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A lot can be said about the most basic tenets of the Christian faith, but maybe none is more essential than life from the dead. That’s right, Christianity hinges on the resurrection. It’s an absurd assertion to all but those who are already in the faith. Why is that? Man only understands the things of man because within him is the spirit of man. It takes the Spirit of God to know the things of God and thus, the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. In other words, those who need it don’t have the vision to see it!
Think about it; if you use a logical thought process to contemplate the redemption story, it is simply ridiculous. God created mankind; he sinned and brought death into the world; He launched a plan to redeem fallen man; it includes Him becoming a man Himself, born as a baby; He would grow up as a normal child, become an adult, and at a specific time would step into His ministry, which would reveal His true nature and purpose. His mission would require Him to be sacrificed on a cross, so His shed blood could cover all the sins of mankind, past, present and future. Then, He’d be buried in a tomb as if defeated, only to resurrect in victory to a new life. And all you need to do to participate in this universal forgiveness of sin program, and to be redeemed to live forever in the presence of a Holy God, instead of the eternal flames of hell, is to believe this story. Accept the invitation to become His bride and you will be saved. Got it?
Okay, so we can all agree now that absent an antecedent intervention by God, we don’t have a shot at believing in the resurrection. The gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. And that is the true beauty. God imparts His grace which gifts us the faith to believe and when our blind eyes are set free, we can see! And the deeper we look the more we see. Abraham was promised he’d be the father of many nations and he believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. It was there all along. Sarah, Abraham’s wife was barren; her womb was dead. It had remained empty for her entire life—all eighty-nine years. But then something happened. Life came from death. God allowed this elderly woman and her husband ten years her senior to conceive. From her empty dead womb came life. When her only begotten son was birthed, again her womb was empty. But, this time as a testimony to the resurrection—life from death. And later, the father of this only son, born out of a once dead womb, was asked to sacrifice him, putting to the test the promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in all the heavens and the sands on all the seashores.
And is this not what we are asked to believe about Christ? And even a step further, not just the willingness of a Father to sacrifice His Son, but the very deed itself. God’s righteousness is imputed to all those who believe this Son was raised from the dead. Simply confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead and you will be saved. There is no other way because if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile and you are still dead in your sins!
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