“He is risen!”
“He is risen, indeed!”
This has become a very common confession in Christendom. You’ll hear it as a greeting. You’ll probably hear your worship leader saying, “He is risen,” and then pause to allow the congregation to respond, “He is risen, indeed!”
It is perhaps the closest thing we Christians have as a mantra, second only to “Praise the Lord.”
But what does it mean? What do you mean when you affirm, “He is risen, indeed.” Do you believe in the actual, historical, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that He actually walked on the earth as a living human being for the forty days between His resurrection and his ascension?
I have heard some people say, “His disciples loved Him so much they thought they saw Him,” as though it was some sort of mass hallucination. But that’s not what the Bible affirms—that’s not biblical faith.
Others say, “He was raised in their hearts,” meaning that His resurrection was some sort of psycho-spiritual experience. But that’s not what the Bible affirms—that’s not biblical faith.
Still others say, “He was raised into the meaning of God.” No one really knows what that means, because it really means nothing at all. If you boil it down it is nothing more than flowery religious talk, unbelief cloaked in religious terms (which is increasingly common nowadays in liberal denominations). It certainly isn’t what the Bible affirms—it’s not biblical faith.
The Bible is painstakingly clear on this, and cannot be misunderstood unless you intentionally misunderstand it. All four gospels give witness to the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul devotes an entire chapter of the Bible to the defense of the actual, literal, physical resurrection of Christ, including the assertion that He was seen after his resurrection by over five hundred people, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
The apostle John stacked term upon term to point at the actual, physical nature of the resurrected Christ, for this is what he was indicating when he said, “the life was manifested:” “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:1–3)
Are you a Christian? If you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a literal, actual, physical, historical time-and-space event, then, my friend, you might be a religious person, but you are most assuredly not a Christian. Paul defines the gospel as the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Paul affirms that someone is saved it is by receiving and believing this gospel by faith(vs 1-2).
Paul says in Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”
When you respond on Resurrection Sunday, “He is risen, indeed,” what exactly do you mean by that? What do you believe?
