James M. Boice - The Resurrection
The
significance of the resurrection is seen from the first moments of the
Christian era. …These men and women had believed, but the arrest and
crucifixion buried their belief. Yet
within three days, after the resurrection, their faith had again sprung forth,
and they went out to present the gospel of the crucified but risen Savior to
the world.
The
resurrection proved that Jesus Christ is who he claimed to be and that he
accomplished what he claimed to have come to earth to accomplish. Evangelist
Reuben A. Torrey called the resurrection of Jesus Christ “The Gibraltar of
Christian evidences, the Waterloo of infidelity.” The resurrection is the
historical base upon which all other Christian doctrines are built and before
which all honest doubt must falter.
If
it can be shown that Jesus of Nazareth actually rose from the dead, as the
early Christians believed and as the Scriptures claim, then the Christian faith
rests upon an impregnable foundation. If it stands, the other doctrines stand.
On the other hand, if the resurrection falls, the other truths fall also. Thus
the apostle Paul wrote: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is
in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God,
because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it
is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then
Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile
and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ
have perished” (1 Cor. 15:14-18).
James Boice Th.D. (1938-2000) was a Reformed theologian, Bible teacher,
and pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. This is an excerpt from his book, Foundations of the Christian Faith, in which he describes the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
