JESUS CHRIST'S RESURRECTION 

            Christ came to earth and showed great wisdom and power. His teachings were revolutionary; His miracles left thousands dumbfounded. He healed the blind, the deaf the dumb, the paralyzed and others who suffered great afflictions. He fed miraculously thousands of hungry people. The most dramatic miracle of all was the fact that He made the dead come back to life.

            Everything pointed to one undeniable truth: Christ was the greatest of all the messengers that God had ever sent to Israel, and not one of them could compare in power and wisdom.

            But there was more. Jesus was not just a great messenger from God, He was declared God’s Son by a voice from Heaven, and He boldly asserted that He was the expected Messiah. This was a very big package to accept on the part of both the disciples and the Jews.

After three-and-one –half years of preaching and of doing great miracles came the shocking taking of Jesus by the Roman soldiers and the Jews. Unexpectedly, He did not fight back as a conquering “Messiah” should have. He was also taken to be scourged and to be finally crucified. To the amazement of Christ’s disciples, the “Messiah” did not resist. Ultimately, He died a most gruesome death and was entombed like any other human. Who was Jesus Christ, really, given this shocking turn of events?

As promised, the resurrection did take place three days and three nights later, and hundreds witnessed Christ’s return to life. There was no doubt that He had been resurrected as He had promised. The greatest wonder of all had taken place, and all now knew that Christ was much more than just a prophet; He was the Son of God.

            But what if the three days and three nights had passed and God would not have resurrected Christ?

            If Christ had not come back to life, His promise that He would have risen the third day would have been rendered nil and void. Also, everything surrounding Christ would have been subject to question. Christ’s teachings would have held no value, as they would have been simply seen as the words of a deceiver. His great deeds would have been attributed to demonic powers working through Him. His promises to the disciples about their glorious future would have been nothing but rubbish. His prophecies regarding His return to rule the earth would have been valueless. Lastly, His promise that He would have shed his blood for the sins of the world would have been insignificant.

When God resurrected Christ, He gave humanity the critical and undeniable proof that Christ was the promised Savior, and that Jesus was, indeed, totally trustworthy and reliable. The resurrection also validated the worth of Christ’s teachings and of all His promises. Most of all, it validated the powerful meaning of His sacrifice for all of humanity and His role in the future establishment of the Kingdom of God.

            After the resurrection, the disciples no longer doubted that Christ was the Son of God. Even doubting Thomas received sufficient evidence from Christ that He had come back from the dead, and that led him to finally exult, “My Lord and my God” ((John 20:28). After agonizing days of mourning and disappointment, the disciples were overwhelmed with feelings of joy. The Lord was back, and everything surrounding Him was totally true.

            Thus, the resurrection was the pivotal sign from God that validate Christ’s identity, His teachings and His promises. The undeniable sign was given, and it was witnessed by hundreds (I Corinthians 155:6), who gladly went on to share the good news that Christ had died for all sinners, was resurrected, had risen to the right hand of God, was offering salvation to all who believed and had a great eternal reward in store for them who endured to the end.

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