The Changing of the Guard

Marked

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  It is one of those fundamental Christian doctrines which divides.  One either believes it, or one does not.  If one believes it, one is almost certainly a Christian.  If one denies it, or doubts it, or qualifies it, one is not a Christian. 

Why is the resurrection of Christ so fundamental to the Christian faith?  One reason is that it rests upon the testimony of Scripture and the Spirit.  One cannot "prove" the resurrection of Jesus.  Whilst apologists of various stripes have sought to marshal a case for the resurrection based upon historical evidences and related argumentation (for example, refer to Frank Morrison's Who Moved the Stone?, first published by Faber and Faber in 1930, reprinted many times, most recently by Zondervan in 2002) the mere marshalling of evidence does not produce certainty nor saving faith.

Then there is the small matter of relevance.
  Did Nero play his fiddle while Rome burned?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Who cares?  Did Jesus rise from the dead?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Who cares?  Lots of very strange things have happened in this world.  (See, for example, Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned [London: Abacus/Sphere, 1974 (1941, 1919)].  


The Scriptural testimony to the resurrection of Jesus is of another sort entirely.  It is the Scripture impressed by the Spirit upon our hearts that gives the resurrection its true meaning and significance. Not only does it recount the event, it interprets it in a manner that only one who has been born again by the Spirit can accept and believe.  Consider, for example, the argumentation of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15.  The context is those believers in the Corinthians church who, under the influence of Greek metaphysics, were arguing or considering that it was immaterial whether Christians would again from the dead or not: it was the survival of the eternal soul which mattered.

Paul puts forward the following propositions in rebuttal of this view:

• The bodily resurrection of Christ is of first importance
• If we are not to be raised bodily from the dead, Christ could not have been raised either
• If Christ has not been raised, the apostolic preaching is in vain
• If Christ were not raised, the apostolic testimony about God is false
• If Christ is not raised your faith is futile
• If Christ is not raised you are still in your sins
• If Christ is not raised, those who have since died believing in Christ have perished
• If Christ is not raised we have only an earthly, temporal hope and are to be the most pitied of men
• Because of Christ's resurrection He ensures our resurrection from the dead
• Because of Christ's resurrection we (believers who belong to Christ) shall be made alive
• Because of Christ's resurrection, death will be destroyed
• Because of Christ's resurrection all things shall be subjected to Him

 The resurrection of Christ from the dead, whilst historical and tangible (just ask the Apostle Thomas), had and continues to have cosmic, universal, and eternal significance.  It affects and effects everything--literally.  The resurrection of Christ does not merely reverse history, it puts it in a bear hug and takes it over; Christ takes control of everything after His resurrection. 

All are either with Him or against Him.  All now will gather with Him or will be scattered.  One way or another, every living soul that ever was, is now, or ever shall be is marked by His resurrection.  Those who resist Him, cavil against Him, or ignore Him are marked for destruction.  Those who humble themselves and accept Him are marked to share in His glorious life forever.  The resurrection of Christ is that fundamental.