6 “He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:6-7, NASB).
In Christianity, the cornerstone of the Christian faith is a living, not a dead Savior. Christianity stands or falls on whether or not Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead is true. Evangelist Larry Moyer emphasizes this point in these statements: “Jesus Christ’s empty tomb is one of the most attested facts of history. If the empty tomb is not true, then nothing He said matters.”[1]
In the first century, both Jesus’ disciples, and His enemies admitted the tomb of Jesus was no longer occupied. Christ’s disciples proclaimed that He had been resurrected from the dead. But, according to Matthew 28:11-15, the Jewish religious leaders bribed the Roman soldiers to claim His disciples stole the body while they slept. The guard’s perspectives requires more imagination than Jesus’ resurrection, for if the soldiers had been asleep, how did they know who stole the body?
Credible historical evidence exists for the tomb of Jesus being empty days after His crucifixion because He is a risen, not a dead Savior. No other founder of a world religion rose from the dead to validate their truthfulness, power, and authority.[2]
By returning from the dead, Jesus Christ endures as an authority on the afterlife. His resurrection verifies His deity and gives credibility to His other statements about life, death, and eternity.
1 John 5:11-13 conveys that while alive on Earth, the decision every person makes regarding whether to trust in or reject Jesus as one’s Savior determines his or her eternal destiny.
Pastor Cecil Price, adapted from The Unique One: 18 Distinctives of Jesus Christ.
[1] R. Larry Moyer, “How to Respond to the Ten Most Common Questions in Evangelism” (presentation, Evantell Lunch, Dallas, TX, July 21, 2011).
2 Tal Davis, “Is Jesus Superior to All Other Religious Leaders?” in Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010), 187.