Know Why You Believe - Was Jesus Resurrected Back to Life?
- David Moyes
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Hello and welcome to Van Life Devotions. The greatest claim of Christianity is that Jesus Christ, who was executed, was resurrected to back to life.
But what if the resurrection story is a made-up fantasy? If the resurrection was one big hoax, then Jesus was a liar as He claimed that He was going to rise; and quite frankly, He was a lunatic because He also claimed to be God who will rise again. This makes the evidence for His resurrection important.
Here are some arguments for Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
All four Gospels report that Jesus’ tomb was found empty on that Sunday morning. Women followers of Jesus were the first to discover this. Later, some of Jesus’ apostles went into the tomb and saw that His body was gone.
But was the body stolen?
Here are the next two arguments: First, people saw Jesus alive. They witnessed His physical body walking, eating, teaching. The Apostle Paul wrote within 20–25 years of His death saying that Jesus appeared alive to the disciples, more than 500 people at once, James, the brother of Jesus and finally to himself. And then Paul wrote, “most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6 NIV), as if he was saying, “if you don’t believe me, go and ask any one of these people”.
The other argument is the transformation of Jesus’ disciples. After His arrest and crucifixion, the disciples were fearful and scattered. But, afterwards, all this changed when they met the resurrected Jesus. Even though could be imprisoned, they were on the streets boldly telling people that He had risen. Why would they be so bold if they knew the resurrection didn’t happen?
Many Christians have since believe in faith that Jesus was raised back to life, claiming that they know that He lives because He lives in them.
The central Christian claim is summarized in these words: “He is not here; for He is risen” (Matthew 28:6 NIV). For Christians, the resurrection is not only evidence of Jesus’ power over death and that He is who He claimed to be, but also the foundation of hope, forgiveness, and eternal life.
David Moyes
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