The Way of Salvation (Part 3)

The Resurrection of Jesus

A dead Savior can’t save anyone! The Christian Gospel is a beautiful story. Paul summed it up in I Corinthians 15:1-11 in the earliest known written record of the message that is the essence of the Christian faith. “Now I made known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold fast to word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised to the third day, according to Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom remain until now [55 AD, some 25 years after His crucifixion and resurrection], but some have fallen asleep.; then He appeared to me also.”

Rome crucified thousands but only one is remember because it is said of Him that He has risen from the dead. Why would anyone believe such a story? For the same reason we accept the genuineness of any event we did not ourselves see! What are the tests of historicity? How do historians decide between fact and fable? There are five fundamental tests. 1) There must be a plurality of witnesses {normally two or three}. 2) The witnesses must have opportunity to know; to examine the evidence. 3) The witnesses must be in substantial agreement (If they agree in every detail, there is reason to suspect a conspiracy.) 4) The witnesses must be reliable. 5) The more unusual the event, the greater the number of witnesses required.

Any honest person, who examines the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth by these same tests, will conclude that, no matter what it may mean, this two-sided event actually took place. There is a plurality of witnesses (Luke 1:2; 24:46-48; Acts 1:8; I Corinthians 15:5-8; II Peter 1:16). In fact there is more eyewitness documentation for this than for any other single event in history prior to the invention of the printing press. For example, only two primary historical sources mention the Carthaginian General Hannibal’s elephants, yet historians accept his invasion of Italy accompanied by these beasts.

Jesus’ witnesses had an opportunity to know. Twelve of the thirteen witnesses had walked and talked and eaten and slept and laughed and cried with Jesus for three and a half years immediately before His death. After the resurrection, when He appeared to them, He challenged them to inspect His wounds so there would be no doubt that it was He ( Luke 24:9-40; John 20:20,25,27).

He did not appear to them just once. He was with them intermittently for forty days after He was raised from the dead (Acts 1:1-3). On the day He rose, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene and some other women, Peter, two men on the road from Jerusalem to Amaias and then to ten apostles in the upper room. The following Monday, He appeared to eleven apostles. Later, in Galilee, He appeared to seven apostles who were fishing. This was followed by a private interview with Peter, the eleven apostles and “five hundred brethren at once.” He also showed Himself in an individual interview with His half brother, James, who had previously rejected His claims to be the Christ. A few years later; Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road and later, when Saul had become the apostle Paul, Jesus stood by him on board a ship bound for Rome.

The witnesses are in substantial agreement. Identical agreement raises questions about testimony. It is true that the gospel records of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance are not identical. It is not true that there are any contradictions in their stories.
There were certainly a sufficient number of witnesses to support this most unusual of events. The usual number of witnesses to establish a fact historically or in a court of law is two or three. Hundreds saw Jesus alive following His death. Not all of them were called to testify but thirteen of them were (Acts 1:8).

Were the witnesses reliable? This is a fair question. For example, prior to his being called by Jesus, Matthew was a dishonest politician and collaborator with Rome. Peter lied repeatedly to save his own skin when Jesus needed him most. Saul of Tarsus had been a bigot and a murderer. So why believe they are reliable when they tell this outlandish story? There are profound reasons.

First, there was the change in their lives resulting from what they had seen. Peter, who lied about knowing Him for fear of being arrested and himself possibly also crucified, a few weeks later defied the same authorities when they demanded that he stop telling people in Jerusalem about Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 4:17-20).

In II Corinthians 5:14-ff., Paul describes the change Jesus’ death-resurrection had made in his life. “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died”

All but one of Christ’s chosen witnesses were executed because they would not recant! It’s harder to believe that twelve men would each die rather than deny a story they all knew to be false than to believe the New Testament records of Jesus resurrection.

The New Testament texts written either by these witnesses directly or with their assistance are reliable. Of all the 26,000 copies we have of the various documents included in the New Testament less than ½ of 1% are flawed by scribal errors. That means they are 99.5% pure. We can count on their reliability. From these documents it becomes very easy to support the death and resurrection as fact. For example, Luke 24:56 says, “and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.”” John 2:19-21 reports, :“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up’ The Jews therefore said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.” I Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Did Jesus rise for the dead? Of course He did. And so will you if you accept Him for Who He is in the way He has commanded. You can bet your life on it! Anyone who could endure what Jesus suffered and hang on a Roman cross for three hours, be wrapped in 100 pounds of Jewish embalming wax, placed in a tomb with a stone weighing several tons blocking the entrance, sealed with imperial seal of the Roman empire, guarded by a squad of battle hardened Roman legionnaires and get up and walk out of His own grave is Whoever He says He is! It’s time to listen to Him.