Although millions of Christians pile into churches this time every year – and this year, many will watch services via YouTube, Facebook video, or Zoom chats – a large segment of them probably don’t even realize the significance of Easter. Perhaps they know of the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus but have never really given it more than a fleeting thought or two in their minds.
Maybe that describes you in your thoughts on the events of Passion Week. Or, possibly you realize that the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead is one of the key moments of Christianity. But have you really stopped to ruminate the lofty weight of the Resurrection?
In all actuality, it may be the most important event ever to take place. Yes, ever. The Apostle Paul, when laying out the fundamentals of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, mentions the Cross, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus as the most important things to believe: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” [1 Corinthians 15:3-4]
I pray that all you know the magnitude of Jesus dying on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins, but Paul exhorts that if it weren’t for the Resurrection, the work on Cross would be useless: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” [1 Corinthians 5:17] Wow. That’s a pretty bold statement. Our faith would be futile? And why is that? Well, without Christ’s own prediction of Him dying and rising from the dead weren’t true, then He would have been just another failed prophet on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and you would still be in your sins, helplessly separated from God for all eternity. Since Christ did rise from the dead, it validates everything He preached and lived out while He was here in person 2,000 years ago.
The Resurrection was the major turning point in the New Testament. Just picture where Jesus’ disciples were at the time of His crucifixion. Thinking that their Master had died, they felt that all hope was drained from their lives. They were scattered, disoriented, irrevocably despondent, and at the lowest place they’d ever been. Then, after witnessing Jesus Christ miraculously risen from the dead, they charged full steam ahead on a mission to preach the Gospel powerfully, faced death at every turn – with many of them being martyred for their beliefs – and with a ferocious intensity never seen before, they changed the world forever.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is also an undeniable, verifiable, historical fact that no skeptics have ever been able to explain away. No matter what theories or guesses non-believers have tried to throw at it to dismiss it, their arguments quickly crumble in the face of logic, reason, and history. Atheists such as newspaper reporter Lee Strobel and police detective J. Warner Wallace have each previously went on quests to debunk the person of Jesus and Him rising from the dead, and have turned into devout followers of Jesus because of the mountain of evidence confirming His life, death, and resurrection.
This Easter, don’t let the immeasurable importance of the Resurrection pass you by. Don’t let this historical event fail to change you and transform you every day and add proper perspective to your beliefs. And if you haven’t personally believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, don’t let this moment pass by without doing so. Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the Resurrection and the Life;” in that authoritative statement, He claimed to be the source of both. There is no resurrection spiritually or physically apart from Christ and no eternal life. Trust in Him, cry out to Him now, and ask Him to forgive you and give you life with Him forever.
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