Jesus’ great achievements are never doubted. If the Jesus in whom we believe is only a “great man,” Christianity would be considered the greatest scam in history. Generations of Christians would be gullible fools, even fools who are willing to sacrifice their life to live a lie.
2000 years ago, Jesus declared to the Israelites that He is God, the Saviour of mankind. This drew a furious reaction from the Israelites, which caused Him to be stoned (refer to John10:22-39). Men sees Jesus’ declaration as nothing short of arrogance. The fact, however, is that every word is the truth: He is really God. If Jesus denied Himself as God, He would be lying. Jesus knew all too well that the weakness of men is in their habit of “seeing is believing,”
which is the reason why He performed miracle after miracle to prove His divinity. And the greatest of them all should be considered His resurrection. Jesus foretold His death and resurrection (Matthew 17:22-23). Thus, without Jesus resurrecting from the dead, our belief would be a lie! The Apostle Paul wrote: “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are found to be false witnesses of God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead . . . And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for His life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1Corinthians 15: 14-19)
The Jesus in whom we believe has to be resurrected. If not, we would be bearing false witness as He would not have come from God. Thank God, His resurrection is an undisputed truth! There are many who would say Jesus’ resurrection is nothing but a fantasy. If, however, you would study the matter seriously, evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is in abundance. There are books in the church library like “Evidence That Demands a Verdict,” “The Case for Christ,” and many more to which you could refer.
Jesus’ resurrection proved that He has overcome men’s worse enemy – death. People who believed in Jesus today get to enjoy that life, one that is victorious over death. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Jesus has given this resurrection life to Christians. It enables us to live after we die. It gives us hope for heaven. It also provides us strength from the resurrection life to fight sin. Many Christians can testify that they are able to change bad habits which were deep seated in their lives after they believed in Jesus. The power of resurrection also gives Christians true peace when we are faced with life’s adversities and sufferings.
Jesus has solved the biggest problem for us – death. Then, what other problems can He not solve? Hence, no matter how great the difficulty is, even when we feel that we cannot shoulder it, we must continue to look to and depend on our resurrected Lord Jesus!