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One of the benefits of studying the post-resurrection appearances<br />
of Jesus, is that it helps to give us a glimpse of our future state. As I<br />
said in my book 40 Days with Jesus: ‘if we look at the risen Jesus,<br />
we see the foretaste of a life that is not a disembodied, purely<br />
spiritual existence, but rather a transformed physical life, with a<br />
glorified, resurrected body, in the new heavens and on the new<br />
earth!’ 1 That really will be living a life that is fully alive!<br />
This is not make-believe. Rather, our present awareness of the<br />
risen Jesus and our future confidence that we will be one day raised<br />
(physically) with him is based on a historical event in the past.<br />
MORE ASSURANCE OF THE<br />
REALITY OF THE<br />
RESURRECTION<br />
I’ve been studying the resurrection for a long time. The more I study<br />
and the more I consider the evidence, the more convinced I am that<br />
nearly 2,000 years ago, on that first Easter Sunday, Jesus Christ<br />
really did rise from the dead and therefore is alive today! As we’ve<br />
seen, the evidence for the resurrection is very extensive – particularly<br />
his absence from the tomb and his presence with the disciples. A<br />
former chief justice of England, Lord Darling, concludes, ‘In its favour<br />
as living truth there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and<br />
negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world<br />
could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.’ 2<br />
You may yet to be convinced. In which case I’d encourage you to<br />
continue to read and reflect on this. I’ve enclosed some extra<br />
materials in Appendices A and B, as well as some further resources<br />
in the bibliography, which will hopefully help you.
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