The parade of “many infallible proofs” began in
those early hours of Sunday morning with Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene,
and then to the other women. Jesus greeted
them with a call to “rejoice” (Greek chairo). For those who rejected Christ the thought of
the risen Lord caused concern. The
soldiers were given a large sum of money so that they would never tell the
truth.
The proofs of Christ’s resurrection are infallible. The alternative explanations border on
ridiculous. If the disciples stole the
body how would the sleeping soldiers
know? Why were the grave clothes not yet
around the stolen body as one would expect?
Why was there no investigation or arrest of His followers?
The proofs
were not necessary to explain away the lie of the soldiers. Instead they establish the implications of
the resurrection. The “signs” which
culminate in His resurrection prove that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name
(Jn. 20:31). Peter clearly proclaims
this at Pentecost: God has made this
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Ac. 2:36). Paul would echo this in Rom. 1:4: Jesus was declared the Son of God with power according
to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Since that weekend
there have arisen lies about the person
of Christ. The theory generally, in some
way, says that Jesus “became” the Son of God by His life, death and
resurrection. One of the hardest aspects
for me in my time at the Garden Tomb is leading groups of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). They have repeatedly insisted they believe
the same as we do at the Garden. They
speak of Jesus as Savior and Lord and actually believe more strongly than we at
the Garden that it is the place of Jesus’ death and resurrection. But in fact they do not believe
Jesus is the Word who took on flesh, the Word who was God and was with God
(John 1:1,14). They do not believe Jesus
to be the eternal Son of God.
Jesus was said to be the unique Son of God by
His Father (Mt 3:17; 17:5), Satan (Mt 4:3,6), demons (Mt 8:29), His enemies (Mt
26:63; 27:40,43), the disciples (Mt 16:16; Jn. 6:68-69) and by Himself (Jn 9:35ff;
10:36). The change in the Godhead was
that God became a man, not that a man became God as Mormons claim. The resurrection of Christ is the crowning proof
of His deity.
It is interesting that a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Don’t you suppose that as the news first came
to the High Priest that he sent someone to check out the story? What did they see when they came to the
tomb? They saw exactly what Scripture
says: a scene that could only be explained by a resurrection. How sad we never heard that one of those
soldiers who guarded the tomb was among the early believers. Those whose hearts are opened by the Spirit
of God, when confronted with infallible proofs, will be cut to the heart. They will
be ready to repent and believe in the One who can give them new life!
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