“…if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.“
If all Easter means to you is wearing fancy clothes, and eating some chocolate eggs, you are in danger of overlooking the most profound occurrence in all human history. Hallmark treats Easter as a secondary holiday, but Easter is the lynchpin to our salvation.
Paul makes it clear that Easter is ground zero. If the resurrection didn’t happen, then all our preaching is useless, this blog is futile, your faith is in vain … The resurrection is absolutely essential to the gospel, and without it there is not the slightest bit of “Good News”.
Paul goes a step further and says we should be looked on with pity if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. We would be idiots to worship a god who is rotting in a grave somewhere… But the inverse is true as well, if Jesus came out of that tomb, you would be foolish, not to worship Him. Paul then doubles down and says if Jesus is still dead, we aren’t only stupid, we’re liars as well. We are false prophets. Logic demands that either Easter is the most critical day in the history of humanity… or meaningless. And that determination is based solely on the resurrection.
So, as you can see, there is not a lot of middle ground here – and still that is where many of us try to stand. Don’t do that this Easter. This time look for truth instead of eggs. Examine the evidence and decide what you believe. There is literally nothing more important than what you do with the historically documented empty grave of Jesus.
If He rose from the dead, then radically commit your life to following Him. If you think they stole His lifeless body, then just dress up and hunt for eggs … Nothing between those two responses makes sense. He is either everything to you – or He is nothing to you. Make your choice carefully – because those who choose incorrectly are truly the ones who should be looked on with pity.
"It's not about the bunny; it's about the lamb." - Anonymous
No comments:
Post a Comment