To increase your faith consider supernatural events such as the resurrection of Jesus, as well as the signs, wonders, and miracles God still performs today.
How strong is your desire to have more faith? In the previous post we saw that the strength of faith largely depends on one’s choices and actions. God has given us means to faith that we must employ. In addition to the three noted in the previous post, here are two more means to faith, which rest on God’s supernatural works.
The Resurrection of Jesus
The resurrection of Jesus is a cornerstone of faith. When you become persuaded that God really did raise him from the grave, it transforms your worldview, for it implies several things.
One, the resurrection implies that God exists.
Two, the resurrection implies that God is engaged in our world and willing to do miracles. He is not a disengaged deity, the God of the deists, who created the world and then left us and the creation on its own.
Three, the resurrection affirms the reality and possibility of the supernatural, of miracles.
Four, the resurrection affirms that Jesus is who he claimed to be: the Son of God.
The apostle Paul tells how the resurrection of Jesus should increase one’s faith when he prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know…what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:17–20 ESV).
Therefore, to strengthen your faith, meditate on the resurrection of Jesus and God’s promise that the same resurrection power is available to every believer.
Signs, wonders, and miracles
On the role that miracles can have in growing faith, Jesus said, “ 25 The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me…. 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:25, 37–38)
In Acts, miracles played a role in leading people to faith. See for example Acts 8:4–13; 13:1–12.
Supernatural signs, wonders, and miracles from the hand of God still happen in the world, and hearing such testimonies strengthens your faith.
Of course, even Christians, steeped in a culture that holds to naturalism, are skeptical of anything supernatural. A skeptic can always find a reason to discount miracles today, just as people did who doubted Jesus, but many contemporary miracles have been documented extensively and beyond reasonable doubt.
Are there fake miracles and charlatans? Of course. But that does not disprove the genuine.
Several credible scholars and journalists who have written books about miracles and included vetted stories are:
Craig S. Keener (Miracles Today and other volumes)
J. P. Moreland (A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles, and Kingdom Triangle).
Lee Strobel (The Case for Miracles)
Eric Metaxas (Miracles)
Tim Stafford (Miracles: A Journalist Looks at Modern Day Experiences of God’s Power)
Next week: More means to faith
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
There is a good reason why the Bible says Jesus is the only way to God.
The resurrection of Jesus is one of Christianity’s bedrock truths, but also one of its most offensive beliefs, to those who reject it.
The apostle Peter, not long after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, emphatically proclaimed this bedrock truth to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious leaders. They had arrested Peter and the apostle John after they healed a crippled man and then preached to a gathered crowd about Jesus’ resurrection. Peter boldly told the Sanhedrin:
“Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10–12, ESV).
The only way to God
“There is salvation in no one else,” said Peter. This is what the resurrection implies. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he made him the cornerstone, said Peter. Because he is the cornerstone, there is salvation in no one else.
The Jewish leaders wanted to build with a different stone. They rejected Jesus. The majority of people in the world today want to build with a different stone. They reject Jesus. But when God raised him from the dead, he in effect said, I have chosen the cornerstone for my building, and it is the stone you have rejected. My cornerstone is my Son Jesus. The heavens and the earth are mine, and all its people are mine, and I am giving just one name under heaven by which you can be saved from your sins and have a relationship with me. That name is Jesus. If you want to know me and have eternal life, you must believe in him.
The only vaccine
I am writing this in late May, 2020, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. We do not yet have a vaccine, but I assume that within a year there will be.
At that time, suppose ten pharmaceutical companies, from ten different countries, claim to have an effective vaccine, but in fact only one company’s vaccine works. The other companies are making false claims. Would it be arrogant and bigoted for that one company to say so? If they proved their vaccine’s effectiveness by testing and could show why the other vaccines would not work, they would be doing everyone in the world a favor if they revealed what they knew to be true.
In fact, it would be criminal to say, “Use any vaccine you want; any vaccine will keep you healthy,” when they knew that was false. It would be nice. It would sound humble. They would avoid controversy. But it would be false, and hundreds of thousands of people would die unnecessarily. The honest and loving thing to do would be to say what they knew to be true.
Empirical proof
This is the position of Christianity. But the analogy falls short in one respect. In the world of vaccines, empirical studies can prove beyond reasonable dispute which vaccines actually work. On the other hand, in the world of religion and philosophy, we cannot prove beliefs empirically. In the realm of the ultimate questions in life, we make our way only by faith. Is there a God? If so, which religion is true, or are all valid? Where did everything come from? Is there such a thing as objective morality? Does life have purpose and meaning? What happens after we die? Is history going anywhere?
When I claim to know the answer to any of these ultimate questions, I can marshal excellent, reasonable, persuasive arguments, but I cannot prove anything.
As a result, many people claim it is arrogant and bigoted to say one religion is true and all others are false.
The persuasive difference
Christians disagree, and the fundamental reason is the resurrection of Jesus. The Bible says that days after Jesus’ crucifixion, God raised him from the grave in an immortal human body unlike any human has known. Over a period of 40 days, Jesus appeared on multiple occasions to more than 500 of his gathered disciples and gave them convincing proofs of his resurrection (for the credibility of this testimony, read the book by journalist and former atheist Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ).
How Jesus stands alone
The resurrection puts Jesus in another category all his own. So did the thousands of miracles he performed, according to the Bible, including raising the dead, walking on water, feeding thousands from a few loaves of bread, calming storms with a command, healing innumerable sick people and exorcising demons from the tormented—all witnessed by his twelve disciples.
Jesus’ teaching also set him apart. So did the claims he made about himself:
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38).
“Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
“I am the Son of God” (John 10:36).
Jesus’ predictions
Especially important was Jesus’ claim to his own exclusive position as the Savior of the world and the only mediator between sinners and God:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Moreover, he predicted his own crucifixion and resurrection:
“As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day’” (Matthew 20:17–19).
Only way to resurrection and only way to God
Jesus understood the implications of his coming resurrection:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26).
For all these reasons and many more, Christians are left with no other option than to proclaim what they believe is true about the most important matters in life. The fact that no one can empirically prove their answers to the great questions of life does not mean we should ignore them or not talk about them with others. To do that would be immoral because it would be negligent and unloving. Adherents to other religions and philosophies are similarly free to say what they believe and, of course, to believe others are wrong. That is freedom of religion and free speech. And all people should do so with respect and goodwill.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: People say, there are many paths to God. As long as you believe in God and don’t hurt anyone, he accepts you.
God’s way: “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
The vindication of the Son of God is of ultimate importance to God the Father. For God to require that you believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to require that you affirm his vindication. When you believe in his resurrection, you affirm his vindication.
What does the bodily resurrection of Jesus teach us about God? Last week I wrote that his resurrection is a Linchpin of the Gospel. Given that God has designed gospel reality this way, and that he has required belief in this full, gospel reality, what does this imply about God?
God has vindicated his Son
From the hours between his capture in the Garden of Gethsemane to his final breath, Jesus suffered utter shame, humiliation, and rejection. He was arrested and bound before his friends, roughed up, falsely accused and condemned in a kangaroo court by the Jewish Sanhedrin, chained to a post and whipped with a brutal scourge, repudiated by a mob of his own people yelling in public for his crucifixion, condemned by Pilate the official governor of the land, spit on, mocked, and beaten by Roman soldiers, stripped and nailed to a cross in public, laughed at by passers-by and religious leaders who made mouths and wagged their heads at him, reviled by the crucified criminals on his left and right, and worst of all even forsaken by God for a time (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Mark 15:34]).
What people thought
All this meant one thing for those who believed that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people: Jesus was a bad person. God had rejected him. He was not who he and his followers claimed, not the Son of God, not the King of Israel, not the Savior of sinners.
“We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4, ESV). In other words, people thought God himself had given Jesus what he had coming. It was his own fault.
What God was actually doing
Ultimately it was indeed God who sent his innocent Son to the Cross and ordained that he suffer such shame—but as a substitute for us, not for any fault of his own. As Isaiah 53 also says, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
The vindication of the Son of God
Nevertheless, be sure of this: God had no intention of leaving him in that disgrace. God’s eternal plan was for his righteous, innocent Son to be completely vindicated. And the first glorious step in that vindication was the resurrection.
As Isaiah 53 also says, after his suffering for our sakes, “He shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
When God raised Jesus from the dead in an eternally strong, undying, immortal body, he vindicated him before Satan and his demons, before the evil spiritual principalities of this world, before Pilate and the Roman army, before the Jewish religious leaders, before all mankind of every generation, before heaven and the angels and earth.
The resurrection proclaimed, “This is God’s Son! Everything he said and taught is true! You cannot defeat him! Neither death nor the grave can hold him! Nothing you can do can dethrone him! All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him! For he is God’s beloved, unique Son!”
The vindication of the Son of God is of ultimate importance to God the Father. For God to require that you believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to require that you affirm his vindication—by none other than God himself, for no one else could raise him from the grave in an immortal body.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Fallen sinners do not comprehend the zeal of God the Father for the glory of his Son Jesus (see Ephesians 1:9–10; 19–23; Colossians 1:15–20). For sinners, Jesus is a stumbling block (Matthew 11:6; 1 Peter 2:7–8); his cross and death were unnecessary; his resurrection is a laughable myth.
God’s way: The Father has fully vindicated his Son by raising him from the dead in an immortal body. The resurrection has proven the sinless innocence of Jesus. This vindication is so important to God that he requires sinners to believe in it if they want to be saved.
Scripture says, “‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.’” (Romans 10:8–10)
For this reason, the earliest confession known in the church—the Apostles Creed—included confessing the resurrection of Jesus.
Life principle: When you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, you affirm his vindication.
Next week we will look at the second of four implications of the resurrection of Jesus.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
Without the resurrection of Jesus, the gospel falls apart, and so does your salvation.
We know God better when we know what is important to him. One way we know what is important to him is to see what he requires of a person to be saved. The gospel reveals these requirements. One thing the gospel says is that for a person to be saved he or she must believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
First, let me show the Bible teaches this, and then next week let’s explore what this implies about God.
“Believers” who deny the resurrection of Jesus
The apostle Paul dealt with a church that included people who claimed to believe in Jesus but denied his bodily resurrection. “Bodily” resurrection means his actual physical body rose from the dead in a supernatural work of God, in a new kind of human body that is physical and immortal.
Those who denied the bodily resurrection were in the church in Corinth, and Paul addressed those who had been misled in 1 Corinthians 15.
Verse 1–2 says, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:1–2, ESV).
Notice several important things
Verse 1 says he is reminding them of what “the gospel” says. Thus the resurrection of Jesus, which he will now reaffirm in the rest of the chapter, is an essential part of the gospel message.
Paul says that at the beginning, when he led them to the Lord, they had “received” this message, including his teaching about the resurrection of Jesus. They had started out on the right footing. Paul had taught this to them in the beginning.
Paul says they “stand” on this message, including his teaching about the resurrection of Jesus as seen in the following verses, and they are “saved” by believing this message. Here Paul explicitly states that the teaching that follows, about believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, is necessary for salvation.
Then Paul puts a condition on their salvation: “if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.” He states what is at stake. They must hold fast to the original message. Those who forsake their original belief and deny this teaching can lose what they had, lose their salvation. This is so even if they continue to claim to believe in Jesus, to be a Christian, and attend the church, as the remainder of the chapter shows.
To make sure there is no misunderstanding, Paul restates what is at stake: “unless you believed in vain.” In other words, they are in danger of having their original belief count for nothing. Their original belief was all in vain if they let go of the teaching that Jesus supernaturally rose from the grave in an immortal, resurrection body.
The resurrection is of first importance
Paul goes on to say,
“3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
Paul says three teachings are of “first importance.” 1. Jesus really, actually died for our sins. 2. He really was buried. 3. He really was raised from the dead. Thus the teaching of the bodily resurrection of Jesus is not a subsidiary, unimportant doctrine, but one of first importance, of the core content of the gospel, because, as stated in verse 2, it is necessary for salvation.
The resurrection of Jesus is the testimony of all the apostles
Paul goes on to give the evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus:
“5 he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).
Paul is saying that all the apostles and the early church believed in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Anyone who teaches the Corinthians otherwise is bringing them a new and different message.
I do not have space to elaborate on the rest of 1 Corinthians 15, but read it on your own to see that Paul regards the bodily resurrection of Jesus as a linchpin of the gospel. Pull that linchpin out, and your salvation falls apart. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ [died] have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:17–18).
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Fallen humans can have difficulty believing that God is able to raise a dead human body to immortality.
God’s way: He raises the dead as easily as he created humanity at the beginning.
Life principle: Salvation depends on believing the gospel, and the gospel says that God raised Jesus from the grave in an immortal human body.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
