“Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures...” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4)
Paul offers two kinds of confirmation of these historical facts.
First, they are attested by the prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament. For those who knew the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the resurrection of Christ was predictable. Not only had it been predicted in the Old Testament, but Jesus Himself clearly predicted His own resurrection because He was familiar with the Scriptures of the Old Testament prophets. (For example Psalm 22:16–18; Psalm 69:20–21; Isaiah 50 (compare Mark 14:65, 15:20), Psalm 16:8-11 (compare Acts 2:24–33), Psalm 71:20–21 (compare Ephesians 1:20–23, Romans 8:38), Hosea 6:1–2).
Second, they are attested by the testimony of many reliable witnesses who saw Jesus and fellowshipped with Him after He rose from the dead.
Let me point out to you five supporting details related to the resurrection that affirm its validity.
- It was attested by a much greater number of reliable witnesses than would be required to establish a fact in law.
- It produced a dramatic and permanent change in those witnesses, for which there is no satisfactory alternative explanation.
- Adhering to their testimony cost many of these witnesses their lives. They had nothing material to gain from it.
- It has produced a radical and permanent change in the course of history. History will never be the same, and there is no satisfactory alternative explanation for that change.
- The resurrected Christ has continued to reveal Himself personally as alive to countless millions in the ensuing centuries, and I am one of them.
In 1941, while I was serving as a soldier in the British Army, one night in the barrack room, I had a direct, personal revelation of Jesus. Jesus revealed Himself to me so genuinely and so personally that, from that day to this, I have never been able to doubt that He is alive. And, if He is alive, that is the most important fact of history.
