People don’t come back from the dead; at least not without medical intervention, and even that is very unusual and rare. The earth-shattering claim of Christianity is that there was one who did, and there was no medical intervention, no scientific explanation. The truthfulness of the Christian faith hangs on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:14 where he says, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Paul is literally saying that if Jesus has not been raised from the dead then there is no point in being a Christian! While the topic of the resurrection has too much data to cover in this blog; we are going to survey some of the core points of evidence. We will cover three primary pieces of evidence: (1) Jesus’s death by crucifixion and burial, (2) the disciples believed that they experienced the risen Jesus, (3) the conversion of James and Paul.
- Jesus’s death by crucifixion and burial
It might seem ironic to begin the evidence for Jesus’s crucifixion with his death, but it is important to establish that Jesus actually did die, otherwise, what is the point in saying that he resurrected? Many people have theorized that he never actually died and that he escaped the tomb, but the majority of scholars today believe that Jesus did not survive the brutal process of crucifixion and even if he did, it is an impossibility that he would have been able to escape the tomb in his condition. In addition, Jesus’s death and burial is attested by all four gospels (Matt, Mk, Lk, and Jn) and Paul’s letter to the Corinthians confirming that the early Christian’s believed that Jesus really did die and was buried for three days.
- There were eyewitnesses who saw the risen Jesus
Within the Gospel accounts, the first eyewitnesses who saw the risen Jesus were women (Lk 23:10). This is an important detail because if someone was trying to fabricate the story of Jesus’s resurrection, they would not have used the testimony of women. At that time they were not considered valid witnesses. The only explanation for that detail is that they were the first ones to see Jesus. Outside of the Gospel accounts of the women who first saw Jesus at the tomb and the twelve disciples, there is an independent source that attests to Jesus making an appearance to 500 people, Cephas, James and the other twelve apostles (1 Cor 15:3-4). Paul was telling his audience that if they wanted, they could go and fact-check him since many of the eyewitnesses were still living at the time that Paul wrote the letter.
- The conversion of James and Paul
Some of the most startling evidence is the conversion of James, the half-brother of Jesus. In the Gospel accounts, Jesus’s brothers did not believe or recognize Jesus the Messiah (Jn 7:5). James was not someone who was a supporter or follower of Jesus until after the resurrection. Without any other explanation James became a leader in the Jerusalem church and was influential to the spread of Christianity until he was martyred in 62 AD. Paul’s story is even more radical. He was a persecutor of the early Christian movement and was on a campaign to exterminate Christians until he had an appearance of the resurrected Jesus (Acts 9). His life completely was transformed, and he became a devout follower of Jesus and spread the gospel all throughout the Roman world until he was martyred around 67 AD.
While this evidence just the tip of the iceberg, and there is much more data that can be displayed to show the plausibility of the Jesus’s resurrection, I want to emphasize that this is the most important and powerful event in human history. Jesus validates all the claims that he makes throughout his ministry and the truthfulness of the scriptures in his resurrection. He has reconciled our relationship to God by being the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He gives us present meaning and hope and the promise that we will one day be resurrected with him to eternal life if we place our faith in him and accept him as our Lord and Savior.
Written by Grant Gobezie, edited by Lydia Parker