Truth 8: Jesus’ Bodily Resurrection
Truth 9: The Trinity
October 8, 2018
Truth 7: Sanctification (Living the Transformed Life)
October 3, 2018
Biblical Truth #8 – Jesus’ Bodily Resurrection
Of all truths given in scripture, the most important is the resurrection of Jesus. Not only is it important to the Christian message, without it, Christianity would not exist. This pivotal historical event is the belief that Christians unite under for hope in the afterlife. The Bible states Jesus defeated death not only symbolically but literarily. His raising from the dead is the promise for all Christians that they too will one day rise from the dead to live in a new heaven and new earth. This truth was the reason martyrdom (dying for a belief or cause) was not a fear for the early Christians. Death now holds no sting for a Christian.
Evidence for the Resurrection
Many have accused the story of Jesus’ resurrection as fabricated. There are even second and third century writings from the Jewish authorities, i.e., those who strongly opposed Christianity, which claimed the disciples “stole” Jesus’ body from the tomb. This third-party evidence provides strong proof that the tomb was in fact empty. Although no “dead body” was ever found, the Jewish authorities were doing everything they could to locate the body as they did not want the whole “Christian movement” to continue and/or to resurface. As Paul Althaus writes, the resurrection proclamation “could not have been maintained in Jerusalem, the location of Jesus’ death and burial, for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned.”
And, of course, the reason for no dead body ever being located was because Jesus had risen! Following his bodily resurrection, Jesus spent forty days teaching and preaching to his beloved disciples including many others. On one occasion Jesus preached to a crowd of over five hundred. All this provides amazing eye-witness evidence.
All the Gospel accounts (the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) detail that Christ’s resurrection was revealed to women first. This is a ludicrous idea for any Jewish inventor of a religion in a time when women were not equal with men and not even allowed to testify in court. Yet we find the story relates this detail multiple times, and the disciples for their part, are mostly unbelieving. Again, if you are a disciple of Jesus and you are inventing the resurrection story, why make yourselves look unbelieving at the very beginning! The reason, of course, is because it is true, and this ultimately provides even further evidence surrounding the details of this spectacular historical event.
Another form of evidence related to Jesus’ bodily resurrection was the explosive growth of the Christian church. Had it not been for the resurrection, these early Christians and church planters would have not had any foundational nor reliable religious doctrine to promulgate and to place their trust, hope and faith.
Finally, the resurrection was prophesied in the Old Testament, as well as shared by Jesus to his disciples and Jewish leaders prior to this death. These are only a couple examples of the dozens of fulfilled prophecies about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which ultimately provides indisputable proof about Jesus and his bodily resurrection.
