Chapter Fourteen - The Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah
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1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter considers the most important doctrine for the validity of the New Testament: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There are five divisions of this doctrine:
The preliminary concerns of the resurrection.
The answers to the critics regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament declaration of the Messiah's resurrection.
The New Testament proclamation of the Messiah's resurrection.
The importance of the resurrection for New Testament doctrine.
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2. PRELIMINARY CONCERNS OF THE RESURRECTION
2.1 The Importance
One of the qualifications of an apostle was to have been a firsthand witness of all Jesus said and did (Acts 1:21-22). This meant that he was also a witness to the empty tomb, and that he had fellowship with Jesus in the post-resurrection ministry.
The resurrection became the main subject of apostolic preaching. Peter, in his first message on the Day of Pentecost, declared that God raised Jesus, putting and end to the agony of His death, since it was impossible for Jesus to be kept in the grave (Acts 2:24).
The disciples were able to witness with great power because of the infilling of the Holy Spirit after united prayer. This was a witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:31-33).
The proof that one was really born again was when he could believe in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9).
The resurrection was one of the two dimensions of the gospel message: the death of the Messiah for sin, and His resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
If Christ was not raised from the dead, then our faith is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:17-18). Furthermore, if Christ was not raised, those who died believing in Jesus will not be resurrected. There is no hope if Jesus is still dead. But this is not the case.
2.2 Importance Recognized Even Today
Both friends and enemies of the Christian faith have recognized the resurrection of Christ to be the foundation stone of the faith. Paul, the great apostle, wrote to those in Corinth, who in general denied the resurrection of the dead: "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Corinthians 15:14). Paul rested his whole case on the bodily resurrection of Christ. Either he did or he didn't rise from the dead. If he did, it was the most sensational event in all of history, and we have conclusive answers to the profound questions of our existence: Where have we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? If Christ rose, we know with certainty that God exists, what he is like and how we may know him in personal experience; the universe takes on meaning and purpose, and it is possible to experience the living God in contemporary life. These and many other wonderful things are true if Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.
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3. DID CHRIST RISE FROM THE DEAD?
3.1 Not Wishful Thinking
If Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is an interesting museum piece - nothing more. It has no objective validity or reality. Though it is a nice wishful thought, it certainly isn't worth getting steamed up about. The martyrs who went singing to the lions, and contemporary missionaries who have given their lives in China, Ecuador and Congo while taking this message to others, have been poor deluded fools.
The attack on Christianity by its enemies has most often concentrated on the resurrection because it has been correctly seen that this event is the crux of the matter. A remarkable attack was the one contemplated in the early 1930s by a young British lawyer. He was convinced that the resurrection was a mere tissue of fable and fantasy. Sensing that it was the foundation stone of the Christian faith, he decided to do the world a favor by once and for all exposing this fraud and superstition. As a lawyer, he felt he had the critical faculties to rigidly sift evidence and to admit nothing as evidence which did not meet the stiff criteria for admission into a law court today.
However, while Frank Morison was doing his research, a remarkable thing happened. The case was not nearly as easy as he had supposed. As a result the first chapter in his book Who Moved the Stone? is entitled, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." In it he described how, as he examined the evidence, he became persuaded against his will of the fact of the bodily resurrection.
3.2 Data to Be Considered
What are some of the pieces of data to be considered in answering the question, "Did Christ rise from the dead?"
These and other suggestions are answered in detail by Floyd Hamilton in The Basis of Christian Faith, New York: Harper, 1964, pp. 298 ff. No matter how we discuss the various theories of the resurrection, we can never get away from the facts as the gospel writers present them. The biblical facts make more sense and take less effort to believe than all of the counterclaims of the critics.
3.2.1 First, there is the fact of the Christian church
It is worldwide in scope. Its history can be traced back to Palestine around AD 32. Did it just happen or was there a cause for it? These people who were first called Christians at Antioch turned the world of their time upside-down. They constantly referred to the resurrection as the basis for their teaching, preaching, living and - significantly - dying.
3.2.2 Then, there is the fact of the Christian day
Sunday is the day of worship for Christians. Its history can also be traced back to the year AD 32. Such a shift in the calendar was monumental, and something cataclysmic must have happened to change the day of worship from the Jewish sabbath, the seventh day of the week, to Sunday, the first day. Christians said the shift came because of their desire to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This shift is all the more remarkable when we remember that the first Christians were Jews. If the resurrection does not account for this change, what does?
3.2.3 Third, there is the Christian book, the New Testament
In its pages are contained 6 independent testimonies to the fact of the resurrection. Three of them are by eyewitnesses: John, Peter and Matthew. Paul, writing to the churches at an early date, referred to the resurrection in such a way that it is obvious that to him and his readers the event was well-known and accepted without question. Are these men, who helped transform the moral structure of society, consummate liars or deluded madmen? These alternatives are harder to believe than the fact of the resurrection, and there is no shred of evidence to support them.
Two facts must be explained by the believer and the unbeliever alike. They are the empty tomb and the alleged appearances of Jesus Christ.
3.3 Accounting for the Empty Tomb
3.3.1 The earliest explanation circulated was that the disciples stole the body
In Matthew 28:11-15, we have the record of the reaction of the chief priests and the elders when the guards gave them the infuriating and mysterious news that the body was gone. They gave the soldiers money and told them to explain that the disciples had come at night and stolen the body while they were asleep. That story was so obviously false that Matthew didn't even bother to refute it! What judge would listen to you if you said that while you were asleep your neighbor came into your house and stole your television set? Who knows what goes on while he's asleep? Testimony like this would be laughed out of any court.
Furthermore, we are faced with a psychological and ethical impossibility. Stealing the body of Christ is something totally foreign to the character of the disciples and all that we know of them. It would mean that they were perpetrators of a deliberate lie which was responsible for the deception and ultimate death of thousands of people. It is inconceivable that even if a few of the disciples had conspired and pulled off his theft they would never have told the others.
Each of the disciples faced the test of torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. People will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If ever a person tells the truth, it is on his or her deathbed. And if the disciples had taken the body, and Christ were still dead, we would still have the problem of explaining his alleged appearances.
3.3.2 A second hypothesis is that the authorities, Jewish or Roman, moved the body
But why? Having put guards at the tomb, what would be their reason for moving the body? But there is also a convincing answer for this thesis - the silence of the authorities in the face of the apostles' bold preaching in Jerusalem about the resurrection. The ecclesiastical leaders were seething with rage and did everything possible to prevent the spread of this message and to suppress it (Acts 4). They arrested Peter and John and beat and threatened them in an attempt to close their mouths.
But there was a very simple solution to their problem. If they had Christ's body, they could have paraded it through the streets of Jerusalem. In one fell swoop they would have successfully smothered Christianity in its cradle. That they did not do this bears eloquent testimony to the fact that they did not have the body.
3.3.3 Another popular theory has been that the women, distraught and overcome by grief, missed their way in the dimness of the morning and went to the wrong tomb
In their distress they imagined Christ had arisen because the tomb was empty. This theory, however, falls before the same fact that destroys the previous one. If the women went to the wrong tomb, why did the high priests and other enemies of the faith not go to the right tomb and produce the body? Further, it is inconceivable that all Jesus' followers would succumb to the same mistake, and certainly Joseph of Arimathea, owner of the tomb, would have solved the problem. In addition, it must be remembered that this was a private burial ground, not a public cemetery. There was no other tomb nearby that would have allowed them to make this mistake.
3.3.4 The swoon theory has also been advanced to explain the empty tomb
In this view, Christ did not actually die. He was mistakenly reported to be dead but had swooned from exhaustion, pain and loss of blood. When he was laid in the coolness of the tomb, he revived. He came out of the tomb and appeared to his disciples, who mistakenly thought he had risen from the dead.
This is a theory of modern construction. It first appeared at the end of the 18th century. It is significantly that not a suggestion of this kind has come down from antiquity among all the violent attacks which have been made on Christianity. All of the earliest records are emphatic about Jesus' death.
But let us assume for a moment that Christ was buried alive and swooned. Is it possible to believe that he would have survived 3 days in a damp tomb without food or water or attention of any kind? Would he have survived being wound in spice-laden grave-clothes? Would he have had the strength to extricate himself from the graveclothes, push the heavy stone away from the mouth of the grave, overcome the Roman guards and walk miles on feet that had been pierced with spikes? Such a belief is more fantastic than the simple fact of the resurrection itself.
Even the German critic David Strauss, who by no means believes in the resurrection, rejected this idea as incredible. He said:
"It is impossible that One who had just come forth from the grave half dead, who crept about weak and ill, who stood in the need of medical treatment, of bandaging, strengthening, and tender care, and who at last succumbed to suffering, could ever have given the disciples the impression that he was a conqueror over death and the grave; that he was the Prince of Life. This lay at the bottom of their future ministry. Such a resuscitation could only have weakened the impression which he had made upon them in life and in death - or at the most, could have given in an elegiac voice - but could by no possibility have changed their sorrow into enthusiasm or elevated their reverence into worship." (David Strauss, The Life of Jesus for the People, 2nd ed., London, 1879, 1:412)
Finally, if this theory is correct, Christ himself was involved in flagrant lies. His disciples believed and preached that he was dead but came alive again. Jesus did nothing to dispel this belief, but rather encouraged it. The only theory that adequately explains the empty tomb is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
3.4 The Appearance of Christ
The second piece of data that everyone, whether believer or unbeliever, must explain is the recorded appearances of Christ. These occurred from the morning of his resurrection to his ascension 40 days later. Ten distinct appearances are recorded. They show great variety as to time, place and people. Two were to individuals, Peter and James. There were appearances to the disciples as a group, and one was to 500 assembled brethren. The appearances were at different places. Some were in the garden near his tomb, some were in the Upper Room. One was on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and some were far away in Galilee. Each appearance was characterized by different acts and words by Jesus.
For the same reasons that the empty tomb cannot be explained on the basis of lies or legends, neither can we dismiss the statement of the appearances of Christ on this basis. This is testimony given by eyewitnesses - fully and profoundly convinced of the truth of their statements.
The major theory advanced to explain away the accounts of the appearances of Christ is that they were hallucinations. At first, this sounds like a plausible explanation of an otherwise supernatural event. It is plausible until we begin to realize that modern medicine has observed that certain laws apply to such psychological phenomena. As we relate these principles to the evidence at hand, we see that what at first seemed most plausible is, in fact, impossible.
Hallucinations occur generally in people who tend to be vividly imaginative and of a nervous make-up. But the appearances of Christ were to all sorts of people. True, some were sensitive, but there were also hardheaded fishermen like Peter and others of various dispositions.
Hallucinations are extremely subjective and individual. For this reason, no two people have the same experience. But in the case of the resurrection, Christ appeared not just to individuals but to groups, including one of more than 500 people. Paul said that more than half of them were still alive and could tell about these events (1 Corinthians 15).
Hallucinations usually occur only at particular times and places, and are associated with the events fancied. But these appearances occurred both indoors and outdoors, in the morning, afternoon and evening.
Generally, these psychic experiences occur over a long period of time with some regularity. But these experiences happened during a period of 40 days, and then stopped abruptly. No one ever said they happened again.
But perhaps the most conclusive indication of the fallacy of the hallucination theory is a fact often overlooked. In order to have an experience like this, one must so intensely want to believe that he or she projects something that really isn't there and attaches reality to his imagination. For instances, a mother who has lost a son in the war remembers how he used to come home from work every evening at 5:30. She sits in her rocking chair every afternoon, musing and meditating. Finally, she thinks she sees him come through the door and has conversation with him. At this point she has lost contact with reality.
One might think that this is what happened to the disciples about the resurrection. The fact is that the opposite took place - they were persuaded against their wills that Jesus had risen from the dead!
Mary came to the tomb on the first Easter Sunday morning with spices in her hands. Why? To anoint the dead body of the Lord she loved. She was obviously not expecting to find him risen from the dead. In fact, when she first saw him she mistook him for the gardener! It was only after he spoke to her and identified himself that she realized who he was.
When the other disciples heard, they didn't believe. The story seemed to them "as an idle tale."
When the Lord finally appeared to the disciples, they were frightened and thought they were seeing a ghost! They thought they were having a hallucination, and it jolted them. He finally had to tell them, "Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." He asked them if they had any food, and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. Luke didn't add the obvious - ghost don't eat fish! (Luke 24:36-43).
Finally, there is the classic case of which we still speak - Thomas as the doubter. He was not present when the Lord appeared to the disciples the first time. They told him about it, but he scoffed and would not believe. In effect, he said, "I'm from Missouri. I won't believe unless I'm shown. I'm an empiricist. Unless I can put my finger into the nail wounds in his hands and my hand into his side, I will not believe." He wasn't about to have a hallucination!
John gives us the graphic story (John 20) of our Lord's appearance to the disciples 8 days later. He graciously invited Thomas to examine the evidence of his hands and his side. Thomas looked at him and fell down in worship: "My Lord and my God."
To hold the hallucination theory in explaining the appearances of Christ, one must completely ignore the evidence.
What was it that changed a band of frightened, cowardly disciples into men of courage and conviction? What was it that changed Peter from one who, the night before the crucifixion, was so afraid for his own skin that he 3 times denied he even knew Jesus, into a roaring lion of the faith? Some 50 days later Peter risked his life by saying he had seen Jesus risen from the dead. It must be remembered that Peter preached his electric Pentecost sermon in Jerusalem, where the events took place and his life was in danger. He was not in Galilee, miles away where no one could verify the facts and where his ringing statements might go unchallenged.
Only the bodily resurrection of Christ could have produced this change.
3.5 Contemporary Proof
Finally, there is the evidence for the resurrection which is contemporary and personal. If Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he is alive today, ready to invade and change those who invite him into their lives. Thousands now living bear uniform testimony that their lives have been revolutionized by Jesus Christ. He has done in them what he said he would do. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The invitation still stands, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8). The avenue of experimentation is open to each person.
In summary, then, we can agree with Canon Westcott, a brilliant scholar at Cambridge, who said, "Indeed, taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it." (B. F. Westcott, The Gospel of the Resurrection, 4th ed., London, 1879, pp. 4-6)
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4. OLD TESTAMENT DECLARATION OF MESSIAH'S RESURRECTION
Paul had already declared that the resurrection was according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:4). Jesus also reminded His disciples in one of His post-resurrection ministries that "it is written, that the Messiah should suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day" (Luke 24:46). "What is written" can only refer to the Old Testament.
4.1 Old Testament Prophecy
Several Old Testament prophecies mention the resurrection, and the New Testament disciples applied them as a fulfillment of the resurrection of Jesus.
4.1.1 Psalm 16:10-11, Acts 2:27-28
David declared that his soul, after death, would not be abandoned in sheol, and that as the godly one, he would never see the pit. God promised every believer, from the Old Testament point of view, that he would never be abandoned. While the body can be buried, the soul and spirit is God's. Peter, in his message on the Day of Pentecost, applied the passage to Jesus and His resurrection. Even though David's body was still buried, the Psalm had a special connotation regarding the resurrection of David's greater Son, the Messiah.
4.1.2 Psalm 2:7; Acts 13:33-34
In Psalm 2:7, God has a decree: The Son is begotten of the Father. Regardless of how this was seen from an Old Testament point of view, Paul interpreted it in terms of the resurrection: "He raised him up from the dead, no more to return to decay ... " (Acts 13:34). When David became king, he stood in a special relationship to God and was therefore addressed in the words of Psalm 2:7. At Jesus' baptism, He was anointed by God in a special sense for His messianic mission and was addressed in almost the same words as was David (Luke 3:22). But it would appear that the point of verse 34 (above) is that God's promises to David and for those who followed him could not have been fulfilled apart from the resurrection of Israel's Messiah after he had died for our sins.
4.2 Foreshadowed by Old Testament Event (Matthew 12:40)
The best and most well-known passage regarding the resurrection is how Jesus interpreted Jonah's three days and three nights in the big fish. The Messiah applied this experience to His resurrection. Although He was to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, He promised that He would be raised from the dead. The main point of Jonah's release emphasizes a newness of life for the Messiah.
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5. NEW TESTAMENT DECLARATION OF THE MESSIAH'S RESURRECTION
5.1 Foretold by Jesus Himself
There is nothing in Jewish tradition of the first century that said anything about the death of the Messiah (although a belief in a general resurrection was the hope of the believers [John 11:24]). Over and over again, Jesus warned His disciples He was to die; but even at the very end, after the crucifixion, the disciples fled because they had lost all hope. When the news concerning the resurrection began to filter in, the disciples were skeptical of the report. Only after personal observation, the empty tomb, and the post-resurrection appearances were the apostles and disciples finally convinced that the Messiah had to die, in accordance with Old Testament Scripture, and that He also would be raised from the dead.
Note the passages where Jesus foretold of His resurrection: Matthew 12:38-40; 16:21 (at the mid-point of His ministry); 17:9, 23; 20:19; 26:32; Mark 8:31 (the same as Matthew 16:21, at the midpoint of Jesus' ministry); Mark 9:9-10, 31-32; 10:34; 14:28; Luke 9:22; 16:31; 18:33-34. In John 2:18-22, as we look at the context, Jesus did not have a second temple in mind, but his body. At the time, John probably did not understand it, but when he wrote his gospel near the end of the first century, he understood what Jesus had in mind (see John 20:8). In John 11:25, Jesus declares that He Himself is the resurrection. When the time of resurrection will come, He is the one who will bring it about, for the righteous and the wicked (John 5:28-29).
5.2 The Statements by the Chief Leaders
After Jesus was crucified, there is evidence that the religious leaders themselves knew Jesus had prophesied that He would rise on the third day (Matthew 27:63; Mark 15:29). They asked Pilate to set a guard at the entrance to the tomb, to prevent the body from being stolen by the disciples. The attempts by the guards to secure the tomb were to no avail, however. The events of how Jesus came forth from the tomb are eloquent testimony that on one could prevent the resurrection, which was God's work.
5.3 The New Testament Writers
5.3.1 The Gospels and Acts
Subsequent to the event of the miracle, there were a number of post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to further emphasize the fact that He was truly and actually raised with a body. This was, however, a body quite different from our natural bodies:
Thomas' experience with Jesus' resurrected body (John 20:27);
The disciples on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus in a new body (Luke 24:31); and
Later, in Galilee, Jesus took a piece of broiled fish and ate it in their sight to further demonstrate that He was in a body with flesh and bones, and not a mere spirit (Luke 24:39-43).
So convinced were the apostles, that Peter boldly proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:32), and 30 years later, he had not changed his mind at all. He was still able to declare that he and other believers had been born again through a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).
5.3.2 The Letters
James speaks of a living Christ who will come with His reward (James 5:7). Paul described the many witnesses of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:5-8):
Cephas (or Peter);
the Twelve;
more than 500 brethren at one time;
James
again, to all the apostles; and
finally, to Paul himself (Acts 9:3-6).
Concerning the 500, it seems impossible that these Jewish people could be fooled! We cannot dismiss such a convincing objective fact of the resurrection.
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6. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION FOR NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE
6.1 The Resurrection is Important for Matters of New Testament Belief
Our salvation is linked to the doctrine of the resurrection (Romans 10:9), and the doctrine of justification is also attached to the basic fact of the resurrection: He was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25).
6.2 The Resurrection and Morality
The resurrection and a biblical life-style are linked. If the dead are not raised, then we might as well be Epicureans, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1 Corinthians 15:32). Paul reminds the believers to cling to the great truth of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit whose power raised Jesus from the dead enables us to live a life pleasing to the Lord.
6.3 The Resurrection and Our Dedication and Service
The resurrection is linked to the kind of service we perform as believers: "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." He gives us the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57-58)!
6.4 The Resurrection and Hope
Why this hope? The promise is that because Jesus was raised from the dead, He will also give us life, and one day raise us (Romans 8:11).
6.5 The Resurrection and Power for Service
The apostle Paul cried out, after being a believer for years: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection ... " (Philippians 3:10). Paul simply declared that the believer has a tremendous possibility to minister, with the same kind of power which brought forth Jesus from the dead.
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7. REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER STUDY
Know Why You Believe, Chapter 4, InterVarsity Press, 1988, by Paul E. Little & Marie Little.
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