Pastor Tony Jeffrey
Jim Denison, PhD, founder of Denison Ministries, tackles this question in his Biblical Insight to Tough Questions.
“Jesus is Lord” is the central affirmation of Christianity. When Jesus stood on trial for His life, the High Priest challenged Him: “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” He answered, “Yes, it is as you say.” He clearly claimed to be God. And his first followers accepted his claim to be true. Each but John was martyred for his faith in Christ, and John was exiled.
Here is the rope from which Christianity swings: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. Therefore, the resurrection was the basis for the disciples’ commitment to Christ as Lord. It is ours as well.
Historically, we know Jesus existed and was crucified at the hands of Pontius Pilate. We know that the first Christians believed Him to be raised from the dead. But believing does not make it so. Is there objective evidence for faith in a risen Savior?
Yes! Over 500 saw the resurrected Lord (I Corinthians 15:6). They were intelligent, well-educated men and women of unquestioned integrity, clearly willing to undergo severe loss, as proven by their martyrdoms.
So, the witnesses were credible; what of their claims? Skeptics have struggled to explain the empty tomb ever since and center their arguments on five explanations.
1. While the guards slept, the disciples stole the body. How would sleeping guards know the identity of such thieves? How could the disciples convince 500 people that the corpse was alive? And why would these disciples then die for what they knew to be a lie?
2. Women who supported Jesus stole the body. How would they overpower the guards? How would they make a corpse look alive?
3. The authorities stole the body. But why would the authorities steal the body they had positioned guards to watch? And when the Christians began preaching the resurrection, wouldn’t they quickly produce the corpse?
4. The grief-stricken women and apostles went to the wrong tomb and found it empty. However, these same women saw where Jesus was buried, and the authorities would have gone to the correct tomb and produced a corpse.
5. The Swoon theory: Jesus did not actually die. He or his followers bribed the medical examiner to pronounce Him dead, then revived him in the tomb, and he appeared to be resurrected. But how could He survive the burial clothes, which cut off all air? How could He shove aside the stone and overpower the guards?
There is only one reasonable explanation for the empty tomb, the changed lives of the disciples, and the overnight explosion of the Christian movement upon the world stage: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He is therefore who He claimed to be: our Lord and God. Trusting Him is not a leap into the dark, but into the light.