Day 5 — Did He Really Rise?

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:3–8 (BSB)

Everything hangs on this. Paul says so himself, a few verses later: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” Christianity doesn’t say “Jesus was a good teacher, so try to be nice.” It says He died and came back to life. If that didn’t happen, the whole thing falls. If it did, everything changes.

So did it happen? Here are four things worth weighing.

The report is early. Paul wrote this letter about twenty-five years after Jesus died, and the words in today’s passage are something he “received” and “passed on”, a summary that was already being handed around. That puts it very close to the events themselves, too close for a legend to grow. And notice the detail: “most of whom are still living.” Paul is practically saying, “Don’t believe me? Go and ask them.”

The tomb was empty. The disciples preached the resurrection in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus had been buried. If His body had still been in the tomb, His enemies could have ended the whole movement by producing it. Instead, they spread the story that the disciples had stolen the body, which admits the tomb was empty.

The first witnesses were women. In that culture, a woman’s testimony was often not taken seriously, and Luke tells us that even the disciples first thought the women’s report “seemed like nonsense.” If you were inventing a story to convince people, you would never have written it that way. You’d write it that way only if that’s how it happened.

The witnesses were changed. On the night Jesus was arrested, His followers ran. Weeks later, the same people were preaching openly in the city that had crucified Him, and many of them were later beaten, imprisoned and killed rather than take it back. People will die for something they believe is true, but not for something they know they made up. Jesus’ own brother James, who hadn’t believed in Him, became a leader of the church. Paul, who had hunted Christians down, became the greatest missionary the early church ever had.

A stolen body, a hallucination, a case of mistaken identity: each of these explanations runs into one wall or another. The explanation that fits all the facts is the one the witnesses gave. “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.”

And if He has, then death is not the end, forgiveness is real, and Jesus is not a hero of the past. He is alive now. You can know Him. That’s what the next few days are building towards.

Think about it: Which piece of evidence do you find most convincing? What question do you still have about the resurrection?

Try this: Read one of the resurrection accounts slowly today: Luke 24 or John 20. Imagine you’re one of the people in the story. What would you have felt?

Go deeper: On the Incarnation by Athanasius of Alexandria — writing in the fourth century, Athanasius argues that a dead man doesn’t go on changing people’s lives across the world, so what the risen Christ is still doing is itself evidence that He is alive. Start with chapter 30, “The reality of the resurrection proved by facts”.

Lord Jesus, You died for my sins and You rose again on the third day. Thank You that the tomb is empty and that You are alive. Where I still have questions, keep leading me towards the truth. And because You live, help me not to be afraid of death or of anything else. In Jesus’ name, Amen.