Reasons For Faith

Without the Resurrection; What's the Point?


15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; 1 Peter 3:15

The Lord said a lot about a mind. He does not encourage us to be brainless. He wants us to think, and to think critically about our faith. This is one of the reasons I believe that there are certain passages that have different perspectives: it encourages us to reason, discuss, and debate these scriptures. Good debate challenges the mind and causes us to either grow deeper in our understanding or cause us to rethink a certain position that we held about the way that we saw something. Of course essential doctrines are not up for debate, but there are passages in the Bible that all scholars have not agreed upon. This encourages us to think and grow in our understanding of the word of God. However, there are people who do not want to think deeply about the doctrines and scriptures in our faith. There are people who do not understand the good reasons for our faith. It is important for us to know why we have faith because that will give us confidence in knowing Him who is the reason for our faith.

The world has a lot to say about who Christ is. Christians have declared that Jesus is the Savior of the world. We witness and testify to that fact. How do we know that Christ is the Son of God? How do we know that He is truly the Messiah? Many people have attempted to claim deity and proceeding from God, so what makes us as Christians so special? How are we so sure that what we have believed is not the biggest hoax in the history of man? This is a valid question. Some people will say, “I know that Christ is real because I can feel Him in my heart.” Others will say, “I know that He is real because I speak with Him everyday.” Others still will say, “I know that He is real because I have a personal relationship with Him and I know Him; that is all I need to know.” I believe these are all very valid reasons, but it could be charged that these reasons are all subjective. There are other religions that claim to know because of a sensation or hunch that they have. We are not the only religion that prays to its God. There are others who have placed their faith in what they believe to be the truth. So again I ask, what makes Christianity different than, say Mormonism? How can we be so sure that our confidence is not just a hunch? How can we be so sure that we are not placing our faith in a lie? We can claim to have a relationship with Jesus, but if Jesus is not the Messiah, then what does it matter? Our minds are very powerful and can convince us of just about anything if we believe it long enough. Therefore, the reasons that I gave alone in this paragraph alone are not good reasons. There has to be some type of reasoning and understanding that goes along with our belief. If we fail to have this, then we really have no authority whereby to claim for our belief.

What is it that separates Christianity from every other religion? One, we are the only religion on this earth that has a claim from its founder that He is God. Because Jesus made this claim, this puts Him in a different category. Joseph Smith never claimed deity. Muhammad never claimed deity. Buddha never claimed deity. Therefore, this automatically separates Jesus from everyone else because of the claims that He made about Himself. Was Jesus out of His mind? There have been others in history that have be able to convince people that they are God, but once they were dead, no one follows these people any longer. This is why it is not very smart to start a religion based on the claim that you are God unless you really are God because once you die, your religion will die out. However, there is something unique about our religion and the founder (Author) of our religion (faith): people continued to followed Him despite His death. What could cause such a thing to take place? How could Jesus claim to be God, yet die? That does not seem like the actions of an all-powerful God. Jesus claimed to be God: was He out of His mind? He was convinced that He was God, so that either means He was telling the truth, lying, or insane. Who follows a person who is insane? Seriously, who dedicates their entire life purpose to someone who does not have all of his or her marbles? No one does anything such as this. Even David Koresh, who was a leader of an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist group called the Davidians never claimed to be God. He claimed special revelation from God, and had a bunch of people follow him because they believed in his “prophecy” gifts, but he still never dared make the same claims that Jesus did.

Again, what separates Jesus? The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is what separates Him from any other religious figure in history. The fact that there are hundreds of witnesses that saw Jesus after His death gives us a very good reason to have faith and confidence in Him. After all, He was not only able to predict the manner of His death, but He was also able to predict His resurrection. Who can do something like this unless he is God? There was none of Jesus’ predictions (prophecies) that failed; not one! In fact, there was a prediction that Jesus made about the temple being destroyed that was fulfilled so precisely, that no one could mistake the accuracy thereof. Critics, as a result, have charged that this prediction of Jesus was added by Christians following 70 A.D. However, that is nothing more than pure speculation, and the date of the gospels can be traced back to a few years following the death and resurrection of Christ. This is also a good reason for our faith. We have good reason for our faith! Paul understood the importance of the resurrection. He says this to the Corinthians:

16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 1 Corinthians 15:16 – 20

Paul made it very clear the reason he and the rest of the Corinthians had for faith: Christ rising from the dead. He said that if this did not happen, then their faith was futile and they were still in their sins. He goes on to say that if only in this life we could hope for Christ, then we are to be pitied. It would be a shame because we would be deluded, deceived, and downright dumb! It would be so pointless for us to place our faith in someone who we thought to be the Son of God, only to for Him to, in reality, be no different than we are. It would be something that would render us as pitiful. However, after Paul making that bold claim, he boldly affirms, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,” Paul understanding that this demonstrated Jesus’ divinity. What gave Paul this confidence? First of all, he had seen Jesus with His own eyes; risen. In addition, he knew of about 500 other people who had seen the same exact thing that he had seen, thus eliminating any possibility that he had been dreaming it or under some sort of mental hallucination.

The disciples, when witnessing to others, never appealed to a feeling they had in their heart. They never appealed to their relationship that they had with the Lord. Instead, they told of what they had seen with their own eyes. They testified of His works. Then they testified as having seen the resurrected Christ. This is what gave them their confidence. Did the Lord speak to them? Of course He did! Did the Lord live in their heart? He most certainly did. Did they know (intimately) the Lord? This is obvious. However, they also had a very good reason to be this way: they had seen the resurrected Jesus, a man that they had walked with three years of life. They ate with Him, talked with Him, and watched Him ascend back into heaven. This gave them all the reason in the world for their faith. Had Jesus never raised, what advantage would they have had in following Jesus? This would have went against everything that they though following Him in the first place would have meant to them. I submit the best reason for the hope that is inside of us is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When Peter said this:

15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 1 Peter 3:15

He was saying that we should know how to answer anyone who asks us why we believe. What is the reason for our faith? We can have confidence in our faith because Jesus did in fact rise again. He lives now! If He were still dead, then we would not have a good reason to believe in what He said. This is why we are Christians. What I have done for you in the message today is force you to think logically about why you have faith. Right thinking is important. We do not have to be brainless as Christians: the Lord wants us to exercise our mind. There are obviously more ways that you can go about to demonstrate why the resurrection did happen through reasoned arguments, but that is something that you should learn to do on your own time. However, never let anyone tell you that you do not have a good reason to have confidence in the promises of God. Your faith is not based solely on your subjective experience. Instead, there was an objective event that gives you a reason to place your faith in Christ: Jesus death on a cross and His victory in resurrection! Understand that it alone is the number one good reason for your faith, because without it, your faith is empty and meaningless.