2 Samuel 21-22 | Luke 18:24-43

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Did the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually happen? After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea requested to bury the body in a tomb. Then, the chief priests and the Pharisees told Pilate: “We remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead” (Matthew 27:63-64). It is interesting to note while Jesus was alive that His disciples did not believe in the resurrection, but the chief priests and the Pharisees did.

On the third day, Jesus did raise from the dead and appeared to the women, the disciples and more than five hundred people. These were eyewitnesses of Jesus’s resurrected body and attest to the very fact that the physically dead Jesus was raised to life again.  

In the 1920’s a man set out to write a book on Jesus. He was not a Christian, although he “had a deep and even reverent regard” for the person of Jesus Christ who seemed to him “an almost legendary figure of purity and noble manhood.” This man was convinced that the miracles of Jesus did not take place and sought “to strip it of its overgrowth of primitive beliefs and dogmatic suppositions, and to see this supremely great Person as He really was.” In his research, this man went to Israel and came across the problem of the empty tomb of Jesus; he asked, “What actually happened to leave the tomb empty?” In the course of his thoughts and investigations of various possibilities, a slow realization began to grow on him until he became convinced that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. This man’s name was Albert Henry Ross and he published the book Who Moved the Stone? under his pseudonym Frank Morison. 

As Christians, the foundation of our faith stands or falls on the historicity of the resurrection, not the teachings of Jesus, but His resurrection. Why? Paul tells us, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:13). In other words, if Christ was not raised from the dead, then the whole thing is fraud. The best thing we could do is close this devotional and move on with our lives. But conversely, if Christ did rise from the dead, it is not only one of the most important events in human history, it is something that every one of us should take seriously. How are we living differently in light of this truth?

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, in light of the truth that You have resurrected, my faith is not in vain. Help me to live for Your glory. Thank You, Lord.