Did Christ Rise from the Dead?

"And 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 have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1 Corinthians 15:17-19 ESV)

This blog is devoted in large part to introducing people to the nature of economic analysis found in my book Foundations of Economics: A Christian View. In that book I derive economics laws from the premise of human action and I explicitly root the fact of human action in what the Bible reveals to us about the nature of man. The book, therefore presupposes the veracity of the Scriptures as contained in the Old and New Testaments.

The entire focus of the Bible is the redemption of God's people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today is the day on which Christians around the world traditionally celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord. Belief in the biblical account of the resurrection is a chief characteristic that distinguishes believers in Christ as the living redeemer and Son of God from unbelievers.

Additionally, if Christ did not rise from the dead, as Paul indicates in his first letter to the Corinthians quoted above, we are most miserable. The significance of everything, including what we understand to be economic laws, completely changes.

On this day, therefore, it is appropriate that I direct my readers to a relatively short text by J. Gresham Machen taken from a radio script he delivered in a series of lectures on theology for the intelligent lay person. The series was broadcast on station WIP in early 1935 and was compiled in a book entitled, The Christian Faith in the Modern World. The radio lecture I invite you to read for today is Chapter XVI from that book, "Did Christ Rise from the Dead?" No one should be surprised that Machen strongly answers, "Yes!" Readers interested in a longer treatment of the same topic by the same author are encouraged to consult, "The Resurrection of Christ."

He Is Risen Indeed!

He is Risen!

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened." --Luke 24:1-12

Without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, no intellectual pursuit, including economics, would matter much. Economics is not about everything that matters. It is not even about the most important thing that matters.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Jesus Christ came in to the world to save lost sinners.