The soldiers were huddled together in the pre-dawn chill. Suddenly, the stillness of the garden was shattered as the ground shook in the powerful grip of a seismic event. An angel appeared, shining with the dazzling, blinding brightness of God’s glory. The guards were transfixed as the angel rolled the massive stone away from the mouth of the tomb with a mighty, rumbling sound.
Overcome by terror, they fainted. When they recovered, they could see that the tomb was empty.
This was a potentially fatal problem for the soldiers since they could be executed for dereliction of duty. They hurried back to Jerusalem and reported to the Jewish authorities who, after consulting together, paid the soldiers a large sum of money to spread the lie that Jesus’ disciples had come by night and stolen the body while the guardians of the tomb slept (Matt. 28:11-15).
Notice how immediately Satan began to attack the truth of the resurrection. The lies began that first Easter morning and have continued to this present day. But each assault on the empty tomb creates more problems of credibility for the doubters and critics. The primary problem is this: who had any motive or opportunity to steal the body?
Consider yourself an attorney for the defense. Can you defend the truth against the obvious lies?
1. Over the centuries, some have suggested that grave robbers stole the body. But if they had entered the tomb, why would they take the body, which was of no value to them, and leave behind the linen cloths and spices which could have been sold for a considerable sum of money? And how would they have gotten past the soldiers? Further, if the soldiers had been asleep, how would the robbers have moved the stone without waking them?
2. Some have theorized that the Jewish leaders stole the body. But why would they validate the claims of Christ, that He would rise from the dead? And if they had stolen it, surely they would have produced it as soon as the church began to proclaim a resurrection.
3. Some have suggested that the Roman soldiers stole the body. But they had no motive and a very good reason to prevent its theft. They could have been punished severely, and possibly executed, for failure to perform their duty.
4. The lie quickly spread that the disciples stole the body while the soldiers slept. But the Jewish authorities paid the soldiers to say that. And if the soldiers had been asleep, how would they have known who stole the body?
And remember, the disciples had no concept of a Messiah who would die; much less could they conceive of a Messiah who would rise from the dead. How could they counterfeit something which they had never imagined? Furthermore, they were completely demoralized by the death of Jesus and terrified of further persecution. As the resurrection took place, they were hiding behind locked doors, fearful of their own impending arrest. They were in no way prepared to fabricate a resurrection. They did not believe that such an event was even remotely possible.
As terrified, discouraged and grief-stricken as the apostles were, would they have left their hiding places proclaiming the message of a risen Savior, if, in fact, they knew that message was a lie? How could men who did not have the courage to stand beside Jesus when He was alive suddenly find courage to preach His resurrection now that He was dead, if they knew that He really did not rise from the dead?
Further, the apostles could not have stolen the body of Jesus out from under the Roman guards. Some of the soldiers may have slept in the night but not all. And even if they had been asleep, as with the grave robbers, so with the disciples — how could a heavy stone have been moved without waking the guards? The soldiers would have responded rapidly and violently to any human attempt to gain entrance to the tomb.
5. There is another lie attached to the resurrection which is so absurd as to be laughable. This lie suggests that the women went to the wrong tomb; it was empty because they had the wrong address. That is obviously false, because they had followed Joseph and Nicodemus as they laid Christ’s body in the tomb on Friday (Matt. 27:61). The women had witnessed the burial. They knew exactly where the tomb was located.
Further, if the women had gone to the wrong tomb and had proclaimed a resurrection based on that mistake, wouldn’t the enemies of Jesus have gone to the correct tomb and produced the body? The Jewish authorities would have quickly pointed out the tomb where He lay, for they had sealed it and posted a guard. The fact that they did not produce a body or a tomb with a body proves that they did not doubt the truthfulness of the resurrection. They paid the soldiers to tell the lie that someone had stolen the body, for they knew they could never produce a body.
6. One final lie proposes that Jesus did not die at all but merely fainted on the cross, swooned, lapsed into a deep coma. Later, in the enclosed atmosphere of the tomb, He was revived by the pungent burial spices. The proponents of this lie do not tell us how a man, weakened by whipping, crucifixion and traumatic blood loss, who had been stabbed by the spear of a Roman soldier, could have awakened two days later and how he then was able to move a heavy stone which was sealed against the mouth of the tomb. And of course, how would He have escaped the guards outside the tomb?
The foolishness of this lie is revealed by the testimony of the Roman soldiers who saw and heard Jesus give up His spirit. They were so moved by His death that they and their commanding officer testified, Truly this was the Son of God (Matt. 27:54 Luke 23:47). These were hardened combat veterans who were quite capable of recognizing death. Moreover, they insured that Christ was dead by piercing His side with a spear.
John, who was an eyewitness, says, But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:33,34). Our Lord was truly dead when His body was laid in the tomb. The empty tomb proclaims the truth of the resurrection as surely as the witnesses.
It is important to remember that neither the Roman soldiers nor the Jewish leaders ever denied the reality of the resurrection. In fabricating the lie that the body was stolen, they were only admitting that the tomb was empty.
Matthew tells us that the story of the stolen body is circulated to this day, that is, it was current in the day in which Matthew wrote his Gospel (see 28:15). But at the same time, the church was multiplying across the world. The lie could not restrict the truth.
So it is to this day, our day. Lies, propaganda, blasphemies, heresies and deceptions abound. But when the truth of a crucified and risen Savior is proclaimed with a clear, winsome voice, lives are changed, souls are won and God’s church multiplies.
Nowhere has this been more true than in nations where persecution has been strongest. During the past century in China, pastors and church members were killed and imprisoned, Bibles were burned, churches closed. An entire generation was educated with atheistic lies, truth denied. But the explosive church growth witnessed in China during recent years is unprecedented in church history. Such is the power of our risen Lord.
The Essential Truth of Resurrection
There must have been some false teachers in the church at Corinth who were denying the truth of the physical resurrection of Jesus. This was an attack on the core foundation of the Christian faith and the Apostle Paul confronted their heresy:
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins (I Cor. 15:13-17).
Look carefully at Paul’s argument.
If the dead are not raised then Christ has not been raised. If Christ did not rise, then our preaching is useless and so is our faith. Why? Because Jesus died as a sacrifice for sin. Sin separates us from God, the Source of all life and therefore, the result of sin is death — For the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Death entered the world when sin was first committed in the Garden of Eden.
But if Jesus did not rise then He did not conquer death, rather, death conquered Him which means He did not truly atone for sin, sin won the victory, sin killed Jesus and the power of sin is unbroken. If sin’s power is unbroken, then our faith is useless because we are trusting in a sacrifice for sin which had no effect. We are still in our sins. Faith in a dead Savior saves us from nothing. Our sin debt was not paid and we are still lost in sin, separated from God by sin and under the condemnation of a holy God who must judge sin and sinner.
Further, Paul says that if Christ is not raised, then those who preach a risen Savior are false witnesses, liars (I Cor. 15:15). We might add, so are the Old Testament saints who prophesied a resurrection and Jesus also would be a liar, for He promised that He would rise again (Matt. 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:18-19). How can we believe the credibility of Scripture if there was no resurrection? How can we trust the Holy Spirit, who has been given to lead us into all truth (John 16:13), if in fact the Scriptures are untrue? How can we trust any of the words of Jesus if, in fact, He said He would rise but did not?
Paul emphasizes again that if the dead are not raised, then our faith is worthless because we are still lost in our sins (I Cor. 15:16,17). Equally tragic, Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished (15:18). Those who died trusting in a dead Christ are merely dead, still under condemnation for sin and destined for hell.
Finally, Paul reminds us, If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied (15:19). Paul and his generation of believers suffered heroically for their faith but their suffering was in vain if their faith was vain. A Messiah who did not rise from the dead is a Messiah who did not triumph over sin or death. He is a Savior of no one and our faith is in nothing.
In summary, if we deny the resurrection of Christ, then we are denying the truthfulness of Scripture, which testifies that Jesus rose from the dead. We deny the integrity of Christ Himself, for He prophesied that He would rise. We deny the effectiveness of the atonement, for if Jesus did not rise, then He did not conquer sin and death; rather, sin and death conquered Him.
Yet our faith is not vain. They are wrong who say that Jesus did not rise and Paul answers the deceivers with the glorious proclamation, But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by one man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (I Cor. 15:20-22).
Adam is the one who introduced death into the world. He was the first fruits of death. God had said to him, regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, In the day that you eat from it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17). In sinning against God, Adam separated himself from the Source of life and thereby introduced death into all of creation. The seeds of death were planted first in Adam, bearing fruit throughout humanity for these thousands of years.
However, resurrection life, flows from Jesus Christ: But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep (I Cor. 15:20). The resurrection of Jesus is God the Father’s vindication of the cross. It is the Father saying to His Son, “I accept your atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.”
Be careful with this phrase: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Adam introduces the reality of sin and death into the world and all humanity experiences this reality because all sin. In Christ all will be made alive refers to all who trust in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. By faith in Christ’s atonement, we share in His resurrection.
Thus it was that the bodily resurrection of our Lord was the foundation of New Testament preaching and remains a cornerstone of Christian faith. The blessed truth is this, That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Romans 10:9,10). Confessing Jesus as Lord refers to faith in all that is true about Him — His Deity, His atonement and resurrection — all that is true about Him.
It is impossible to disbelieve the resurrection of Christ and be a follower of Christ. A Christian is someone who believes and confesses that Jesus is the holy Lamb of God who gave His life as a full and perfect sacrifice for our sins and who then physically rose from the dead as a living testimony to the triumph of His atonement.
Yet there were some in the church at Corinth who were denying the validity of the resurrection. Who were these resurrection deniers?
They must have been corrupt, for the Apostle Paul said in that same discussion, Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals (I Cor. 15:33) Their corrupt lifestyle revealed a corrupt belief system. Those false teachers were corrupting the Corinthian church with their unbelief which was reflected in an ungodly life. Because evil company corrupts good morals, Paul exhorted the church, Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame (I Cor. 15:34).
Who were these corrupt unbelievers? People who had no knowledge of God. They may have held positions of authority in the church, may have been considered wise in the wisdom of the world but they denied the resurrection, not because they were brilliant scholars but because they had no knowledge of God. They were spiritually dead.
In every generation false teachers attempt to corrupt the church with their false teaching. They may profess to be Christians but their denial of the resurrection of Christ reveals a profession of faith that is counterfeit.
Christians down through the ages have based their life, their hope and their eternal destiny on the foundational truth that the death of Jesus Christ was not the last word in His life and ministry, but that He arose triumphant over death. Throughout the centuries, the courageous procession of disciples have stood on Christ’s cornerstone promise, Because I live, you will live also (John 14:19). His resurrection guarantees our resurrection.
Encountering the risen Christ, heart-broken followers of a crucified rabbi were transformed into courageous witnesses who turned their upside-down world right-side up. The resurrection of Jesus gave birth to the fellowship of saints that became the church triumphant. The world could ridicule them, imprison them, beat them, could even kill them but could never make them deny the reality of the resurrection.
In the ancient Nicene Creed, we read,
“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God ...
For our sake He was crucified ...
He suffered death and was buried.
On the third day He rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures.”
For centuries this has been the confession of the church,
the cornerstone of our faith.
It remains our confession and cornerstone today.