How Could We Ever Be Sure about Anything?

We need not wonder that so much importance is attached to our Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and memorial stone of the great work of redemption, which He came to do. It is the crowning proof that He has paid the debt He undertook to pay on our behalf, won the battle He fought to deliver us from hell, and is accepted as our guarantee and our substitute by our Father in heaven.

Had He never come forth from the prison of the grave, how could we ever have been sure that our ransom had been fully paid (1 Corinthians 15:17)? Had He never risen from His conflict with the last enemy, how could we have felt confident that He has overcome the power of death from the devil (Hebrews 2:14)? But thanks be unto God, we are not left in doubt. The Lord Jesus really rose again for our justification.

J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

To Deny the Resurrection Is to Deny Christianity

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the single greatest event in the history of the world. It is so foundational to Christianity that no one who denies it can be a true Christian…A person who believes in a Christ who was not raised believes in a powerless Christ, a dead Christ. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then no redemption was accomplished at the cross and “your faith is worthless,” Paul goes on to say; “you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

John MacArthur (1939-  )

The Resurrection Vindicates Jesus

If Christ had remained dead like any other ‘savior’ or ‘teacher’ or ‘prophet,’ his death would have meant nothing more than yours and mine. Death’s waves would have closed over him just as they do every other human life, every claim he made would have sunk into nothingness, and humanity would still be without hope of being saved from sin. But when breath entered his resurrected lungs again, when resurrection life electrified his glorified body, everything Jesus claimed was fully, finally, unquestionably, and irrevocably vindicated.

Greg Gilbert, What Is the Gospel? pp. 69-70

Where Is Death?

He died, but He vanquished death; in Himself, He put an end to what we feared; He took it upon Himself, and He vanquished it; as a mighty hunter, He captured and slew the lion. Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer; but it did exist, and now it is dead.

Augustine (354-430)

The Two-Fold Rejection of the Cross

Jesus suffered a two-fold rejection. He was too holy to be received by sinful men. And in that awful moment of His sacrifice He was too sinful to be received by a holy God. So He hung between heaven and earth, rejected by both until He cried, ‘It is finished… Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ (Jn. 19.38; Lk. 23.46). Then He was received by the Father.

A. W. Tozer, The Radical Cross, p. 52

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