The Resurrection of Christ

The reason I returned to my faith as a teenager was because I was exposed to arguments for the Resurrection of Jesus. Those McDowell-Strobel style arguments reminded me of a murder mystery turned on its head (an idea captured in the movie “Risen” where a Roman soldier investigates the empty tomb): a pile of evidence leading to one improbable but not impossible conclusion that a man once dead had come back to life. That was what got me not only believing again, but into studying theology so I could learn more about this Person.

Since then, my understanding of epistemology and apologetics has changed (and changed back) from that simple evidentialism, but that remains the reason I believe in Christianity, believe that Christianity matters as more than a matter of private belief or personal devotion, believe that everything in life should be re-ordered and re-considered with reference to the Triune God that Jesus reveals. I believe St Paul got it right in saying that, if it’s false, we are of all men most miserable, but our informed confidence that it is true is our living hope.

I don’t believe you can live in a way where the Resurrection *might* be true. It just ends up being spiritual oatmeal. If that tomb is empty, you need to actively put yourself on the road to Damascus. The apologia that Paul offers throughout the Book of Acts before his accusers is that he is doing all this crazy and subversive stuff because he knows, from both Scripture and experience, that Christ is Risen.

We, too, should know this both from Scripture (and our careful but reverent Berean investigation of its truthfulness) and from our own experience. Seek the Lord while He may be found. The Deus absconditus is not hiding in the tomb anymore.

Truly, He is Risen.

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Image: Resurrection – Piero della Francesca, 1463-65