In the cultural world view of people in the West during the start of the new millennium, there is a strong push toward being “spiritual but not religious.” Bumper stickers line cars ranging from idealistic, but naive statements such as “Coexist” to lighthearted humor such as “My Karma Ran Over My Dogma.” The view that is put forth is one that says “all ways lead to truth and spiritual fulfillment. However, the one way that is often shunned or denigrated is Christianity. There are basically two reasons for this case: 1. Christianity is viewed as the dominant religion in the West, and therefore must be disestablished. 2. Christianity is too exclusive. It’s absolute truth claims are a stark contrast to the fluid motion of truth that struggles to embrace all points of view into an amalgamation of falsely perceived “unity.”
Yet such absolute truths are what build the structure of humanity and culture. Absolute truth includes fact. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. If that ever didn’t happen, something would be terribly wrong. The moon controls the tides in the ocean. Plant and animal life must be edible, or else creatures would die. Distinctive facts define many different areas in our existence. For Christianity, one of the most distinctive facts is the Resurrection.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. That act, in and of itself, is a profound pillar of the Christian faith. It finalized once and for all the need for animal sacrifices (which eventually took root in the rest of the civilized world). The Crucifixion of Jesus meant the eternal shed blood of God is available to cleans the sins of anyone who was covered in it, permanently. The work didn’t stop there. The next act of God was the Resurrection of Jesus three days later. Much of the foundation and ethos of Christianity is rooted in the Resurrection. If there were no resurrection, there would be no Christianity–that is how crucial it is.
The Apostle Paul even spelled this out in his letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians Ch. 15, He addresses people who denied the resurrection. He says the Resurrection is the hope of our salvation. It is in the resurrection that Jesus conquered death. By extension, it is through Jesus that we too can conquer death. The resurrection makes the forgiveness of our sins final and eternal. In fact, it is the resurrection that sets the precedence of the Christian faith. This is because the resurrection of Jesus and defeat of death puts us in the playing field of eternity. We are no longer restricted to the handful of decades on this earth.
Paul even addresses the practical implications if the resurrection did not happen. He even spells out that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then we are still in our sins. Since we are holding onto a hope that is not rooted in a true resurrection, we are the greatest fools on earth and should be pitied. But since the resurrection did happen (he even mentions that 500 eye witnesses to the resurrected Jesus were still alive), it is the single most powerful truth to ever happen.
In God’s original design, he built people for eternity. The reason myths and legends all point to a concept of immortality, no matter how skewed or twisted, is because human beings have eternity written in their hearts. Everything from the Chinese emperor’s searches for an elixir of life to Pons De Leon’s quest for the fountain of youth. In every way that is redeemable, humanity bears God’s image. From the masculine/feminine makeup to the concept of eternal life, God’s image permeates us. All the elements that societies have obscured in their darkened understanding have been made clear in the life death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In today’s world, it is one thing to idealized the notion that competing worldviews can get along. It is another when they all have competing absolute truth claims, and exclusive parameters. Those two elements will always cause Christianity to be at odds with the modern Western culture. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is not eternal life without Jesus and His Resurrection.
When we hold to the absolute truth claim of Jesus’ Resurrection, we hold to the exclusivity of eternity that can only be found through His work. The only thing that is hard about that is it goes against the pluralism of our society. But if we are bold enough to hold to the fact and arrange our lives around it, we will be able to fulfill a deep seated emptiness inside us: the emptiness of eternity. In Christ, we can experience the life of eternity just like we were created.
The Resurrection is an immovable pillar in the Christian faith. Without it there would be no Christianity. Because without it, there would be no way to access the eternity our hearts were created to have.