“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-25)
Peter preached the certainty of the resurrection as the foundation for faith and holy living. Most people today do not share this belief. Many think that Jesus’ resurrection is essentially a myth that illustrates the belief that death is not the end of life; that we will continue to exist in another form, whatever form that may take. Although many people like to think positive about what happens after death, millions across the world still live in the fear of death. They are uncertain as to what will happen to them on the other side.
All these poor folks lack the comfort we Christians share in the certainty of the Resurrection for they are not aware of what the Word of God says about who Jesus is or what He has done, or if they have heard, they choose not to take it seriously. These do not think He is God as he claimed but perhaps, at best, just a good man. They do not accept what the Word of God says about their own sinfulness nor do they know about God’s holiness and righteousness that demands punishment for all sin. Thus to them, the truth that Jesus died for their sins is incomprehensible. Even those who claim to be experts in the field of world religions, as well as celebrities, psychologists, educators, and philosophers deem our faith to have no basis in reality.
But the Word of God, the Bible, is not a bunch a made up stories. It is not myth. The accounts regarding the events of the resurrection as told by the gospel writers are not fiction. They are based on eyewitness testimony, told by the very people who experienced the events of Jesus’ life, His suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection. Their testimony carries great weight despite the fantastic and supernatural character of the events they describe. This only conveys the sense that the story they tell could not have been made up since these accounts are quite vivid and awe-inspiring. And, in addition, we can trust the writers who were inspired to write by the Holy Spirit. Most of them were witnesses of the events they proclaimed. They believed in Jesus so passionately that most of them, like Saint Peter, suffered martyrdom for the gospel they proclaimed. They were absolutely certain of the truth they saw and experienced. And so we can trust that what they had to say happened as they said it did for it has been given to us with the authority of the Word of God.