Tomorrow Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith and without that resurrection, Christianity crumbles and falls just as St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 (ESV) And 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. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
The resurrection is what makes Christianity different than other religions. Yes, all religions can talk about what is good and evil or what is right and wrong and sometimes even agreeing on many of those things. What makes Christianity different is the reality that the problem that is in front of us all has been dealt with by someone else and that someone else was God. The issue that is dealt with is an issue that no matter who you are religious or not you have to deal with and that is the issue of dying. For most people no matter what their religion is, life is seen as a scale and as long as my good outweighs the bad then everything will be ok in the afterlife. What is interesting is right and wrong, god and bad are not stationary in our world but rather move with the winds of culture because of that most everyone concludes that their good outweighs any bad that they have done in their life. For most people, the conclusion is that if they reach the point of death and there is something after death that the ruling will be that they were good enough to get into whatever comes next.
According to the word of God that doesn’t seem to be the case. Romans 6:23a For the wages of sin is death. Sin brings death and if sin is not dealt with it doesn’t simply bring physical death but also eternal spiritual death. This is why what happened on that first Easter morning was so important. Jesus did not only die like everyone else in the world he actually defeated death on your behalf that through trusting in Him you could have eternal life and the same resurrection as He had on that first Easter just like the last half of that Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The only thing that died on Easter was death!
No matter your position on religion you must deal with the topic of what happened on Easter. If Jesus did not rise St. Paul, myself and all believers in the Jesus of the Bible should be pitied. If Jesus did rise, I invited you to trust in him for your salvation and connect with Him in His Church.
Pitching Preacher 