Willing to die for Jesus? .......... Parables 655

October 5, 1999

How would I respond to the question “Do you believe in God,” if the person asking pointed a gun in my face?

High school students from Columbine High, Taber, a town in Texas, and all over the United States and Canada have asked themselves what they would do. Thousands have decided they will not wait until it happens again to find out. They want the same assurance as their peers who said “Yes” and then died. They are turning to faith in Jesus Christ.

What is it about these current deaths that have made many think about faith? Is it because people want to see something before they believe? Faith ceases being abstract when someone dies for it. Now there is proof. Those who claim to believe are not just making noise.

Consider the disciples. They could only have talked about eternal life and faith but they went further; all but John were martyred because they believed. (John was exiled to a deserted island.) All of them were convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead and that His resurrection guaranteed them life after death too.

The Apostle Paul was equally convinced. He gave up everything anyone in his day considered valuable and followed Jesus Christ. He risked his health and even his life because he believed that what God had revealed to him was absolutely true.

He says it like this: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also...” (1 Corinthians 15:3-9).

Paul saw Jesus, alive and in person. That was enough for him. We do not see Him but we can consider the testimony of these who did. Are they reliable witnesses, or deluded fools who died for nothing? Even a brief investigation shows that their lives matched what they claimed. They considered that the resurrection of Jesus is the most important element of the Christian faith and were willing to stake their lives on it.

For them and for us, if the resurrection is not true, then all Christian teaching and preaching is useless. So is faith. What good is it to believe if they lied about the power of God or faked the whole thing? Examine the witnesses. Did they live as liars and fakes?

If Jesus did not rise, then who can? He is the only person who ever lived a life worthy of spending eternity with a Holy God. Further, He said if we put our faith in Him, He would forgive and cleanse our sins so we can spend eternity with God too. If He is still dead, what hope do we have? Our lives are not spotless. Faith without forgiveness means nothing and sin wins.

What about “seeing is believing?” If we cannot see Jesus as the disciples claimed, can we still believe in a risen Jesus? Jesus said we can. He told Thomas the doubter, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

How is believing without seeing possible? Consider the jury who acquits an innocent man — but did not witness the crime first hand themselves. They heard witnesses, decided they were credible and believed their testimony. We did not witness the resurrection but we read the accounts and look at the lives of those who did. We can easily see that their lives were changed. They lived in a godly way. They were filled with confidence as they told everyone that we can live again. Most significant, they died because they believed what they saw.

Because they were equally convinced, some young Christians also died. Through their witness, others are convinced that the Bible is true and that Jesus is alive.