I Believe in the Resurrection

Author: Susan Verstraete

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has been called the central teaching of the Christian faith, the heart of the Gospel, the cornerstone of our theology, and the basis of our hope as believers. Perhaps that explains why the truth of the bodily resurrection of Christ has been under attack since the very day the tomb was discovered to be empty (Matthew 28:11-15).

Over the years, many have followed in the path of those first chief priests and elders who tried to explain away the resurrected Christ. The ancient Gnostics taught that Jesus switched places with a bystander before the crucifixion and later came out of hiding to appear to His followers. Docetists proposed the idea that Jesus only seemed to have a physical body. Enlightenment thinkers imagined that Jesus swooned at the cross and later woke up in the tomb, pushed away the stone and appeared to His disciples. Present day Jesus Seminar scholars marginalize the resurrection, teaching that it was only metaphor and not an actual event. But the Apostle Paul said, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (I Corinthians 15:17 ESV). We need to have a clear understanding—just why do we believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?

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