This past week I checked out a website that lists the ten most important events in history. They are specified as follows (not necessarily in order of significance):
- The American Revolution
- The Reformation
- The Life of Jesus
- Tearing down the Berlin Wall
- World War II
- World War I
- Guttenberg Inventing the Printing Press
- Life of Muhammad
- Pax Romana
- The Renaissance
I respectfully disagree. The single most important event in history is none of the above. Neither is it the invention of electricity, computers or the cell phone. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is by far the most important historical event that ever occurred. Here are six reasons why.
1. The Resurrection validated Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh. As magnificent as the life of Jesus was, it wasn’t His life alone that made Him so special. His resurrection from the grave validated His unique claim to be God. If Jesus hadn’t risen from the grave, history would have dismissed Him as a dangerous egomaniac who was sadly self-deluded.
Jesus made some self-assertions that were outlandish if they had not been true. “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” “I and the Father are one.” “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” “No one comes to the Father except through me.” “Before Abraham was, I am.”
When on trial for His life Jesus was asked by the High Priest, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” That’s a blasphemous claim…unless it is true.
On several occasions, Jesus predicted that He was going to be crucified but then be raised from the dead on the third day. Baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean once said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you do it.” Jesus did exactly what He said He would do. When He came out of the tomb on Easter Sunday, it validated everything Jesus claimed about Himself. Indeed, God had visited earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth.
2. The resurrection conquered man’s most vicious and relentless enemy. Physicians and scientists have worked feverishly for centuries trying to defy death, which the Bible calls, “the last enemy to be defeated.” In spite of all the medical and technological advances, the death rate is still 100%. But Jesus Christ conquered death! In doing so, He crushed the head of Satan and shattered the enemy’s most dreaded weapon. Since Jesus’ tomb is empty, “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54).
3. The resurrection proves there is also life after death for us. Life beyond the grave is not mere speculation; it’s an undeniable demonstration. Jesus promised, “Because I live, you shall live also.” The Bible assures us, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).
Because of Easter, we have the assurance that the best is yet to be. Eternity awaits us. There will be ecstatic reunions, unspeakable joy, and endless praise.
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun; we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun.”
4. The resurrection establishes an absolute standard for truth. Many in the postmodern world suggest there is no definitive right and wrong. One person’s truth claims are just as valid as another. One religion is just as good as another. One culture’s values are just as legitimate as another.
The Apostle Paul informed the intellectual elite in Athens about his encounter with the one true God. He concluded, “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
God will not judge us by majority opinion, personal feelings, or legal decrees. He will judge us by the perfect standard of Jesus Christ who insisted, “I am the truth.”
No wonder God makes belief in Jesus’ resurrection the ultimate requirement for salvation. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
5. The resurrection has positively transformed millions of lives. The disciples became so convinced that Jesus was alive again that they were dramatically transformed from fearful deserters to courageous martyrs. Down through the centuries, born-again believers from Saul of Tarsus to Lee Strobel have been remarkably transformed by the resurrected Jesus. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
6. The resurrection provides a daily purpose for our lives. The Apostle Paul reasoned, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins… If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Cor. 15:17 & 19).
If there is no resurrection, this life is absolutely meaningless, and those who are completely self-absorbed and even those who commit suicide to escape suffering are doing the rational thing.
“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…For as in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:20 & 22).
One of my favorite Easter songs expresses it well,
“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, just because He lives.”
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