650 Be raised again By Elder Mark Green “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Mt. 16.21).
All our hope is bound up in the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is not speaking too strongly to say this, for Paul uses similar language in speaking to the Corinthians: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15.14-17).
Paul is not afraid to hinge the entirety of eternal salvation and the Christian religion upon the fact that Christ was raised from the dead. Consider what he says: if Christ was not raised from the dead, then there is nothing at all to gospel preaching. It has no substance nor purpose, but is the worst kind of vanity and deception.
Without His resurrection, our faith has nothing in which to trust. Indeed, we would be the most foolish of individuals to trust in a fairy tale and a lie. We could rightly be regarded by everyone as a demented people. Without it, we are false witnesses.
In case anyone mistakes the meaning of that, Paul is saying that if Christ’s resurrection is not true, then we are “bald-faced liars.” Worst of all, if Christ be not raised, we are still in our sins; we have not been saved, but are under the wrath of an almighty God. Not one sin was put away by Christ’s death if He was not raised from the dead.
One of the strongest types of evidence which can be introduced into court is that of an eye-witness. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15.6 that over five hundred people saw Christ at one time after He arose. Law enforcement officers frequently use scars as marks of identification, and Thomas was allowed to see the scars in Christ’s hands and side; and of course, he was not an easily-persuaded witness, for he had declared that he would not believe it apart from seeing the physical evidence.
We have every reason to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, even apart from the testimony of the Spirit in our hearts. The evidence is massive and conclusive. There were even multiple eye-witnesses when He ascended up into heaven. What more could we need?
“And be raised again the third day.” Many do not believe that statement, but we believe it. The cause of Christ, the truth of God’s word and even the Christian religion itself rests on no shaky foundation. It is the greatest of truths. It is firmly established by fact and by forensic evidence. Our faith and our salvation are built upon a solid rock.