Justification AND assurance found in the resurrection of Christ!

Nope, still haven't finished the two-part post on God's glorification of Himself being His end goal of creation. I think that it will take a bit of time to put my thoughts together on that one... and I don't seem to have much of that lately. I mean time, by the way... not thoughts... although those seem to be quickly fading, as well.

But here's a quick one that should give blessings. It's about something that my pastor said last Sunday.

The sermon was on Romans 8:35-39, and was about the assurance we can have of our salvation. The theme of assurance is very evident in these passages, but may not be quite as evident in the text that I would like to look at now, 1 Corinthians 15:12-19:

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

Recently, the Discovery Channel came out with a special in which they claimed to have found evidence of the lost tomb of Jesus... with His body inside. Aside from the GLARING holes in their "scientific" finding, this show raised a few eyebrows due to the reactions of some Christians to the very idea of the resurrection being a hoax. In response to the question, "What effect would this, if found to be true, have on your faith?", some Christians responded, "None. My faith is personal, and would not be changed if Jesus' body were to be found."

Hmmmm. Something's wrong with that. That's not at all what Paul believed!

Who can raise the dead? Only God. Who could have raised Christ from the dead, then? God the Father. The reason why Paul says that if Christ is not risen our faith is futile and we are still in our sins, is that if Christ did not, in reality, rise from the grave after His crucifixion... God the Father had not accepted His sacrifice for our sins!

As Christians, we need to be able to be at the point that we can accept that the basis for our beliefs can, theoretically, be proved wrong, and our whole religion shown to be a sham. It seems that there are many who are not comfortable with this, but it is this very characteristic - one which sets apart Christianity from other world religions - which gives even more strength to the Gospel! A thing can only be true if there is a possibility that it can be proven false! Our faith is rooted in an event, one which either happened or didn't happen, a fact which is either right or wrong. How can somebody disprove a mere belief? This is impossible: a mere belief cannot be disproved. I believe what I believe, and nobody can prove or disprove what is in my head. But the facts on which those beliefs are based, on the other hand, can most certainly be disproved!

But this should not be discouraging to us, but rather a great source of encouragement. Our faith is not something that we conjure up from within. No, our faith exists outside of us; it is a gift from God, and is rooted in an actual historical event. If my faith were based on my own emotions and thoughts, then it would change daily! But, thank the Lord, it is not. It is based on a truth which exists outside of my reaction to it. It is a truth which - if it is, in fact, true - is true whether or not I believe it to be true.

So if the resurrection is a true event, something which actually happened in the course of history, then we have great cause to rejoice in the assurance of our salvation, for not only is the holy life of Jesus Christ the basis for our justification, but the resurrection of that same Man is where we also can find evidence of our assurance of that justification, since the resurrection itself is proof that God was most surely, and completely, satisfied by the atoning sacrifice of His Son on the Cross.