by the biblical witnesses (Jn. 16:13).
John Piper
The dead body
of Jesus could not be found. There are four possible ways to account for this.
1.
His
foes stole the body.
If they did (and they never claimed to have done so), they surely would have
produced the body to stop the successful spread of the Christian faith in the
very city where the crucifixion occurred. But they could not produce it.
2.
His
friends stole the body.
This was an early rumor (Matthew 28:11-15). Is it probable? Could they have
overcome the guards at the tomb? More important, would they have begun to
preach with such authority that Jesus was raised, knowing that he was not?
Would they have risked their lives and accepted beatings for something they
knew was a fraud?
3.
Jesus
was not dead, but only unconscious when they laid him in the tomb. He awoke, removed the stone, overcame
the soldiers, and vanished from history after a few meetings with his disciples
in which he convinced them he was risen from the dead.
Even the foes of Jesus did not try this line. He was obviously dead. The Romans
saw to that. The stone could not be moved by one man from within who had just
been stabbed in the side by a spear and spent six hours nailed to a cross.
4.
God
raised Jesus from the dead.
This is what He said would happen. It is what the disciples said did happen.
But as long as there is a remote possibility of explaining the resurrection
naturalistically, modern people say we should not jump to a supernatural
explanation. Is this reasonable? I don’t think so. Of course, we don’t want to
be gullible. But neither do we want to reject the truth just because it’s
strange.
John Piper
Our Lord has
written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf
in spring-time.
Martin Luther
The
resurrection of Christ is the Amen of all His promises.
John Boys
Many times
great difficulties precede special works of God. You can even say that God wins
His greatest victories in the midst of apparent defeat. This can be clearly
demonstrated in the life of our Lord on earth. When Jesus was crucified and
placed in the tomb, it looked like the forces of unrighteousness had triumphed.
However, it was in this time of apparent defeat that our victory for our
salvation was won. This time of apparent defeat was followed by the
resurrection of Christ.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 34.
The evidence
for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be and often has been shown
to be satisfactory. It is good according to the common rules for distinguishing
good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone
through it piece by piece as carefully as every judge summing up a most
important cause. I have myself done it many times over, not to persuade others
but to satisfy myself. 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 than the great sign which God hath given us, that
Christ died and rose again from the dead.
Thomas Arnold
Excerpted from: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ – Part 2 by John MacArthur, the article originally appeared (http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/2402_The-Resurrection-of-Jesus-Christ-Part-2) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Imagine, for
a moment, the reaction of Hell to the death of Christ. Jesus was bound with the
bands of death. What celebration and joy! God was defeated! Vengeance was the
Devil’s. But they reckoned without the wisdom of God. For Christ could not be
held down by the bands of death. In fact through death He was paralyzing the
one who had the power of death, and He was setting His people free (Heb.
2:14-15). What seemed to be defeat was actually victory. The Resurrection
morning was Hell’s gloomiest day. Satan saw the wisdom of God and tasted
defeat.
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 75, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Christ’s
resurrection was the work of the Triune God. The Father raised Him from the
dead (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:3). So did the Spirit (Rom. 8:11). And the
Son took back the life which He had laid down (Jn. 10:18; cf. 2:19, 21; 11:25).
For the comfort of believers, these three are and always will be One.
William
Hendriksen
Matthew, Baker, 1973, p. 990.
Upon
a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, I risk my whole eternity on
the resurrection.
C.H.
Spurgeon
We gather
together on the first rather than the seventh day of the week because
redemption is even a greater work than creation and more worthy of
commemoration and because the rest which followed creation is far outdone by
the rest which ensues upon the completion of redemption. Like the Apostles, we
meet on the first day of the week and hope that Jesus may stand in our midst
and say, “Peace be unto you.” Our Lord has lifted the
Sabbath from the old and rusty hinges where on the law had placed it long
before and set it on the new golden hinges which His love has fashioned. He has
placed our rest day not at the end of a week of toil but at the beginning of
the rest which remains for the people of God. Every first day of the week we
should meditate on the rising of our Lord and seek to enter into the fellowship
with Him in His risen life.
C.H.
Spurgeon
10 Reasons to Believe Christ Rose From The
Dead:
1. A Public Execution Assured His Death – During the Jewish Feast of Passover,
Jesus was swept away by an angry crowd into a Roman hall of justice. As he
stood before Pilate, the governor of Judea, religious leaders accused Jesus of
claiming to be the king of the Jews. The crowd demanded His death. Jesus was
beaten, whipped, and sentenced to a public execution. On a hill outside
Jerusalem, He was crucified between two criminals. Brokenhearted friends and
mocking enemies shared in His deathwatch. As the Sabbath neared, Roman soldiers
were sent to finish the execution. To quicken death, they broke the legs of the
two criminals. But when they came to Jesus, they did not break His legs,
because from experience they knew He was already dead. As a final precaution,
however, they thrust a spear into His side. It would take more than
resuscitation for Him to ever trouble them again.
2. A High Official Secured The Gravesite – The next day, religious leaders again
met with Pilate. They said Jesus had predicted He would rise in 3 days. To
assure that the disciples could not conspire in a resurrection hoax, Pilate
ordered the official seal of Rome to be attached to the tomb to put grave
robbers on notice. To enforce the order, soldiers stood guard. Any disciple who
wanted to tamper with the body would have had to get by them, which wouldn’t
have been easy. The Roman guards had good reason for staying alert – the
penalty for falling asleep while on watch was death.
3. In Spite of Guards, The Grave Was
Found Empty – On the morning after
the Sabbath, some of Jesus’ followers went to the grave to anoint His body. But
when they arrived, they were surprised at what they found. The huge stone that
had been rolled into place over the entrance of the tomb had been moved, and
Jesus’ body was gone. As word got out, two disciples rushed to the burial site.
The tomb was empty expect for Jesus' burial wrappings, which were lying neatly
in place. In the meantime, some of the guards had gone into Jerusalem to tell
the Jewish officials that they had fainted in the presence of a supernatural
being that rolled the stone away. And when they woke up, the tomb was empty.
The officials paid the guard a large sum of money to lie and say that the
disciples stole the body while the soldiers slept. They assured the guards that
if the report of the missing body got back to the governor they would intercede
on their behalf.
4. Many People Claimed To Have Seen Him
Alive – About AD 55, the apostle
Paul wrote that the resurrected Christ had been seen by Peter, the 12 apostles,
more than 500 people (many of whom were still alive at the time of his
writing), James, and himself (1 Corinthians 15:5–8). By making such a public
statement, he gave critics a chance to check out his claims for themselves. In addition, the New Testament begins its
history of the followers of Christ by saying that Jesus “presented Himself
alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by [the
apostles during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God” (Acts 1:3).
5. His Apostles Were Dramatically Changed – When one of Jesus’ inner circle defected and betrayed Him, the other apostles ran for
their lives. Even Peter, who earlier had insisted that he was ready to die for
his teacher, lost heart and denied that he even knew Jesus. But the Apostles
went through a dramatic change. Within a few weeks, they were standing face to
face with the ones who had crucified their leader. Their spirit was like iron.
They became unstoppable in their determination to sacrifice everything for the
one they called Savior and Lord. Even after they were imprisoned, threatened,
and forbidden to speak in the name of Jesus, the apostles said to the Jewish
leaders, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). After they were beaten for
disobeying the orders of the Jewish council, these once – cowardly apostles
“did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42).
6. Witnesses Were Willing To Die For
Their Claims – History is full of
martyrs. Countless men and women have died for their beliefs. For that reason,
it is not that significant to point out that the first disciples were willing
to suffer and die for their faith. But it is significant that while many will
die for what they believe to be the truth, few if any will die for what they
know to b a lie. That psychological fact is important because the disciples of Christ did not die for deeply held beliefs
about which they could have been honestly mistaken. They died for their claims
to have seen Jesus alive and well after His resurrection. They died for their
claim that Jesus Christ had not only died for their sins but that He had risen
bodily from the dead to show that He was like no other spiritual leader who had
ever lived.
7. Jewish Believers Changed Their Day of
Worship – The Sabbath day of rest
and worship was basic to the Jewish way of life. Any Jew who did not honor the
Sabbath was guilty of breaking the Law of Moses. Yet Jewish followers of Christ
began worshiping with Gentile believers on a new day. The first day of the
week, the day on which they believed Christ had risen from the dead, replaced
the Sabbath. For a Jew, it reflected a major change of life. The new day, along
with the Christian conversion rite of baptism, declared that those who believed
Christ had risen from the dead were ready for more than a renewal of Judaism. They
believed that the death and resurrection of Christ had cleared the way for a
new relationship with God. They new way was based not on the law, but on the
sin-bearing, life-giving help of a resurrected Savior.
8. Although It Was Unexpected, It Was
Clearly Predicted
– The disciples were caught off guard. They expected their Messiah to
restore the kingdom to Israel. Their minds were so fixed on the coming of a
messianic political kingdom that they didn’t anticipate the events essential to
the salvation of their souls. They must have thought Christ was speaking in
symbolic language when He kept saying over and over that it was necessary for
Him to go to Jerusalem to die and be resurrected from the dead. Coming from one
who spoke in parables, they missed the obvious until after it was all over. In
the process, they also overlooked the prophet Isaiah’s prediction of a
suffering servant who would bear the sins of Israel, being led like a lamb to
the slaughter, before God “prolong[ed] His days” (Isaiah 53:10).
9. It Was A Fitting Climax To A
Miraculous Life – While Jesus hung
on a Roman cross, crowds mocked Him. He helped others, but could He help
Himself? Was the miracle suddenly coming to an end? It seemed like such an
unexpected ending for someone who began His public life by turning water into
wine. During His 3-year ministry, He walked on water; healed the sick; opened
blind eyes, deaf ears, and tongue-tied mouths; restored crippled limbs; cast
out demons; stilled a violent storm; and raise the dead. He asked questions
wise men couldn't answer. He taught profound truths with the simplest of
comparisons. And he confronted hypocrites with words that exposed their cover-up.
It all this was true, should we be surprised that His enemies didn't have the
last word?
10. It Fits The Experience Of Those Who
Trust Him – The apostle Paul wrote, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life
to you mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). This was the experience of Paul,
whose heart was dramatically changed by the resurrected Christ. It is also the
experience of people all over the world who have “died” to their old ways so
that Christ can live His life through them. This spiritual power is not evident
in those who try to add belief in Christ to their old life. It is seen only in
those who are willing to “die” to their old life to make room for the rule of
Christ. It is apparent only in those who respond to the overwhelming evidence
for Christ's resurrection by acknowledging His lordship in their heart.
Author Unknown