And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. (1 Corinthians 15:16-19 NLT)It is a fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. I know people who have made it their life’s work to deny it, sometimes even preachers, but it is no less real.
The resurrection is the central part of the Christian faith. I cannot for the life of me figure out why people deny it, but that is probably due to my Pollyanna nature. I always think the best of people even when they turn out to be jerks on a stick.
But it is no less true that Jesus is risen. And it is no less true that I serve a risen Savior. I mean what is the point of following a guy who didn’t raise from the dead? It would be like being an aficionado of Benjamin Franklin or C.S. Lewis. Both of them wrote some good stuff but neither of them are the Messiah.
If Jesus is not raised from the dead, he is no better than they. He was a good guy, sure, and said good stuff. But if he was not raised from the dead, he is worthless as a conduit to God. He can bring me no closer than John McArthur or Billy Graham, two men who are filled with the power of God. They are good men and great preachers but they are not divine.
If Jesus was not divine, what is the point? He is nothing more than a good man talking about stuff that is Godly.
CS Lewis said that we have a problem with Jesus. Jesus said he was the Messiah. John 13:18-20 said: I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘The one who eats my food has turned against me.’ I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I Am the Messiah. I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.
What CS Lewis said was that we are faced with three possibilities. He called this problem the Trilemma. Either Jesus was the Lord, or he was a liar or he was a lunatic. If he said he was the I Am and he wasn’t, he was either crazy (like a man who said he was a poached egg, Lewis said) or a liar. If he was the Messiah then we have to accept it. If he was a liar or a lunatic, then we would be crazy to follow him.
He said he was risen and others who had seen him said the same thing. If we believe it, he is Lord. If not, why be a Christian in the first place? And in the second – well, really there is no second place. If he is not Lord, what is the point of being a Christian?
Why do you follow him? Is it because you believe? Or is it just because you always have and can’t figure out how to quit?
He is Lord. What else can he be? You either believe it or you don’t. Which one? You have to be the one to decide.
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