Why should I believe in Christ's resurrection?

The open and empty tomb of Luke 24:1-12 is a conclusive proof of Christ's resurrection. There is no other fact in history that has been so well documented and proven to be irrefutable. Therefore, Christianity rests on solid facts (1 Cor. 15:1-11)! Christ's resurrection is the basis for our justification (Rom. 4:25) and puts us on redemption ground, to enjoy sweet communion with Christ and His saints (Ps. 40:2-3, 9; Isa. 53:10-13; Ps. 22:22; Heb. 2:9-14). Furthermore, He has left us in this scene of His rejection to be His witnesses (Lk. 24:46-48). as those who are identified with the One who died and rose again on our behalf (Rom. 6:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:15). We could not have any kind of association with the Lord Jesus, were it not for His death and resurrection.

The Lord had clearly instructed His disciples concerning His death, burial and resurrection before He died (Lk. 24:7; Mt. 28:7, 16). Now as the risen One, He re-affirms this to the two disciples from Emmaus (Lk. 24:25-27), as well as to the eleven (Lk. 24:36-44). Furthermore, Christ's resurrection authenticated His divinity (Rom. 1:4), as well as confirmed His victory over Satan and death (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14). In it God's power was wonderfully demonstrated (Eph. 1:19-23).

Three things come before us in our consideration of this theme: the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of believers, and the resurrection of unbelievers. If Christ's resurrection is fable and not fact, then is Christianity a hollow farce. Preaching and faith are alike vain. Believers, instead of being saved, are yet in their sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. So the Apostle argues in 1 Cor. 15. Thank God, no such uncertainty exists. Christ's resurrection is one of the best attested facts in the history of this world. The precautions taken by the authorities of that day, the stern regulations concerning sleeping soldiers, the unbelief of the disciples, the large number of those who interviewed the Saviour subsequently, all combine to prove that no pious fraud was perpetrated, but that God really raised His beloved Son from amongst the dead. The fact itself is of immense import. It was God's public vindication of the claims and character of the crucified One, it signified His acceptance of His atoning work, and it involved the complete justification of every sinner who believes in His name.

148 It is by this doctrine of the resurrection, and by the glory which shall follow the resurrection itself, that the foundation and the hopes of the Christian faith are bound together; and by the same doctrine it is that justification and that which is the power of the Christian life — sanctification, are necessarily united.

It is commonly said that the resurrection of Christ is the proof of the truth of the Christian religion, and the demonstration that the work of Christ in His death was accomplished. That is indeed a truth for infidels. If we would prove the truth of Christianity to those who do not believe, the fact of the resurrection is the pivot, so to speak, on which the evidence of its truth turns. God gave it for this end. But for Christians, for those who already believe in the blessed Saviour, for those whose hope is already founded on the certainty of the word, and who desire to find the power of that word in their regenerate souls, the resurrection, as set forth in the Scriptures, contains much more.

Of all the facts of history it may be honestly questioned if one of them has been so well authenticated as the resurrection of the Christ has been. That the witnesses were neither plotters nor schemers, but men of the strictest integrity, their writings, their lives, and their sufferings for the truth of what they had seen and heard, convincingly demonstrate. Their evidence is given without sign of stammering or stuttering, without confliction or contradiction, without rant or reserve. There is no attempt to occupy people with the marvellous. If we take into account the amazing subject of their testimony, their sobriety is miraculous. They are not carried away by their unearthly topic into the realm of unreality, in which a fertile imagination may disport itself.

Again we repeat, if deceit and fraud were at work, could the four evangelists have gone further out of their way to render the deception impossible, by introducing such detailed accounts of the resurrection? They narrated too many details, and adduced too many witnesses to leave any hope of a successful deception. No witness, thus cited, came forward to state the evangelists’ or the apostle Paul’s statements were false, and there were at least the greater part of five hundred witnesses, a very considerable number, who could have come forward to expose the deception, if such had existed.

Mark, too, tells of the Lord’s appearing to Mary Magdalene, afterwards to the eleven, who had hitherto stoutly refused to believe the testimony of those who had said He was risen, so that we have not to deal with the credulity of men who would believe anything, but with men who required to be really convinced of a fact on which so much depended.

If the whole story of the resurrection, as given in the Gospels, be read without prejudice it will be perceived that everything connected with that glorious event served to authenticate it to the full. The presence of a Roman guard at the door of the tomb; the unbelief of the disciples at the first news that He had risen (and this recorded by themselves with the utmost simplicity); the lengthy period — forty days — of His sojourn upon earth before He ascended; and the number of persons who saw Him during that period, on one occasion as many as five hundred — all these facts combine to prove that no mistake has been made, and no fraud perpetrated.

The apostle confirms the resurrection of Christ by certain of His appearances afterwards, as He had the death by burial. "And that he appeared to Cephas, after that to the twelve." (Ver. 5.) He omits Mary of Magdala and the other women, important as both might be for the objects which the evangelists had in view. There is no heaping up of proofs in either Gospels or Epistles, but a selection suitable to the design of God by each writer. The apostle gives only men who for weight, number, or other circumstances, furnished evidence unanswerable for every fair mind. The risen Lord appeared to Cephas, or Simon Peter, before He stood in the midst of "the twelve." (Compare Luke 24:34.) Nor could any individual be of greater importance than Simon, especially at a moment when his soul needed reassurance so deeply. But no individual could have the weight of the entire company which knew him best; and the twelve are therefore next named, without noticing either the two disciples who had enjoyed His company to Emmaus on the resurrection-day, or that the apostolic body wanted somewhat to complete it on the same evening.

But there is another occasion, to which the apostle points as unsurpassed for magnitude of testimony: "after that he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the most remain till now, but some also have fallen asleep." (Ver. 6.) Never was a truth better attested. The greater part of these five hundred united witnesses still survived if any one doubted. Even if a person were prejudiced enough to accuse the twelve of a plot, what unreasonable folly to allow such a thought of so large a body of simple disciples, above all suspicion of object or office? The Holy Spirit left Luke to record the Lord's partaking of food when risen, and John the incredulity of the apostle Thomas, only the more to strengthen the truth; but Paul gives us this great body of witnesses, most then alive, if any chose to examine or cross-examine them. Surely had it not been the simple truth, some of that crowd of eyewitnesses must have disclosed the wickedness of thus conspiring in a lie against God.

There were too many witnesses to the fact of the resurrection to make it possible they were all the subjects of hallucination. Our Lord was seen on four occasions by His disciples. They were allowed to see the wounds in His feet and hands and side, even to the length of putting the finger in the prints of the nails. Moreover He did eat and drink with them. He walked miles with the two disciples going to Emmaus. He bid His disciples handle Him, and convince themselves that He was no apparition, that a spirit had not flesh and bones, as He was seen to have. Nay, more, the Apostle Paul spoke of five hundred brethren at once seeing Him. Were they all the subjects of hallucination? No, this theory will not stand examination, and can safely be dismissed as another lie of the enemy.

And yet they do commend themselves to the conscience of all men as both good and true. No one can question that they believed the things which they have put on record. And how could they have been deceived? They were not men easily convinced, and the deeds were not done in a corner. They were neither credulous nor easily imposed upon, and though their persistent unbelief was failure, and had to come under the rebuke of their Lord, it gives additional weight to their testimony, which they gladly bore for His honour and for our eternal blessing, when the last cloud of unbelief at length yielded to the gracious influence of that eternal day, which broke upon their souls as they stood beside the empty grave of Him who could not be holden of death.