What is the significance of the Lord’s resurrection?
A principle component is the evidence it provides that he exists and the certification it provides of what the scriptures record about him. His resurrection proved that his claims of knowing the way to life were true, and that those who live what he taught will receive the same.
While these statements are hopefully unsurprising and uncontroversial with professed Christians, they are an example of an all-too-common problem with modern Christianity: the tendency to hold beliefs that contradict each other without seeming to notice or care. I’ll explain what I mean in this case.
The common definition of faith is something like “when you believe without evidence.” If evidence is not necessary, why would Christ go through all the trouble he did to die and rise again? Yes, there were other things he came to do. But why didn’t you take issue with my claim that a principle component of the resurrection was the evidence for the gospel he preached? Why do you proclaim, “he is Risen”?
Faith is a term freely used but infrequently understood. Paul called it the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) Paul did not call it an alternative to evidence. Rather, he said it describes the evidence we have of what we hope for that we expect to occur in the future. Faith isn't an alternative to evidence; It's a description of how to seek and react to evidence honestly. It's not an alternative to rational thought; It's how to use rational thought honestly.
But it is no surprise that this distortion of the definition has occurred. There are billions of professed Christians, but how many have actually seen in their own lives the kinds of miracles recorded in scripture? How many are living through faith, and how many are merely hoping without evidence?
And why is there so little evidence? The answer is simple, but sad. How many of the billions of people who claim to believe in Jesus actually believe what is written?
To believe Jesus, you have to obey Jesus. This obviously requires reading what he said, but it also requires doing what he said.
Do you live up to the example he provided? Do you know anyone who does? If your answer to both questions is no, you need look no further for your lack of evidence. Failure to produce the results of a recipe does not indicate a lack in the recipe if the recipe is not followed. We talk of following recipes and all understand that when the recipe says bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes, and you decide you have a better idea, so you try 400 degrees for two minutes, you just don’t feel like waiting so you pull it out early, you will not get what the recipe is intended to make. And yet, when we speak of following Jesus, we invent a new definition that allows us to freely deviate from what he would do in our place, or at least to do so when we find it difficult or unpleasant.
Apparently, even billions of professed Christians do not find the written evidence very compelling. But in that written evidence we find a very important scripture that provides the recipe for turning written evidence into living examples. Jesus said:
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17)
Live it, and you’ll find out if it’s true. If you live it, you become the evidence.
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mark 16)
It is these living witnesses that are required for the vast majority of people who are not convinced by the written evidence.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent?… (Romans 10)
We have billions of professed Christians. Where are those who have fulfilled these charges? Where are those who have become living testimonies of the glory and power of God? Where are doing today what the disciples did 2,000 years ago, and in every age past whenever the living God was known and followed by men? There are countless preachers, pastors, ministers, priests, apostles, prophets. Where are those who do what God described? Do you know anyone who demonstrates that they live the religion of Paul through emulating the works of Paul?
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1)
Why won’t you find evidence for the gospel Paul preached in today’s churches? Because there are three kinds of gospel evidence, and today’s churches will tell you that none of them can happen today.
Three classes of evidence of the gospel of Jesus Christ:
1. Firsthand visitation.
Those alive during the Lord’s ministry saw him and the events of his life firsthand.
Churches today preach that he doesn’t do this anymore. They are wrong. He is the God of the living, not the dead, and he has not ceased to interact with mankind. Just as he visited people before his mortal advent, he continues to visit them after. I have seen him, and I am not alone.
2. Try it and you will see.
John 7:17 - If you live what the Lord taught, you will experience the promised fruits.
Churches today preach that it is impossible to actually keep God’s commandments. They are wrong. Jesus was without sin, and Peter tells us “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations…” (2 Peter 2:9) Paul wrote: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) I do everything I believe Jesus would in my place, and nothing he wouldn’t. That’s not because I am good, but because he is good. And because he is good, you can, too.
3. Personal revelation that builds on what is written.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5)
If you ask him questions, he will give you answers. This information rolls back into the prior type of evidence: try it and you will see.
Churches today teach that God’s voice ceased in the last verse of the book of Revelation, or that God only speaks on certain topics and to certain people. This is refuted by the countless contrary evidences in the Bible. God has not ceased speaking. He speaks to me every day, and has for years.
Once you have freed yourself from these traditions and begin to follow the Lord’s example, you will find yourself accruing gospel evidence in your life. You will experience all the same things as the people in the scriptures. I know this from my own experience.
There are some 20 miracles described in the book of Acts, if you include the post-resurrection ministry of Christ to the disciples and their experience at the Pentecost. I have either seen or performed nearly every class of miracle mentioned there: the dead being brought back to life, the healing of the terminally ill, the permanently crippled, and the sick, the sudden death of those who oppose God, the casting out of devils. The three examples I have not seen literally, I have seen in a symbolic fulfillment that, to me, is greater than the literal type would be:
1. Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake and lived. I have never been bitten by a literal snake, but many people have attempted to harm me in ways much worse than a snake bite, and God has foiled them.
2. Peter was freed from a literal prison by an angel. I have not yet been imprisoned, but I was freed from the prison of my false traditions through the visitation of Jesus Christ, who came to me and taught me in a vision the first time I saw him. I have subsequently acted in the role of an angel to provide the sufficient actions, example, and persuasion required to free countless others from their own prisons of doubt, tradition, addiction, and so on, into greater light and truth. To me, these are much greater evidences of God’s power than an angel opening the gates of a physical prison.
3. Paul and Elymas were each smitten with blindness. I have been sent on countless occasions to provide an argument strong enough that the hearer’s turning from it absolutely resulted in a dampening of their ability to exercise the same amount of reason in the future. In many cases, those arguments required the things God has uniquely shown me or led me to experience in ways that, to me, seem much more difficult that simply smiting someone with physical blindness.
Whether you see this today—Easter 2024—or whenever else, take this as a clarion call: stop pretending you have more than you do. Stop pretending you are more than you are.
Turn away from your satiation with so much less than what God intended. Turn to him, and hunger and thirst to learn more about him. Turn to him, and live up to everything he has already taught you about himself.
Stop siloing the instructions of the creator of heaven and earth into rote rituals you practice part-time while neglecting his example in everything else in your life.
Live what you have sufficient reason to believe is best—in all things—and keep doing so as you learn better. As you do, the value of what you find will keep increasing, as will your personal experience of everything recorded in scripture.
I am a living witness of the living God. I certify to you, from my own experience, that you can know him today and have the same relationship with him as any of the ancients—including those who lived with him daily. He wants you to be one with him as he is one with the Father (see John 17). That desire is the reason that he left glory that cannot be described to come here and suffer a life of torment. He did it because he loves you. Look towards his example and fulfill his desire for you to have greater joy. He said:
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved…
10 …I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10)
Note: I used this as notes for the video recording, which contains some additions.