What Matthew is showing us is any…anything but the resurrection is an absurdity. It offends our reason. It offends our logic. It offends the facts. And thus does Matthew prove the resurrection by the lie. Men had to be paid to say the disciples stole the body. It’s a lie for which bribery was necessary. They had to say an absurdity. We know the disciples came and stole the body while we were asleep which is an absolute contradiction…makes no sense.
The simple testimony of Scripture and the complex testimony of Scripture is that Jesus rose from the dead and Matthew is telling us here that you can take the testimony of His friends or you can take the testimony of His enemies and you’re going to come up with the very same conclusion. And he includes the testimony of His enemies, as I said, for two reasons. Reason number one, it shows us the depth and the totality of the apostasy of Israel. And secondly, it is the most convincing evidence.
Simon Greenleaf, a Harvard professor of law, some years ago wrote, “All that Christianity asks of men is that they would be consistent with themselves, that they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things and that they would try to judge its actors and witnesses as they deal with their fellow men when testifying to human affairs and actions in human tribunals. The result would be an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and truth,” end quote.
And as I said last time, it is the assessment of those who study the resurrection that there is no other historical event that is as truly and thoroughly attested to as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Lord arose. The folly of this hopeless explanation only demonstrates the reality of the resurrection. And because He lives, He gives life to all who believe in Him.
In Romans chapter 10 there are two great verses that bring this right down to our own lives. In Romans 10 verse 9 it says that, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart men believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Salvation is equal to eternal life. Salvation is equal to deliverance from sin. Salvation is equal to hope. Salvation determines our eternal destiny in the presence of God in the glories of heaven forever. And salvation belongs to those who believe in the resurrection and who confess Jesus as Lord by that resurrection and therefore identify themselves with Him.
How do you respond to the resurrection? Well, as I said in the very beginning, there are many who explain it away and in doing that they commit spiritual suicide. They slay all of their hope as well as the meaning of life now. And then there are those who believe. And they do not believe as wishful thinking. They do not believe as if it were against the facts. They believe because the facts are so clear and the evidence so strong. And in believing, they receive eternal life. That’s the message of the Christian gospel that in Christ who died and rose again there is life. The hymn writer said, “Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior, He tore the bars away. Jesus my Lord, up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph o’er His foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose, He arose, Halleluiah, Christ arose.” Let’s bow in prayer.
We who love You, Lord, are resurrection people who have already by faith in Christ received resurrection life. And we bless You for that and for the affirmation that has come to our hearts this day as we have looked at this marvelous passage. We see the folly of men trying to discredit the divine miracle of the resurrection and all they wind up doing is affirming its truthfulness. O God, I pray that every person within the hearing of this message will come to faith in the risen Christ and not commit spiritual suicide, not live a life of no hope but that they will know there is one who has defeated death, Jesus Christ, and He has made a way for them to do it also. We want to know life abundant, life eternal. We want to conquer death in Christ and live forever in the glory of Your presence and we know that that is ours when believing in the resurrection we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. May it be, O God, that that is the prayer of hearts here this day for Christ’s sake. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
