Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

Everything hangs on this. Paul says so bluntly: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Christianity is not a set of timeless principles that would survive the death of its founder; it is the claim that a specific man was executed and then walked out of his tomb alive. So the question is fair, and the answer matters more than any other.

There are good historical reasons to take the resurrection seriously. The tomb was empty—a fact even the earliest opponents conceded, since they had to explain the missing body rather than produce it. The risen Christ was seen not once but repeatedly, by individuals and by crowds, including “more than five hundred at one time” (1 Corinthians 15:6)—and Paul writes this while most of them were still alive and could be questioned. The disciples were transformed from terrified deserters into men who suffered and died rather than deny what they had seen; people will die for what they believe is true, but not for what they know they invented. And the whole movement erupted in the very city where Jesus had been buried, within weeks, centered on the claim that he was alive.

Lutherans also stress that this was a bodily resurrection, not a ghost or a symbol. The risen Jesus ate fish and invited Thomas to touch his wounds: “a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Death was not merely survived; it was defeated.

That is why Easter is not a metaphor for spring or new beginnings. It is the hinge of history—God’s public vindication of his Son, the proof that the cross worked, and the promise that because he lives, those who are his will live also.