Resurrection


Most of the facts we know have little, if anything, to do with who we are and how we live. The resurrection of Jesus is different.

Program Transcript


The resurrection of Jesus stands
at the heart of Christian faith. We believe in Jesus because he did something no
other human being has ever done: he rose from the dead.

It’s funny how we sometimes
believe things that don’t make sense or that have no supporting evidence
whatever. The tabloids carry a multimillion-dollar business by tantalizing
believing readers with a steady diet of the sensational, if not the ridiculous.
You’ve seen the headlines: Elvis is still alive. JFK was abducted by aliens.
Miners discover an opening to hell.

And then there are the facts we
simply take for granted in our modern scientific world: The earth is a sphere,
not flat like a pancake, and it revolves around the sun, not vice versa. A
virus causes measles. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Most of us believe these things,
not because we have personally proven them, but because we trust the
authorities who tell us they are true. We use the phone; who invented it
doesn’t really matter to us. We go to the doctor when we get sick; it doesn’t
matter to us who discovered a given vaccine. And we can enjoy a beautiful
sunset without giving much thought to Galileo, telescopes or star charts.

We live in a world of facts, but
most of the facts we know have little, if anything, to do with who we are and
how we live. The resurrection of Jesus is different. It might be easy to
believe Jesus rose from the dead as though it were just another fact for a
history exam. But this fact is not like other facts. It’s the one fact that changes
everything.

If Jesus Christ really rose from
the dead, then he is far more than just another great figure in history. He is
who he claimed to be — the Son of God. And if that’s so, then he, and
everything he said, has to be taken seriously. The resurrection of Jesus stands
at the heart of Christian faith. We believe in Jesus because he rose from the
dead. He told his disciples he would be raised on the third day after his
crucifixion — and he was!

The fact of his resurrection
verifies that what he said about himself was true: He was indeed the Son of God
and God was acting decisively through him to deal with human sin. Jesus
said in the Gospel of John, “I tell
you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal
life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life”
(John 5:24).

Greater
words of comfort have never been spoken! It doesn’t matter how far from God we
have been. It doesn’t matter how dark and vile our sins have been. When we
believe the word of God, the good news that God is redeeming sinners through
his Son. God forgives us, accepts us and gives us fresh, new life in his
eternal kingdom.

I’m Joseph Tkach, Speaking of LIFE.

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