The Bible tells us that Jesus literally and physically rose from the dead.
But how can we be certain we can trust the Bible’s testimony?
What Evidence Proves Jesus Rose from the Dead?
Did you know there are around 25,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament?
25,000 copies. This stands above all other ancient documents as the most duplicated and preserved in history.
The next most copied ancient document is Homer’s Iliad—only 643 copies the Iliad exist.
Around 25,000 copies of eyewitness accounts of the Risen Christ support that Jesus rose from the dead and that we can trust the New Testament accounts.
Besides the New Testament manuscript copies, in the year 64, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote about Jesus and His resurrection.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote around 93-94 AD about Jesus of Nazareth and His resurrection on the third day.
Even those who denied Christ’s resurrection didn’t deny His existence. Or that He performed miracles. Or that He died on a cross and was buried.
These are undisputed facts.
But what about His resurrection? How can we be certain it happened?
In my video Does it Matter if Jesus Rose from the Dead? we see that Christianity rises or falls depending on the resurrection.
Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, lived a perfect, sinless life and died on the cross. But none of that matters if His resurrection didn’t happen. He’d be a fraud and Christianity would be a farce if it didn’t happen.
So, how can we be certain that Jesus really did rise from the dead?
The mountain of written evidence from the eyewitness accounts should be enough, but today, I’m going to focus on the support we have of logic and reason based on Scripture.
Evidence Based on Reason and Logic
Let’s first settle in our hearts and minds that nothing is impossible for God. The Resurrection of Christ was easy for Him.
Now let’s look at the facts of Jesus’ resurrection and reason together.
For much of His three-year public ministry, Jesus made more friends than enemies. However, by the end of His ministry, the scales had tilted.
His enemies far outweighed His friends and left Him with only a few faithful men and women.
His haters didn’t seek to destroy Him for His miraculous works—feeding thousands, healing the sick, or raising the dead.
They picked up stones to kill Him because He claimed to be God.
When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “I tell you the truth … before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58), they knew He was declaring He was the one true God who’s existed eternally long before Abraham fathered the Jewish nation.
Claiming to be God was the highest crime. The Jews wouldn’t even speak God’s name out loud except when reading the Torah or prayers and they didn’t dare write His name out.
So when Jesus claimed to be God, His words infuriated the Jewish leaders.
Their hatred of Him flamed into an unquenchable inferno.
The Jewish leaders hated Jesus for claiming to be God but also for threatening their power.
At one point, many of Jesus’ followers had wanted to make Him their king. This threatened not only the Jewish leaders’ power among the Israelites but also their peace with Rome, the country they served.
If Caesar suspected mutiny was rising in Israel, his heavy hand would clamp down on Jerusalem, and the Jewish leaders’ nearly autonomous rule would evaporate.
The threat of losing their power did what nothing else could. It brought the two competing groups of Jews together—the Sadducees and Pharisees.
They agreed about Jesus. He had to go. And stay gone.
As motivated as the Jewish leaders were to kill Jesus, they were even more motivated that He stay dead.
Keeping corpses dead is rarely a concern for executioners, but Jesus wasn’t your typical target. So they took unusual precautions to keep Jesus in the grave. They couldn’t have Him rising from the dead as He said He would and thus confirm His claims to be God and thereby indicting them of having murdered God’s Son.
No, Jesus must NOT be allowed to “rise again.”
Let’s read about this from Matthew 27:62-66.
62 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ 64 Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.
Matthew 27:62-66.
The Roman Seal
The seal was a soft, moldable substance, maybe clay, with the Roman imperial seal stamped into it and attached to the stone with a rope.
All of Rome’s power and authority stood behind this seal.
If you broke the seal, Rome would break you with a horrible death.
But first, you had to get past their guards.
The Roman Guards
These guards followed strict rules with severe consequences if they broke them. They couldn’t sit down or lean against anything while they were on duty.
Commentators say that if a guard fell asleep, he was beaten and burned with his own clothes. One commentator said that the entire sixteen-man unit was burned, not just the sleeping guard.
No way Jesus was rising again on their watch.
Except He did.
Knowing all this background before the Resurrection helps us understand the significance of the religious leaders’— and others’ — actions after the Resurrection that help confirm the validity of the resurrection.
When eyewitness reports of Jesus’ resurrection surfaced and spread, His enemies set out to shut the reports down.
They had one sure way: bring out Jesus’ dead body. Display it for the world to see.
No Dead Body
With everything they had to lose if Jesus rose from the dead, it’s reasonable to assume they would have used EVERY resource available to them to bring out His body and parade it down Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa.
They would’ve loved to chisel it into stone to ensure the whole world knew: Jesus is still dead!
Bringing out Jesus’ dead body would’ve dismantled Christianity before it even got started.
No Brave Disciples
Jesus’ followers had already scattered. They weren’t gathering together and building Christ’s church.
They were hiding in fear and preparing to return to their old lives, fully defeated.
If the Jewish leaders had simply presented Jesus’ dead body, Christianity would be dead and Jesus would have been a joke.
But this is what happened instead:
What Really Happened on the Third Day
Matthew 28 records how, after Jesus rose from the dead, the ground shook, and an angel came down from heaven and rolled the stone away. He said the sight of the angel so terrified the guards, they “shook for fear of him and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:3 NASB).
Matthew 28 goes on to record the following:
11Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. 12And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ 14“And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” 15And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.
Matthew 28:11-15
How Many Holes Does This Lie Have?
The religious leaders apparently expected everyone to believe that the handful of disciples who’d scattered in fear when Jesus was arrested, suddenly came together with newfound bravery after His gruesome crucifixion and—without anyone seeing—stole His body.
So apparently the disciples transformed from simple disciples to mastermind criminals in basically a day because a plan to steal Jesus’s dead body from a heavily guarded and sealed tomb takes more than a minute to form.
What would it take to pull that off?
The Perfect Heist
First, these well-trained guards, who knew their very lives would be forfeited in a most unpleasant manner by their superiors if they fell asleep on the job, would have to allow themselves to fall asleep. All of them.
What are the chances of that because without the guards being sound asleep, the disciples’ alleged plan of quietly stealing Jesus’ body and claiming He was resurrected fails.
Guards That Will Be Executed If They Fall Asleep Claim They Fell Asleep
For the sake of argument, let’s suppose the guards did indeed fall asleep—sound asleep.
We’re expected to believe that this timid group of fishermen, a tax collector, and other non-soldierly types:
- Approached undetected in the quiet stillness of the night
- Unsealed the tomb
- Shoved the heavy stone aside without making a sound
- Took the time to remove Jesus’ grave clothes and neatly fold the cloth that covered His face and leave it in the tomb
- Hauled Jesus’ dead—and now naked—body away without the guards waking up
Guards See Disciples Steal Jesus’ Body While They Slept
Again, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose the disciples did all this. How could the guards know the disciples were the ones who stole the body? They claimed to be asleep.
I guess the Jewish leaders went with the “sleeping guards” lie because it was too much to ask for anyone to believe the disciples outmuscled the guards.
And I guess they hoped no one would pick up on the whole “can’t see anything while sleeping” challenge to their hastily crafted lie.
Disciples Hide Jesus Body Quickly and Eternally
After they stole Jesus’ body, the disciples had to successfully and quickly hide Jesus’ body for all time. And they didn’t have SIRI to ask. “Hey Siri, where can I hide a dead body?”
Not to be too graphic, but decomposing bodies are hard to hide once the smell kicks in. They’d have had to stash His body in the perfect spot so that all of Jerusalem wouldn’t find it — or smell it.
Remember, these were poor men who weren’t expecting Jesus to die. They thought He was coming to set them free from the Romans, not die at their hands.
They didn’t have time to hash out an elaborate plan, which by the way required sleeping guards. And they didn’t have money for bribes. Judas Iscariot was in charge of their money.
Disciples Hang Around the Crime Scene and Preach the Risen Christ—the Body They Stole
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the disciples pulled off this miraculous heist and brilliantly hid His body.
Are we also expected to believe that these master criminals chose to remain in Jerusalem—the scene of their crime—and preach a resurrected Christ to the same audience that cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion rather than keep silent and live their lives in peace?
The lie falls apart at every seam.
The Disciples Play the Long Con
But for the sake of argument, let’s assume the disciples pulled off such a heist and successfully lied about it. What chance is there that they could’ve successfully pulled a long con and lied about the resurrection for the rest of their lives.
And that they could have convinced over 500 people to also lie for the rest of their lives by claiming they, too, saw the resurrected Christ.
All of them would have to be delusional or brilliant, persistent liars.
The chances that this many people could become instantly and equally delusional about the same thing is so astronomical as to make it impossible.
Thus, we’d have to accept they all lied and were able to keep their stories straight and carry the lie to their graves.
Isn’t it reasonable to assume at least one of the disciples or one of the 500 would’ve finally caved in and admitted the disciple’s stole and hid Jesus’ body?
And what would they gain from it all?
The opportunity to be persecuted and martyred? It’s simply not reasonable.
The Jewish Leaders Do Nothing But Make Up a Flimsy Lie
Now let’s look back at the religious leaders and what they did and didn’t do after the resurrection that is so telling.
The leaders never denied the tomb was empty. They admitted it, BUT they also never tried to present His body. There’s no record of them trying to find it.
Why? This makes no sense.
King Herod Searched for Baby Jesus—The Jewish Leaders Didn’t Search for “Stolen Jesus”
After Christ’s birth, King Herod was so threatened by the rumor of the birth of a new king, he scoured the land in search of baby Jesus.
Herod sent his soldiers to search out and kill every baby boy in Bethlehem who was two years old or younger.
If the Jewish leaders really believed the disciples stole Jesus’ body, why is there zero record anywhere of them scouring the land to find it?
They claimed the disciples stole His body. But there’s not even a record of the Jewish leaders bringing the so-called thieving disciples in for questioning.
No Arrests Either?
Remember the severe penalty for breaking the seal of the tomb? Apparently, they didn’t care anymore about the disciples breaking the seal and stealing Jesus’ body.
The disciples weren’t arrested despite the leader’s (and the bribed guards’) accusations against them of committing a high crime against Rome. They allegedly broke the seal, rolled the stone away, and stole Jesus’ body.
The leaders desperately needed to find Jesus’ body. It was the sure way to stop Christianity, which they hated desperately. Vehemently! But there’s no record of them even trying. Just their flimsy lie.
Are we really supposed to believe that Jesus’ enemies could have proved He was still dead, but chose not to bother?
Instead, they preferred to craft a weak lie and hope no one noticed the massive holes in it?
No body! No crime!
Well, there was a body, but it wasn’t a dead body.
He is risen! He is risen indeed.
FROM FEARFUL TO FAITHFUL
Now let’s consider the dramatic change that came over Jesus’ disciples after Pentecost?
Each one of them transformed from a cowering handful of men hiding behind a locked door into a bold band of brothers dedicated to spending their lives spreading the message of a risen Savior.
Would they really do it simply for the sake of maintaining a lie? This claim of His resurrection brought them persecution and death, not health or wealth.
Jesus’ brothers didn’t even believe in Him before the crucifixion. But after He rose from the dead, they did.
Why would they suddenly devote their lives to worshipping their brother who they refused to worship before He died when He was doing amazing miracles? Unless He’d truly risen from the dead!
Jesus’ resurrection removed all their doubts that He was their Lord and their God.
The Resurrection Demands a Response
If you are still not sure if you believe in the resurrection of Christ, study it. Study the Scriptures. Look at the mountain of evidence. Because everything rises and falls on the Resurrection.
It demands a response. Christ demands a response.
I pray you will let go of your unbelief and surrender to Him, our Risen Lord, because your eternal soul depends on it.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
