Easter Special—Why Is the Resurrection of Christ Unique and Important?

Why is the resurrection of Christ unique and important? That is the topic we'll discuss this Resurrection Weekend right here on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, thank you for joining us this weekend on the program, and a special thanks to all of you who support the ministry of the Christian worldview. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the most important three days in history took place when Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross on a Friday, buried in a tomb, and then rose from the dead three days later on Sunday, after which he appeared to hundreds of eyewitnesses. The reason these events are so consequential is that Jesus was prophesied to be, claimed to be, and proved by supernatural miracles to be the Son of God, who entered our world and offered his life to pay the death penalty for our sin so that those who believe in him could be made right or reconciled to God.

Or as Scripture puts it in 2 Corinthians 5-21, God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. The climax of that weekend, nearly 2,000 years ago, was the resurrection, Jesus rising from the dead. He Is Risen is the exultant proclamation of Christians around the world. But why is the resurrection of Christ so important? What does it mean for the believer?

And why do so many not believe in Christ's resurrection, despite 10 post-resurrection appearances and over 500 eyewitnesses seeing the risen Christ at one time? Our guest this weekend on the program is Greg Gilbert. He is the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the author of several books, including What is the Gospel?, Who is Jesus?, and Why Trust the Bible? Before we get to the interview with Greg, I would just like to set the stage and read one of the Gospel accounts of Christ's resurrection from the Gospel of John in chapter 20. It says this, Now on the first day of the week, that would be a Sunday, Mary Magdalene, one of the followers of Christ, came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that would be John, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb.

The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter. John got there before Peter, and came to the tomb first, and stooping in and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb, John, then also entered, and he saw and believed that Christ had risen from the dead. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

So the disciples went away again to their own homes. Skipping down to verse 19 of John chapter 20. So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, peace be with you.

And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you.

Skipping down to verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Verse 26, after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them this time. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger, and see my hands, and reach here your hand, and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing.

Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed. And then the chapter ends this way of John chapter 20, therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. And that is the whole point of the Gospels, to point to Christ and say he is who he claimed to be, the Son of God, the Savior of mankind. He died on a cross, and here's the evidence, here are the accounts of him rising from the dead and appearing to many. Now of course, in our fallen world, the debate over whether Christ rose from the dead started immediately. Non-believers cannot have Jesus rising from the dead. That would mean that he is who he said he is, the Son of God and the only Savior of mankind.

That would make unbelievers accountable to him. It says in Matthew chapter 28, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, You are to say, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

And if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble. And they, the soldiers, the guard, took the money and did as they had been instructed. And this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day that Jesus' body has been stolen by his disciples. So there you have it, right from the very beginning, Christ is appearing to many, but the lie that he didn't rise from the dead had already been started.

And that's the exact same debate we see nearly 2000 years later today. Now with that as a backdrop, let's get to the interview with Greg Gilbert, the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Greg, this is the eighth straight year you have been on this program to talk about a issue related to Easter.

So thank you for your generosity over the years and spending some time with us on what I know is a busy week for you getting ready for your own Easter services at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. And this year, we're actually going to focus on why is the resurrection of Christ unique and important? And the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 15, much about the resurrection of Christ and talking about how important it is.

I just want to start out with a few verses. He writes this, starting in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15, he says, Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 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. Then those who have fallen asleep or died in Christ have perished.

Last verse, verse 19, 1 Corinthians 15, If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. Now, Greg, the Apostle Paul really doubles down on the resurrection of Christ, saying, Look, if this didn't happen, I'll be the first to admit that we are just the most foolish of all men. So why is the resurrection of Christ so unique, but even more so important?

Paul lays it out for you pretty clearly there. It's just that the resurrection is the linchpin of Christianity. It is the thing that has to be there in order for Christianity to be true. And if it's not there, if it didn't happen, if Time magazine and Newsweek, like they do every Easter, actually stumble into one year proving that there's some tomb that actually has Jesus's bones in it, then it's over.

You know, let's just all go home. But if Jesus really did get up from the dead, then everything is changed. Because it means that we need to listen to him because everything he said about himself is true. Going back earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, it talks about the evidence, there's eyewitnesses. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse three, For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, or Peter, then to the twelve disciples. Verse six, After that he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Verse seven, Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. With so many post-resurrection appearances, and even so many eyewitnesses, I mean, literally, over 500 people saw the risen Christ at one time, that would stand up in any court of law. Why is there so much skepticism about Christ being risen from the dead?

Oh, it's a couple of things. I mean, one is just that the idea of resurrection is so unprecedented to us. None of us really have that in our experience. It's not a daily thing that we see. It's not even like a century thing that we see. So, I think if you were to see a resurrection with your own eyes, you would probably be skeptical of it, right? I mean, you can go to YouTube and type in, you know, resuscitations at religious events around the world, and you'll find a few.

And I promise you, you can see them on YouTube, but your first inclination in that video is going to be, that guy wasn't dead, you know, or something. It's not going to be, oh, wow, that guy just got up from the dead. So, skepticism is the natural response to something like that. And you're not also necessarily just going to believe an eyewitness, right? There's got to be more to it than that.

Somebody could come up to you and swear up and down. Two hundred people could come up to you and swear up and down that they saw a guy get up from the dead. And you're going to be skeptical of that. You're going to think that there was some, you know, Hollywood magic that went on that convinced all these people all at the same time that something happened. And you're not going to believe it just based on eyewitness testimony. So, there's got to be more to it than that. I think all of those things together just make us, at the beginning of the question, skeptical about it.

And you just kind of have to ask more questions from there. So, what are those questions for the believer listening today who wants their faith more grounded in the resurrection that had actually happened? What do you look to emboldening your confidence that Christ did rise from the dead? I think if you just take the New Testament documents as historical writings, and you don't even have to start with them as the Word of God.

I obviously think that they are, in fact, the Word of God. But just kind of pause that for a second and just put yourself in the mind of a skeptic and just take them as historical documents. I think you can do the work of history on them. Determine if they're reliable. Determine if they look like a trick or a hoax. Determine if these guys are, you know, intending to write legend instead of truth.

Ask all these questions of it. Determine that those documents are, in fact, reliable in the historical sense. Then start asking questions that historians do about how likely it is that this event they're swearing up and down happened, the resurrection, whether that really happened. And I think you can actually get to really, really solid historical confidence that the resurrection of Jesus really did happen. I think you can start there, you know, and then it's a matter of your heart being regenerated to trust in that rather than just kind of check it off a box.

I was trained as a historian, you know, I know those tools of the trade. And I think you can get to historical confidence that Jesus really did rise from the dead. Doesn't mean you're Christian at that point.

But the sort of jump from there is, I think, a small one to saying, Yeah, and now I'm going to believe in this guy. Greg Gilbert with us today here on the Christian Real View Radio program, this special Easter program, Why is the Resurrection of Christ unique and important? He is the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can go to their website thirdavenue.org to find out more, hear sermons. Greg is also the author of What is the Gospel?

Who is Jesus? Why trust the Bible? Greg, are there any non-biblical sources that write about the resurrection of Christ, like Josephus or someone like him? Yeah, there are a couple, but there's nothing that sort of has the detail and the color that the biblical Gospels did.

And that's not surprising. You know, it's not like the Christian church went to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and sort of commissioned them and said, Hey, we're putting this Bible together and we need you guys to write, you know, Lives of Jesus. They just wrote it and then the church recognized them as, Oh yeah, those are true. And so they gathered up all the writings that were authoritative, you know, from apostles or people who knew the apostles, so eyewitnesses, and said what they all knew to be true from the, you know, their own experience and the oral tradition that had been handed down to them. And they gathered all those things together and they sort of got them all, you know, so if a writing met all the criteria, all four of the main criteria that they were looking for, they put it in the canon.

So they got them all, they gathered them all up. So it's not that surprising that there's not one that's perfectly orthodox and perfectly detailed that's hanging out there outside of the canon. So that's not surprising. But there are a couple of sources that sort of head nod toward the resurrection. So Tacitus, the Roman historian, has this tiny little passage where he's talking about Nero fastening the blame for the Roman fire in the 60s on Christians.

And he's kind of telling the story and he says that Pontius Pilate, he names him Pontius Pilatus is what he calls him, he killed this Jesus guy, this Christus guy he calls him, with the most extreme penalty. And with that, he says, they put down, they managed to wipe out a most mischievous superstition. But then really interestingly, he says, but the mischievous superstition was only checked for a moment, and then it broke out again, and we haven't been able to contain it since then. Interesting. So the question there would be, oh, interesting.

So they killed this guy as a criminal in the most extreme way. They thought they had put down the mischief, but the mischief broke out again, you know. So what caused that to happen? And that's where you really get at the question, you know, what could cause that? You know, could mass hallucination of Christians cause that? Could wishful thinking among the Christians cause that? Could a hoax have caused that or a lie? And eventually you just come down to the conclusion, historically speaking, that no, no, no, no, no, the only thing that could have caused that is if Jesus really rose from the dead. That's what would have caused that, quote unquote, mischievous superstition to break out again in an uncontrollable way like it did.

That's exactly right. And all these apostles were, almost all of them went to their death, were martyred because they believed that they had seen him. People don't die over things they haven't seen and don't believe in. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. The preceding is from In His Image, a 103 minute documentary film that biblically and compassionately addresses the issue of transgenderism. You can order the DVD for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. Call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331 or visit thechristianworldview.org. That's 1-888-646-2233 or thechristianworldview.org.

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Now, back to today's program with host, David Wheaton. Again, Greg Gilbert with us today on the Christian Worldview, the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. All the Gospels have an account of Christ's resurrection. Here's what the Bible says in Luke's Gospel in chapter 24. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing. And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they, the women, remembered his words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Verse 10, Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James. Also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. Verse 11, But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.

This is the disciples and those who knew Christ, who had actually heard him talk about the fact that he was going to die and rise again. Talk about the nature of unbelief and why this characteristic of unbelief is so strong inside each and every person. Well, there's a good side of that, and there's a bad side of it, right? The bad side of it is it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where Satan introduced skepticism into Eve's and then in Adam's hearts when he said, Did God really say that? That's the bad side of unbelief, which is just a now, you know, inborn skepticism in our hearts because of sin to disbelieve the word of God. That's the bad side of skepticism. The good side of unbelief or skepticism is that it just wouldn't serve us well if we believed everything that anybody ever told us, right?

I mean, it's actually a good life lesson. Don't believe everything you hear. Don't believe everything you see on Twitter or read on the Internet. That's a good kind of skepticism. When it comes to the resurrection, you know, it's interesting to me, and it's kind of assuring to me, actually, that Peter and the other disciples didn't believe it at first. You know, that was just that natural sort of good skepticism about wild events coming in and defending them against believing something that's just nuts. But then, you know, that skepticism gives way when they see Jesus face to face or when they see a little bit more evidence. You know, eventually it's not an invincible skepticism.

It's one that can be affected by evidence. So it's interesting because I think people look at the apostles or think about them and they think, oh, these guys are, you know, from 2000 years ago, first century Judeans, they're just gullible. And they'll believe everything that's told to them. You know, so it's not surprising that they got duped by this, you know, crazy claim of a resurrection of Jesus because they were primed to believe anything and everything that was told to them because they're gullible people. And you just read the gospels and you realize, oh, no, no, no, they weren't. This was not something that they believed quickly.

It took them time to get there. And it wasn't just a kind of wishful belief. Like they were solidly convinced by evidence that Jesus got up from the dead, which is why they took that conviction to the grave, every single one of them. Greg Gilbert with us today on the Christian worldview, the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church. Do you find as a pastor that the general, let's say, societal, the non-regenerate society, the response to Easter like this weekend or Christ's resurrection, do you find it different today than, let's say, 20 or 30 years ago in a different stage in this country?

I don't think so. I think the societal response to Jesus's resurrection has been pretty solid for about 2,000 years now. You know, it's skepticism, but in certain ways, the world around us has been willing to almost kidnap and co-opt the idea of Easter for material gain, you know, in the same way they do Christmas, right? But for us as Christians, you know, it's a day in the year. I mean, this ought to be happening every Sunday, in fact, but it's a kind of day in the year when we specially focus in on thinking about the resurrection of Jesus.

But for the world around us, they're going to be skeptical. Their attention might be drawn to it a little bit, but, you know, Satan has worked out his strategy of distracting everybody with bunnies and colored eggs so that that's what they think about with Easter instead. You know, Christmas got turned into a winter festival, Easter got turned into a spring festival, and all that was just hell's strategy of distracting from what really matters. Let's go down a little further in the passage in 1 Corinthians 15. It says, where Paul writes, But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. For since by a 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.

And Paul sets up this comparison between the first man, Adam, and the last Adam, which is Christ, and there's all these comparisons he makes for the rest of the chapter in 1 Corinthians 15. So let's transition from the actual resurrection of Christ into now what it means for the believer's future. What does Christ's resurrection mean for the believer? Not that it actually just happened, you know, we can have faith that we serve a risen Savior, but what does it mean for the believer? You know, I think this is a critical question, and I think the fact that Christians don't have a great answer for it or don't think about it very deeply is probably why, when I do membership interviews, when people want to join our church here, we ask them to tell us the gospel in about 30 seconds or a minute, and I would say probably half the people that do it end up leaving out the fact that the resurrection happened. And I'll ask them something like, and Jesus is still dead?

No, no, no, no. He rose from the dead on the third day. But theologically, we generally kind of have this idea that the gospel of Jesus Christ would work even if Jesus were still dead, right? Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. He's dead. He's in the ground.

What's the problem? Like, the transaction is done. But if you understand what Jesus means when he talks about his people being united to him like the branches are united to a vine, and when you understand what Paul means and Peter means and all the rest of them, when they talk about being united to Christ in that way, you start to see that the resurrection is absolutely critical to our future because what happens to the vine also happens to the branches. You're only saved because Jesus lives and has all the blessings of eternity.

He earned them all for himself, right? So, you know, he's the one who's justified by God. He gets declared righteous because he is righteous, and therefore those who are united to him like the branches to a vine are also declared righteous. Jesus is seated in the heavenlies, ruling and reigning now, and that's why Paul can say, you as a believer are also seated in the heavenlies with Christ.

He's not just like painting a metaphor there. He's saying you're united to Christ. What happens to Christ happens to you, and therefore, because he's in heaven, seated in the heavenlies, so therefore are you. Well, same thing with resurrection. If the vine had remained dead, then all the branches united to the vine would remain dead too. So it's only if the vine lives that the branches, that's you and I, will live in the same way. So it's critical, right? The machinery of the gospel and of eternity just doesn't work if the one to whom we are all united is dead, because we'd all be dead too. That's incredibly important to understand.

Thank you for explaining that, Greg. Greg Gilbert with us today and the Christian Worldview, the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. We also carry several of his books. What is the Gospel?

is an excellent book. Who is Jesus? Why trust the Bible?

You can find these at our store at thechristianworldview.org. Okay, kind of a difficult theological question here, or maybe an interpretive question in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 29. What will those do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Now, I think that last sentence there, eat, drink, and tomorrow we die, kind of represents the worldview of today. If you don't believe in God, you don't believe in Christ, you don't believe in his resurrection, this is all the life there is to live.

So I think that's pretty understandable. But what does that first part mean about what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why then are they baptized for them? That's kind of a challenging passage to understand.

What does that mean, Greg? Yeah, it is, and it throws people, and the folks have given a lot of guesses as to what it means. At first reading, and especially if you only read that verse 29, what you think is that there's some ritual or rite where living Christians are letting themselves be baptized on behalf of other people who have died. So maybe they're thinking that it helps those people out in some way.

I don't know, some of the grosser Roman Catholic rituals and doctrines kind of grew out of that idea, so that it was part of what Martin Luther rebelled against. No, you can't buy somebody out of hell. It's not going to work. You can't just put a coin in the coffer, and the soul from hell springs.

It doesn't work like that. But that's how people have read it a lot of times. I just don't think that's how it's to be read, and I think there are some tip-offs in here once you get to verse 30 and then 31 that show us that Paul is talking in metaphorical language there in verse 29. So what I mean is that in 30, he shifts to talking about being in danger, and then in 31, he shifts to himself dying daily. So that starts to tip you off that, oh, wait, he's actually talking about a metaphorical dying, and he's talking about suffering.

You look at 32, right? He says, if from human motives I fought with wild beasts. So that's the kind of thing he's talking about. And then you sort of pull all this together and start asking questions like, why is he in danger? Why is he dying daily? Why is he fighting with wild beasts? And the answer, of course, is so that he can proclaim the gospel and bring people to know Jesus, right?

Okay, so that's the sort of milieu that you're working in there. It's not some ritual. So back up to 29, and then you look at those words, baptized and dead, and you start thinking about metaphorical ways that those two words are used. So, for example, baptized. In Mark 10, I forget the verse, but there's a place where Jesus asks, are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized, right? And what he means there is, I'm about to suffer.

I'm about to go to the cross. So baptized can have this meaning, metaphorical meaning of suffering, right? So read it like that. Otherwise, what will those do who are suffering for the, and then there's the dead thing. So dead in the Bible can also be used metaphorically for people who don't know Jesus, who are spiritually dead. So Jesus says to the guy, follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. In other words, let the spiritually dead bury the spiritually dead.

You follow me. So you take those metaphorical kind of meanings of those words that are well attested in the Bible and backed up by verse 30, 31, 32. And what you get is otherwise, what will those do who are suffering for the lost? In other words, if Jesus isn't raised from the dead, what the heck am I doing out here preaching this gospel because it doesn't matter.

So that's what he means by that, I think. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. I struggled with my identity all the way through my life.

Lived eight years as Laura Jensen until I found the Lord Jesus Christ. The issues are unavoidable. They're on the news. The White House in rainbow colors. They're in our legislation. The Texas bathroom bill. In our schools.

Drag queen story out. They're even reaching into our churches. Let us be the church together. We're not just talking about issues.

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Short takes are also available and be sure to share with others. Now, back to today's program with host David Wheaton. Greg Gilbert with us today on The Christian Worldview. The last couple questions here, let's talk about what the believer's resurrected body will be like. This is a key part of Christ's resurrection that he rose from the dead, so will believers someday after they physically die too. It says in verse 42 of 1 Corinthians 15, So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Verse 45, So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Finishing verse 49, Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Greg, the question is, what will the believer's resurrected body be like? What was Christ's post-resurrection body like?

The only sort of clue we've got is Jesus. And I think what you can get from that is your body is going to be glorified, right? So that's part of it.

Not exactly sure what that means. But for Jesus it meant that he could appear and disappear at will. So maybe he can travel really fast. He can walk through walls apparently or at least just ignore those walls. So there's a lot going on with, I mean, his body ascends into heaven.

So there's a lot going on with being glorified. And yet, it's not that your body is going to be changed so much that you're unrecognizable. You know, I mean, Jesus, it seems like he could hide his identity, like on the road to Emmaus. It was up to him when he wanted those guys to recognize him.

But at other times, you know, he appears and they all know it's him, right? So the nail scars are obviously still there. The wound in the side is still there. So I don't know exactly how to read that. But the other thing is that he's physical and he goes out of his way to prove that he's physical.

You know, touch me, touch these wounds. Or, you know, he literally eats a piece of fish one day when he's with them to sort of say, you know, this is not some ghostly body, but it's a real one. I don't think he needs to eat fish, but he does to show that he can. So you just don't get a whole lot. I mean, it's super fun to speculate, but I'm not sure I want to do it on a radio program. So I do think we'll be creating. I do think there will be things to do and work to be done and challenges to be overcome. You know, I don't think life will go static and gray all of a sudden in heaven. It's going to be all the good things that we see in this life, like challenge and competition and this and that. Somehow all that's going to be there in an even greater fashion. And yet there will be no evil, which I don't understand, but it'll be wonderful and fascinating.

Yeah, certainly something incredible to look forward to. Again, Greg Gilbert with us today on the Christian Real View. Final question for you on the program today. Let's go right back to the beginning of that chapter in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. And then skipping right toward the end of the chapter, he says, When this perishable body will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is your victory, O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. And then verse 57, he writes this, But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, Greg, as we conclude today, what would you like to say to someone listening today to our conversation who has never believed who Christ is and what He did in that cross and how He rose again, maybe thought it was some sort of religious myth or something, just tradition or some legend of man?

What is your message to that person today? I think it would just be that I want somebody in those shoes to understand that we Christians don't think of the resurrection of Jesus as just a nice religious story. It's not a myth.

It's not a metaphor for spring springing or something like that. We really think it happened. As much as George Washington was the first president of the United States, as much as Caesar crossed the Rubicon as a historical event, we think Jesus got up from the dead, and we think that that changes everything. So my message would be, if you're thinking about Christianity, and I have to assume you are if you're listening to a program like this, don't get distracted by the stuff that is not at the heart of Christianity. You're never going to disprove Christianity by raging about Christianity's sexual ethics or the problems that you have with a particular person's doctrine of creation or this or that. You're never going to do it. You, though, look at the heart of Christianity, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Did it happen or not? You'll either come to a conclusion that, yeah, there's really good historical evidence for this, and that'll send you on a journey that you won't believe.

It's so amazing. Or you'll look at all that evidence, and you'll say, no, I reject Christianity because I reject that Jesus actually got up from the dead. But at least you'll have clarity, and you won't be raging around the margins at Christianity. You can go right at the heart of it by asking the question, did Jesus rise from the dead? And once they come to that conclusion, what is the means of being saved, of being forgiven and right with God? Well, at that point, if you come to a conclusion that, yeah, I think it's actually really likely that Jesus really did get up from the dead, the journey that sends you on is then to realize, okay, if that's true, that's never happened to anybody else before. And in fact, Jesus tied that resurrection to his identity as the Son of God. And over and over again, he said, I am the Son of God, and the way that's going to be proved is that on the third day, I'm going to get up from the dead. So since that happened, then you back up and say, okay, God is the Son of God. That's proven now by the resurrection. And then if he's the Son of God, you realize, well, I better listen to this guy.

I better listen to what he says. And what he says is, the world is sinful and fallen, including you. You need to be saved from the wrath of God that's coming on the world and on human beings because of sin. And he says, I'm the one who can save you by living a life you should have lived from the beginning, by dying the death that you deserve for your sin.

I'll do that for you. And then when you are united to me by faith, as I rise from the dead, you're going to rise to new life too. So it just becomes this understanding that if Jesus really is who he says he is, I need to listen to him. And what he says is, you come to me in faith, I'll save you from your sins.

I'll save you from the wrath that's coming against the world by this righteous God. Thank you, Greg, for explaining the key message, the most important message of Scripture, not just that Christ died and rose again, but that there's application, there's lots of meaning there for anyone listening today, that God is offering us to become reconciled to him through who Jesus is and what he did in the cross and rising again. So thank you for explaining the gospel, Greg. And thank you again for coming on the Christian Real View for the eighth straight year to discuss an Easter topic. We appreciate you, Greg. And we just wish all of God's best and grace to you and your family and Third Avenue Baptist Church. Thanks, David.

Always a pleasure to be with you. We are thankful to Greg Gilbert for coming on the program year after year on this Easter week to talk about an aspect of Christ's death and resurrection on this most important weekend. To hear Greg's sermons, you can go to his website, thirdavenue.org. And as I mentioned earlier, we do carry a couple of his books, What is the Gospel and Who is Jesus, on our website, thechristianrealview.org.

Just some follow-up comments. I read a footnote in my study Bible that Jesus actually made ten appearances after rising from the dead. Number one, he appeared to Mary Magdalene at the tomb. Number two, he appeared to the women on the road. Number three, he appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

You remember that account? Number four, he appeared to Peter and ten of the eleven disciples with Thomas being absent. I read about that earlier in the program. And then number five, to the eleven disciples with Thomas present. Number six, he appeared to seven disciples by the shore of Galilee. Number seven, he appeared to more than five hundred disciples at one time on a mountain in Galilee. Number eight, he appeared to James. And number nine, he appeared to the apostles when he ascended into heaven.

You remember that? As he ascended, they were all standing there watching the risen Lord ascend into heaven. And number ten, he appeared, remember, to Paul in Acts 9. As Paul was going to Damascus to persecute Christians, Christ appeared to him on that road. And then it said the next time Christ appears, it will be in glory, and that's what we as believers look forward to. So the resurrection is about more than appearances, though.

It's more than about just pure information. The resurrection of Christ, why it's so important and unique, is that it's really about who Jesus Christ is, and whether he is who he claimed to be. And what you do with him is the determining factor of whether you will go to heaven or hell. Here's what the Bible says, John 3.36, He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

It's really a binary choice, what you do with Jesus Christ, whether you believe in him or not, whether you believe that he died for your sin and rose from the grave victorious, is the basis on whether God will save you or judge you. And that's what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, so important he starts off this chapter by saying, Now I make known to you, brethren, talking to fellow believers, the gospel, the good news, which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. I read an email newsletter recently from Todd Friel. He is the host of Wretched Radio and the Television Ministry. Here's part of what he wrote, Might I suggest we use the word gospel less and start using the name of Jesus more? The word gospel is used 25 times in the New Testament.

The name of Jesus is used 691 times. Perhaps that 27 to 1 ratio is an encouragement for us to talk more about our Savior and less about the term that describes his message. And with that, I'd like to play a soundbite from a sermon that Steve Lawson gave. Steve is the head of One Passion Ministries, and he recently preached a sermon where he concluded with an invitation for those listening to put their faith in Jesus Christ. So if you are listening today and have not put your faith, your belief, your trust in Jesus Christ, listen to this portion of the message from Pastor Steve Lawson and respond in faith this Easter weekend.

Let me ask you just some personal questions. As you would audit your soul, as you would take inventory, have you been born again? Have you come to faith in Jesus Christ? Or would you honestly say, I'm still in the world. I'm still in another race going in another direction.

And if you've never stepped into this race, I want you to know it's open tonight. That whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You don't have to go downward into the flames of hell.

You can be caught upward into the glories of heaven. But you've got to be in Christ. You've got to know Christ. You've got to commit your life to Christ.

Do you hear this? You must commit your life to Christ. You must entrust your soul to Christ. You must confess your sin to Christ. You must repent of your sin.

You must deny yourself. You must take up a cross. You must step out of the crowd and out of the world and now become a follower of Jesus Christ. If you've never committed your life to Christ, do so now. Do so this very moment. Don't go home and pray about it.

Do it now. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today is the day of salvation.

The Bible says, he who hardens his heart, being often reproved, shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy. The Bible says, boast not yourself of tomorrow, for you know not what a day may bring forth. God has brought you here tonight to hear these words.

Respond to them tonight, this very moment. Commit your life to Christ. That was Steve Lawson, and there's really nothing for me to say after all he said in that portion of his recent message. And there's a message here for those of you who have never believed. This is the starting point of eternal life, to believe in who Christ is. He's the Son of God and what he did for you on the cross.

He lived the life that you should have lived but didn't. And then he died the death that you should have died for your sin. He took your sin on his shoulders and paid God's required just penalty for it.

And then God accounts his perfect righteousness to you, because all of your past, present, and future sin has been forgiven and paid for by Christ. Believe in him. There's the message for you this Easter weekend. But for the believer, there's a message as well, to reflect and consider all that Christ has done for us and what that should impel us to do and to live for in this life. That we shouldn't be distracted by all the various things of this world that so easily draw our eyes away from Christ. Look to him, follow him, be obedient to him, live for him. Have him as the center of your life, the center of your worship.

Draw near to him in his word in prayer. Tell others about the glorious way that Christ saved you and how they can be saved through repenting of their sin and putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us this Resurrection weekend on the Christian Real View. We hope that all of you have a meaningful time remembering the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

He is the same yesterday and today and forever. So until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm on Christ and his word. Go to our website, thechristianworldview.org, or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian World View is a listener supported ministry and furnished by the Overcomer Foundation, a nonprofit organization. You can find out more, order resources, make a donation, become a monthly partner, and contact us by visiting thechristianworldview.org, calling toll free 1-888-646-2233, or writing to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian World View. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.