© 22 Colin Melbourne
Now Is Christ Risen From The Dead
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
1 Cor. 15:12-20 KJV
We Have Resurrection: Not Religion
Christ’s entire ministry as Redeemer and Saviour rests upon His bodily resurrection from death: Resurrection is central to the Gospel of Christ.
Without Him being alive in believers today, as God’s written word promises us, then we preach just another dead religion, a vain philosophy resting on fallen man’s opinion and sinful man’s words.
But born again believers have inside confirmation of Christ’s resurrection; His witness in our hearts together with the change He’s wrought since we began believing on God’s Word.
We haven’t seen Him with our physical eyes, but we have something far better, permanent cast-iron confidence in His Presence in us that nothing and no-one can gainsay.
This Holy Bible fact in the core of our being confirms;
- His legality
- His preaching
- His words
- His divinity
It is the divine Presence confirming all that He said and accomplished.
The Seal of God
Even the newest believer on Christ has evidence that no religion can ever bestow: The witness of God’s Spirit in their spirit that He is Risen, Halleluia!
It’s placed there by God Himself simply on the basis of the sinner repenting from unbelief in the resurrection, divinity, Sacrifice, and Person of The LORD Jesus Christ.
The Living God
If Christ had sinned once, He would have remained stone cold in His tomb, still there today, just like Mohammed remains in his grave at Medina, as dead as Siddartha Gautama (aka. Buddha), as stiff, stuffed, and chemically preserved in mausoleums as the dead bodies of; Vladimir Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Tse-Tung.
Lenin’s Mausoleum. Staron, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum Rungbachduong, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It is a thoroughly documented fact (Ref. The Holy Bible KJV and Josh McDowell’s “Evidence That Demands a Verdict”.) that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, buried and sealed in His tomb at Jerusalem, but on the Third Day He arose from death in the same body, and showed Himself to His followers, who ever since, have been proclaiming this glorious fact in all the world.
Proof of The Pudding
Every sinner can confirm both the truth and the legality of God’s written word, simply by turning from unbelief and believing on Christ, in spirit and truth. Jesus said so, Jn. 7:17 KJV;
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
He Shall Know
They then become new righteous creatures in Christ Jesus with the legal evidence of His resurrection.
Father God gives it to confirm; Christ is God’s Only Begotten Son, the new believer is saved, and one with Him forever.
That’s why Christ’s resurrection is so important.
It is the validation of all Christ said and did, and proof of every believers’ legal standing with God.
That means believers have divine access to Father God, and the right to His power over all the works of the Devil, by heart faith in the finished work of Christ.
It is so wonderful we can hardly take it in, but let’s start.
First John 3:24 KJV points believers to God’s evidence inside them;
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
Have you got that witness?
If not, God wants you to have complete assurance right now, and here’s how to get it.
© 22 Colin Melbourne