Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Resurrection: Fear in death changes to courage in life.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many Jews, and also many of the Greeks.”
“This man was the Christ. And when Pilate had condemned him to the cross, upon his impeachment by the principal man among us, those who had loved him from the first did not forsake him,”
“for he appeared to them alive on the third day, the divine prophets having spoken these and thousands of other wonderful things about him. And even now, the race of Christians, so named from him, has not died out.” [Josephus; Antiquities]
If the resurrection is not an historical event then there is no validity to His victory on the cross.
The resurrection of Christ is of crucial practical importance because it completes our salvation.
Jesus came to save us from sin and its consequence, death (ROM 6:23). If there was death without subsequent life then we could have no security in eternal life.
ROM 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
The resurrection is the concrete, factual, empirical proof that: life has hope and meaning; love is stronger than death; grace and power are ultimately allies, not enemies; and that eternal life wins in the end.
God’s weapon of choice was His love. This motivation prevented Christ from having one mental attitude sin through all of His agony.
Therefore, because of the resurrection we are not cosmic orphans, as our modern secular worldview would make us.
Christ predicted His resurrection in an unmistakable and straightforward manner. While His disciples simply couldn’t understand it, the Jews took His assertions quite seriously.
Here we have a magnificent irony in the contrast between man’s elaborate precautions and the ease with which God can sweep them aside.
PSA 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
Certainly the resurrection of Jesus Christ, once believed fully, can change a believer’s life from fear to confidence and courage.
Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, and actually rejoicing. The difference was the resurrection.
It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.
Could the Christian Church ever have come into existence as a result of what had become, after Jesus’ crucifixion and death, a group of disheartened, frightened, skeptical apostles? Not a chance.
Acts 1:3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
Now you may be saying, “I haven’t seen the risen Christ, so what hope is there for me to be so convinced?” Seeing is one thing, but it is hearing that makes the strong believer.