If Christ be not risen

Dan Eakin/Contributing writer

Hopefully, almost everyone who reads this newspaper believes that Christ literally, physically and bodily arose from the dead.

There may be a few who do not. If you are among them, I am writing to you to ask you to consider why it is so important that you come to believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One of the strongest passages in the Bible explaining why Christ had to rise from the dead is found in I Corinthians 15. Many verses in that chapter list many reasons why Christ arose from the dead and why it is important that we believe that he did.

Romans10:9 maybe gives us the most important reason:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead,thou shalt be saved.”

That verse teaches us that, to be saved, we must believe in the resurrection.

So many people today, thanks partly to liberal educators, believe that all things must be done according to the natural way.

But truly spiritual people believe in a supernatural God. We believe in a God who can speak worlds into existence (See Genesis 1), in a God who can create a baby in a mother’s womb without the help of a man, and in a God who can raise someone from the dead several days after that person has died.

To believe these things is eternal life and peace. To not believe is death and judgment.

Here are a few select verses from I Corinthians 15:

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also vain….If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable, but now is Christ risen from the dead.”

Just think, if Christ be not risen, we have no hope of everlasting life, the church has no message and there is no gospel (good news).

When Christ came preaching to the scribes and pharisees, he preached repentance. He urged them to repent of their unbelief,

Just think, what good will your unbelief ever do for you?

But to believe brings life, joy, peace and countless other blessings.

Read the accounts of the resurrection at the end of each gospel. Read I Corinthians 15.

Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”