"He Showed Himself Alive …” 1 Of 2

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. Everything else that was said or done by Christ and the Apostles is secondary in importance to the resurrection. That is:

• If the resurrection DID NOT take place, then Christianity is a false religion.

• If the resurrection DID take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.

What you believe about the resurrection is not optional. We can differ on many things this Bible teaches, but when it comes to the resurrection, WE MUST HAVE IT RIGHT!

Some of the clearest scriptures concerning salvation reveal that belief in the resurrection of Christ is essential to being saved.

• Romans 10:9 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, THOU SHALT BE SAVED."

• Romans 4:25 states (of Jesus), "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures."

The teaching of the resurrection is not optional. Our Salvation depends on it. You see, death is our common and greatest enemy, and it has conquered all men but Christ.

• No man is wise enough to outwit death

• No man is wealthy enough to be exempted from it

• No man is strong enough to overcome it

The grave always wins the victory, and every person sooner or later returns to the dust.

Everything the Bible teaches about Christ hinges on THE MESSAGE OF THE RESURRECTION. Let’s take a good look at the resurrection.

HOW DID THE RESURRECTION TAKE PLACE? In order for us to fully understand the significance of the resurrection, we need to remember the Lord Jesus tried to warn His disciples that He had not come to set up His Kingdom on earth, but to die for the sins of mankind. This was a message He taught, but it seems like it went in one ear and out the other.

Even when John the Baptist stood on the shore line one day preaching to a crowd of people and he saw the Lord coming, he stopped and said, in John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

Even though the Lord taught them He had come to die for the sins of mankind, His disciples never could comprehend the message. The death of Christ caught the disciples completely by surprise.

Death often catches us by surprise. When the Lord Jesus died, these disciples were devastated! This is something they never thought would happened.

• They had given up their careers to follow Him

• They had watched Him raised the dead

• Now He is dead

After His death, they went into hiding. All their hopes and dreams had been destroyed before their very eyes.

One thing is certain, the disciples could not have fabricated the story of the resurrection from their own imaginations. On the contrary, they somehow failed to anticipate it even after such an abundance of prophetic preparation for it, both from the Scriptures and from Christ. It took the strongest of evidence to convince them it had actually taken place.

While it is essential to believe that we can not have salvation without the death of Christ, it is also essential that we believe we can not have salvation without the resurrection of Christ.

Look at Romans 5:10, we read, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, WE SHALL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE.”

You see, if Christ had only died, SO WHAT? A lot of good men and women have died for a good cause. But Christ did more than just die. He arose from the grave to give us the indisputable evidence that He was the Savior of the world who came to die for the sins of mankind.

• If He did not rise from the dead, we do not have a Savior and still remain in our sins

• If He did not rise from the dead, He is the biggest deceiver that has ever existed in the history of mankind

• If He did not rise from the dead, every nickel and dime we ever gave to missions in the spreading of the gospel was a waste

• If Jesus did not rise from the dead, every missionary that left his home to carry this gospel to the four corners of the earth wasted his life