The Resurrection from the Dead
What do you really believe?
We often see that evangelism efforts are very superficial. Someone preaches somewhere and makes an invitation for people to "give their hearts to Jesus". Quite a number respond. It sounds very nice, but it is not completely correct, rather very far from the truth. The question is what you really believe in now that you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.
Do you believe in God (by implication the Father)? It is not sufficient. Do you believe in his Son, Jesus Christ? This is also not sufficient. Do you believe that He died for your sins? You are almost there, but it is still not enough. What then? What then is considered sufficient for your salvation? Simply this: you must believe that He is all that has been mentioned so far, and that He rose from the dead. Without it, Jesus Christ still remains on the cross, or in the grave, and your confession means pretty much nothing.
Let us look at this carefully: You can believe anything until just before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it will not save you. There are many people who call themselves Christians, who actually do not believe that God raised his Son Jesus Christ from the dead. A good example is the Roman Catholics, and also anyone who carries a cross with the image of Jesus still on it. For many of them He never rose from the dead and is still on the cross. As a result, their faith is useless. The righteousness is only imputed (Romans 4:24) "to us who believe" that Jesus "was raised for our transgressions for our justification". There is no justification for unbelievers, simply because they do not believe in the resurrection and life of Jesus Christ.
Luke describes it in Acts 23:6 and with this Paul captures the essence of the gospel in one sentence:
6But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. – Acts 23:6
Paul was a clever man. He knew well how to play the Sadducees and Pharisees against each other. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees did. When he was brought before the Sanhedrin, his focus was to introduce Jesus to them as not only the One who was executed during a riot in Jerusalem, but who rose from the dead three days later. He appears before these people precisely about the resurrection. That is his hope, and I trust yours too. Paul has an expectation to die and then rise as a new person in Christ (Philippians 1:23). What he was started with on earth is still only a partial resurrection. It is completed when he dies as a human being and is resurrected in a glorified state to be with Christ.
Paul describes this aspect very well in his letter to the church in Rome, especially in Romans chapter 4. Look closely at verse 23. First of all, God's promises are not only for Abraham, but also for us. Abraham was declared righteous so that we can enjoy its benefits today. Just as life came from Abraham and Sarah's dead state (verse 19), life came from me and you as unbelievers when we came to faith. Abraham's faith has been realised through Jesus Christ in me and you. See Romans 4:23-25.
In his letters to the congregation in Corinth, he describes the resurrection. Perhaps you should first stop here, read 1 Corinthians 15, and then continue. The main points of the chapter are these:
- Jesus Christ rose from the dead (verse 4);
- He appeared bodily, therefore visibly, to many people (verses 5-8), also to Paul;
- If He did not rise from the dead, our faith is useless (verses 12-18);
- We are made alive by Jesus Christ's death and resurrection (verses 19-23);
- If the dead are not resurrected, then we might as well live happily, because we are going to die anyway, and not be resurrected (verses 29-32). Verse 32 is taken from Isaiah 22:13;
- Paul uses the example of a seed to explain his point (verses 36-43);
- He explains the difference between the natural and spiritual body (verses 44-50);
- After this he hits them with the essence of the gospel – the change of the believer from his perishable to his imperishable state (verses 51-54); and finally
- Death has been conquered (verses 55-58).
Were it not for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no hope for us. A seed that does not die within itself and is placed in the ground cannot bring life.
What you and I must do is to place our faith in Jesus' resurrection from the dead. As life came from Abraham and Sarah, so Life came when Jesus was raised from the dead (Romans 4:24). Without death there would be no new life. When Jesus explained to his disciples that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), his disciples did not yet understand that life would only come after death. His death was to lead to resurrection. Without it, his mission to Earth was useless.
The question is in which aspect of Jesus do we place our faith. Is it that He is the Son of God? That he was the best teacher of all time? Do you think that it is because he is the Creator (John 1:1-5)? None of this will save you, except this passage: "we who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered over for our transgressions and raised up for our justification." (Romans 4:24-25).
In the film Risen we see how the Roman soldier stands at the foot of the cross and looks up into the eyes of Jesus after He has already died. A few days later, the soldier storms into the house where the disciples are sitting, and he sees the same two eyes of Jesus, sitting alive and well with the disciples. The shock is great. He himself saw how the man died, and now He sits here, alive like the rest of the disciples. This is the separation between a half-truth and the full gospel.
Conclusion
It is tragic how a watered down gospel is often preached to the unsaved. We simply must convince people through the Word, and from the nature of the matter through the operation of the Holy Spirit, that faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ leads to their salvation. There is a saying that a half-truth is as good as a lie. If half a gospel is preached, it is just as good as one that is not true.
At the end of the day, your salvation, and that of other people, depends first on the whole truth being preached, not just parts of it. Second, that you accept that whole truth.