Resurrection Day falls on April 16 this year. Popularly known as Easter, this is a Sunday set aside to especially rejoice and celebrate the resurrection of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We can rejoice every day, but it is good to have a day to remember and meditate on history’s greatest event.

It is also the time of year when secular media usually produces some type of documentary in an attempt to disprove the resurrection.

What if there is no resurrection? Paul answers that question in 1 Corinthians 15. If there is no resurrection, then:

— Christ has not been raised from the dead (verses 13, 16)

— Preaching means nothing (verse 14)

— Faith in Christ is empty (verse 14)

— The apostles were liars (verse 15)

— Christians are lost (verse 17)

— Dead believers are in hell (verse 18)

— Christians are simple fools who should be pitied (verse 19)

But the Bible is crystal clear: Christ rose from the dead and He lives today! When Jesus rose from the dead, He proved that everything He said, did, promised and lived was true.

After our Lord’s dead and mutilated body was taken down from the cross, He was buried in a tomb. Then His followers waited.

Imagine what those three days were like! He promised He would rise from the dead, but anyone could say that. He said He came to be the sacrifice for sin, but anyone could say that.

The proof would come three days following His death in the most momentous and powerful moment in human history. Jesus rose from the dead! His sacrifice and offering for our sins had been accepted by The Father. The sin debt had been paid in full, and people who trust in Him could enter into a forever relationship with Him.

First Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

I appreciate the lines of the song that says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.” I never fail to be moved when I read the account in the Gospels on His resurrection day: “He is not here, for He has risen.”

Elitists, secularists, and postmodernists may mount attacks against the resurrection, but they cannot remove it from history. The Christian faith is the only faith where our Founder loved us enough to die in our place, experience the wrath of God for us, pay the price for our alienation, and then demonstrate to the world His accomplishment by conquering death for us.

One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Until then, we may be harassed, persecuted, even tortured, but we can never be without Him who is the resurrection and the life.

The empty tomb says more than “What an accomplishment!” It shouts for anyone to hear: “What a Savior!” I hope you and yours will enjoy a blessed Resurrection Day.