As I write this article it is just two days after Easter. Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is a very important day for every Christian. While here on earth Jesus made many claims, greatest of which being that He was the Son of God. He told people that their sins were forgiven; He told another man that He would be in paradise with Jesus, that very day.
But then Jesus is nailed to, and dies upon, the cross. Many of the people of that day see that and are totally blown away. How could this happen? We believed that He was the One, but now He’s dead!
But then came Sunday ... Resurrection Sunday. Word starts getting around town that Jesus is alive and that some of the disciples have seen Him. More and more of Jesus’ disciples and followers see Jesus until every disciple, and many followers of Jesus, see Jesus, who is alive.
Jesus is alive; He has risen from the dead. In fact, the Bible records that on one occasion more than 500 people at once were witnesses to the fact that Jesus Christ is alive.
By rising from the dead Jesus has validated every claim that He had made. That He can forgive sins, that He is the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. That He is the Son of God. That He is indeed the King of kings and Lord of lords.
As I mentioned, in the days after His resurrection, Jesus appears to His disciples. One on occasion Jesus appears to all of the disciples who were hiding in a house. But Thomas was not there. When Thomas hears the report that Jesus had appeared to them, that Jesus was alive, Thomas cannot believe it. He says: I need to touch Him - I need to touch the wounds in his hands to really know that it is Jesus, that He really is alive.
A few days later Jesus again appears to the disciples. This time Thomas was there. Jesus immediately turns to Thomas and says come, touch my wounds, look it really is me, I am alive. Thomas is convinced.
There are still so many “Thomas’” out there today. That is individuals who just can’t, or maybe won’t, believe. They cannot, or will not believe that the Bible is truly the Word of God, that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, who is the only way to God, and that they are sinners and are need of the Savior, Jesus who died for their sins.
Like Thomas, this kind of people needs “proof.” But what other proof can be offered? If we refuse to believe the Bible, if we refuse to accept the words of Jesus, which were validated by the fact that He has risen from the dead, and is alive and seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, what further proof can be offered?
The resurrection is our irrefutable and incontrovertible evidence that the Bible is truth, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the World, and that He is also the One coming who will be judge over this earth.
To deny this evidence and demand further proof is like the individual who refuse to believe that gravity is real, climbs to the top of Raft Mountain, and jumps off to “discover” for himself whether gravity is real or not. Gravity is another of these irrefutable and incontrovertible evidences. No one will argue this evidence, for we know gravity is real.
The resurrection makes the claims of Christ, the claims of the Bible and the claims of Christianity just as irrefutable and just as incontrovertible.
I trust that you will not be like Thomas, and look for further “proofs,” which you will not find. Discover for yourself the truth and the certainty found in Jesus and in the Bible. Here is where your search for what you are truly looking for, will end.
– by Dan Daase, Clearwater New Life Assembly Church