Easter Sunday

Easter is the oldest Christian festival but it is special because it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. It is so important because the resurrection is Christianity. Paul tells us,

…if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith. In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ—whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:13-17

First of all, the foundation of our faith is the resurrection of Jesus because if Jesus was not resurrected, he is just a dead guy and he doesn’t matter.

Secondly, if the resurrection didn’t happen, then the disciples are all charlatans. If they are liars, they can’t be trusted and neither can the bible.

Finally, if there was no resurrection, salvation is “worthless” which means “futile,” “without results,” or “empty.” The point is that if the resurrection didn’t happen, there is no forgiveness and we are still slaves to our sin.

Let’s consider these arguments: 

The resurrection is the foundation, that much is clear. As for the disciples being liars, I reject this because there was no good life in store for the disciples because, history records, they were famously murdered for their belief in the resurrection (click here to see how silly this really is). More interesting is the fact that the Roman government would let you live if you simply rejected Jesus which would be an easy choice if the whole thing was a lie. This means the men who said they saw the resurrection believed it. 

More than this, we also trust it is true because of who our God is. 

This requires trust on our part but that is what faith is, it is a deep all encompassing trust and that level of trust requires a belief in something you can't see with their eyes. 

In fact, the Greek word “pistis” is regularly translated as either “trust” or “faith” because all trust itself is a spiritual experience. Think about it: Trust requires you to believe someone will do what they say even when you can’t see them. If you trust someone that deeply it is faith but, sadly, the very people who ridicule faith don’t want to admit they have faith in all kinds of things. 

For example, people put faith in their vehicle to start in the morning. People have faith that their TV will turn on when they push the button. People put faith in their news outlets to be truthful and people have faith that their spouse is not sleeping around. 

That is faith but hopefully your faith isn’t blind. I assume you trust the car, the TV, your spouse or whatever because they have proven themselves time and again and that is what an unbelieving world doesn’t understand, we trust our God with that same level of certainty.

“The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world and those who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1)

This means that everything good in your life is a gift from God and everything bad is a result of sin.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

“What do you have that you didn’t receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)

but, some people argue, “God doesn’t get me to work or do my job. I work hard for my money and I’ve done it all myself!” I would say,

“Remember that the LORD your God gives you the power to gain wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:18)

The point is that those of us who have authentic faith believe God is good and gracious and merciful and that God proves this to us every single day. I trust God because I see his grace and love every time I hug my kids, every time I am able to buy groceries, and every time I wake up to another day. 

So, by extension, we trust in the resurrection, not just because there is historical evidence or because God’s word says so or because the disciples died for this truth: we also trust it because God is good and evil needs an answer. For us, Jesus’ death and resurrection is the answer to evil. 

It is powerful because people across the board, politically and theologically, all agree on and that is the reality of evil. Evil exists but it is only Christianity that has an answer and part of that answer is we are all responsible. All human beings are sinners.

Some of us are worse than others. I dealt drugs, abused others, and so much more but there are folks who have sinned less. Some people grow up in happy homes, had both parents, went to good schools, and got good jobs but being less bad still means you’re bad.

We all recognize evil because we all inherently know we ought to be good. This is because we were made in the image of a good God and, whether you have faith or not, it doesn’t change the fact that we all universally know the golden rule and we have all broken it. No one is good all the time, not even the good people. 

Humility teaches we all make mistakes and these mistakes are your responsibility but you can’t fix it. You can’t do enough, you can’t undo your sin, you can’t un-throw that rock and un-ripple the pond. Every time you sinned, your sin caused effects that you can’t fix. Even pagans know this is true, as the Greek story about Pandora illustrates, you can’t put evil back in the box. 

The great thing is Jesus died to pay for our sins. He provides a way to bring more real good into the world and a way to defeat evil through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. His life shows us how we should live, how we should love others, how we should be willing to suffer for those we love, and love those we hate. 

His death paid the penalty for our sins because he never sinned. He was perfectly good as God designed us to be. Death came into the world because we sinned and death continues because we continue to sin but Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by dying for each and every one of us.

And the resurrection is proof that his sacrifice was accepted and, when he rose from the dead, it gave us the future hope of us rising from the dead as well. We can now truly live because we do not fear death: this is the power of the resurrection and this is why we celebrate Easter.

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.” 

John 11:25

The resurrection breaks our fear of death and allows both bad and good people to finally be holy people: people separated and different from this world. In other words, the resurrection gives us the freedom to make the world a better place. 

“Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14–15)

When you are afraid of dying you hesitate, you cheat, you focus on living longer rather than sacrificing to love your neighbor as yourself. The resurrection guarantees you the freedom to look past your own limitations and focus on God’s will for the world. It allows us to be holy and spread his love across the planet as he always intended because we were created to be good. 

Our faith is not worthless.

The fear of death hinders you from being who God created you to be but faith in Jesus frees you from that fear and slavery. When you are able to look beyond your own life and your own wants and your own needs and truly love others, the world opens up in a new way of life.

“Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

• For a much deeper dive into the resurrection, click here to read

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus Paperback by Gary R. Habermas