JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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"Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was His body; if the cells dissolution
did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church
will fall . . ."1
--John Updike, Seven Stanzas at Easter
One day when some skeptics were discussing Christianity with Voltaire, the prince of
skeptics, he claimed:
"Gentlemen, it would be easy to start a new religion to compete with Christianity.
All the founder would have to do is die and then be raised from the dead."2
Voltaire was right. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the cornerstone of
Christianity! Paul put it:
"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have
testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise
Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ
has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile;
you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are
lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than
all men” (1 Co 15:14-19).
Martin Luther said,
"He who would preach the gospel must go directly to preaching the resurrection
of Christ. He who does not preach the resurrection is no apostle, for this is
the chief part of our faith . . . Everything depends on our retaining a firm
hold on this article (of faith) in particular; for if this one totters and no longer
counts, all the others will lose their value and validity."3
The affirmation: "He is risen! He is risen indeed!" stands at the very center of the
apostolic witness:
"And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all" (Ac 4:33).
There are two issues Luke, Paul, and the other apostles speaks to:
● Is the Resurrection an Historical Fact?
● What is the Significance of the Resurrection?