In Paul’s day a motto that hung in Athens read, “Once a man dies and the earth drinks up his blood, there is no resurrection.” Paul hotly disagreed. Now, some may say, “Well, when Athens died, so died the doubt of resurrection.” Are you kidding? As recently as the nineteenth century there was a poem spreading around England that has caught all kinds of people off guard. Charles Swinburne wrote it.
From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives forever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
It’s a lie! Dead men rise up ever! And there is no safety at sea apart from Christ! The resurrection is our only hope.
The resurrection did happen. We know it did because of much evidence. But we also ultimately know because of who it was. We will look to the evidence towards the end, but first let us look at the who of the resurrection which is…
I. The Person of Christ
1.He is the Resurrection. He is the resurrection. Not He will resurrect, but He is the resurrection.
D. A. Carson confirms this belief when he wrote, He “is himself the resurrection and the life. There is neither resurrection nor eternal life outside of him.”
It is because He is the resurrection, the creator of all “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). As well as, “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). That also…
2.He is the Life.
He is life. He gave, gives, and sustains life. He is the Son of God. He is the reason all things are at all. He did it and through Him is life. But this life is more than physical life. It is eternal life as He goes on to state, “whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” (John 11:25).
His person and His miracles and signs have proven Him to be who He says He is here. We have multitudes of evidence to prove He is God incarnate. His statement of being the resurrection is proof that He was raised on the third day.
But there is more. There is…
II. The Promise of Christ
1. His promise to the physically dead: “He that believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25; cf. 1 Thess. 4:16).
As we looked at just a minute ago, Christ promises that all who die that are His don’t die but live. He made this promise to all who believe. Not just a few. It is for every person who has believed in Him for eternal life. Not one soul who dies will remain that way. They will all, “rise first” at the “cry of command…the sound of the trumpet” (1 Thess. 4:16).
2. His promise to the physically living: “And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26; cf. 1 Thess. 4:17).
The greatest promise is that all who believe never die. Wow. What an amazing promise. Death is our enemy. All who are Christ’s will not die. This is why Paul always says that the dead are but asleep in the Lord. We are not dead but merely sleeping until the day of redemption of our bodies. We will all one day be:
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Cor. 15:51-53).
What a great promise this is. What a great treasure this is. What amazing love this is of our God. This is why it is a necessity. But what if this did not occur. There are many who say it did not. They have even come up with some very intriguing theories of what happened.
The Swoon Theory or Resuscitation Theory
Jesus did not really die, He only swooned, therefore the disciples saw only a revived or resuscitated Christ. Christ was nailed to a cross and suffered from shock, pain and loss of blood. But instead of actually dying, He only fainted (swooned) from exhaustion. When He was placed in the tomb, He was still alive and the disciples, mistaking Him for dead, buried Him alive. After several hours, He revived in the coolness of the tomb, arose, and departed.
This one fails for many reasons.
First, he was thoroughly scourged (Matt. 27:26-34; Mark 15:15-23; Luke 23:24-32; John 19:16-22). The Romans were experts at this and they would beat a person to near death but not enough to kill them.
Second, His side was pierced and water and blood came out (John 19:34). This is a medical occurrence called a haemothorax where the red blood cells and the lighter watery plasma separate. This is an indication that he had been dead for a while.
The Hallucination Theory
This theory says all of Christ’s post-resurrection appearances were really only supposed appearances because actually the people only had hallucinations. In this way, all the post-resurrection appearances can be dismissed.
The problem with this is that people do not hallucinate the same thing. Many may hallucinate together due to certain drugs being consumed, but they do not see the same hallucination.
The Impersonation Theory
This is the view that the appearances were not really Christ at all, but someone impersonating Him. This, the opponents say, is evident because in some cases they did not recognize Him at first (or at all).
One man has gone so far as to say that Jesus had an identical twin who just happened to appear at the right time.
The Spiritual Resurrection Theory
This is the view that Christ’s resurrection was not a real physical resurrection. Proponents of this theory assert that Christ’s body remained in the grave and His real resurrection was spiritual in nature. It was only told this way to illustrate the truth of spiritual resurrection.
William Lane Craig says in his book entitled, Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, Our Response to the Empty Tomb:
“We need to see clearly that there can be positive theological implications of the resurrection only insofar as its historical reality is affirmed. While many theologians may find such a conviction hopelessly antiquated, the man in the street knows better. His common sense tells him that there is no reason why a dead man should be decisive for his existence today, and I agree with him. Once doctrinal teachings are detached from their historical realities, we have entered the arena of myth. And there is simply no good reason to prefer Christian myths over other myths or, for that matter, secular philosophies. The resurrection is only real for our lives today if it is a real event of history.”
The Theft Theory
The disciples stole the body and claimed that He rose from the dead. This theory is quite interesting since the disciples were deathly afraid and fled (Mark 14:26-31, this is the prediction that they will flee Mark 14:50 “50 And they all left him and fled.”). Also we see Peter deny Christ three times (Matt. 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18, 25-27).
Not to mention there was a guard of Roman soldiers and Temple guards posted at the entrance (Matt. 27:62-66).
The disciples were simple men that were not trained soldiers. They would not have been capable of taking the body.
The Unknown Tomb Theory
One of the earliest theories present to explain everything away is that the disciples did not know where the tomb was located and could not have found the empty grave. This theory depends on the belief that those who were crucified were tossed into a common pit and were not allowed to be buried.
But…
The Gospel record indicates that Joseph of Arimathea took the body to his own private tomb–not a public mass burial ground (Matt. 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-55; John 19:38-42) . According to Scripture, the body of Christ was prepared for burial according to the burial customs of the Jews; the women sat opposite the tomb and watched. Not only did Joseph of Arimathea and the women know where the tomb was, so did the Romans–they placed a guard there.
III. THE PROBLEM—1 Cor. 15:12-19
1. Vain beliefs—1 Cor. 15:12-17. If Christ was not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain.
We are misrepresenting God. We are all living a vain life.
2. No resurrection means no hope—1 Cor. 15:18-19. If He was not raised from the dead, we have no hope. We are worshipping nothing more than a man.
IV. The Proof
But praise be to God that He was raised. 1 Cor. 15:20 goes on and says, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
Not only this but we see earlier that, “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor. 15:5-8).
Christ made the promise that He was the resurrection and the life. This we saw in John 11:25-26. Thanks be to God that His promise was true and that He was raised on this day almost 2,000 years ago. What a glorious and amazing gift we have in Jesus Christ.
