Saturday Spiritual Uplift - If There Were No Resurrection?

And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.  In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. (1 Cor. 15:16-20)

When we were children, we had to take some things on faith. When Mom and Dad left you with a babysitter, but promised to return, we knew they were coming back (unless you had some tragic circumstances in your childhood).  When Mom told me to eat my vegetables, because they were good for me—besides, I wouldn’t get dessert unless I ate them—I choked down my mushy peas. When Dad said he’d hold onto me in the pool and that I would be okay, I had to learn to trust him until I could stand up in the water or swim on my own. We had to take a lot of things by faith when we were children and it was easier then to have childlike faith.

So many people question the greatest miracle of all time—the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Yet there were plenty of eyewitnesses. And Jesus showed others he could raise people back to life before his death by bringing back Lazarus and others. Those that question are more willing to believe that planets formed spontaneously rather than believe they were created with loving order

and that Jesus, the Living Word, who through all things were created, actually made them. Which takes more faith?

The apostle Paul says we are “more to be pitied” than anyone in the world if Jesus hasn’t been raised from the dead.  For if Jesus has no power over death, how can he wash away our sins and forgive us, giving us new spiritual life? Jesus said that those who didn’t see, but still believed would be blessed. We don’t get to physically see the risen Christ in this world. We have to take it on faith and that faith is a gift from God. If you so willingly question God about whether the resurrection is real, why don’t You ask God to give you the faith instead—faith to see and believe the precious accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection, to trust Him for the forgiveness of sins?

Followers of Christ need not be pitied, for the tomb is empty: He is risen! He is risen indeed! 

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  (Romans 10:9-10)