Many mistakenly view the resurrection of Jesus as a metaphor for “second chances” or merely a myth meant to inspire hope.

Others think that the Resurrection of Jesus is something you have to believe with purely blind faith.

Neither of these are true.

The resurrection of Jesus is literally and historically true: He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried The third day he rose again.

Here are six indisputable reasons to believe that is true.

1. Jude’s and James’ Conversions

These two men worship their brother as God! They were initially skeptical and thought he was out of his mind, but after the resurrection, they were so convinced that they held their confession until they were martyred.

2. Peter’s Transformation

Peter goes from coward to conqueror. He denies Jesus three times, even afraid to be identified with Jesus by a little girl. Peter isn’t interested in dying for a good moral teacher or a failed political revolutionary. But after the resurrection, Peter boldly preaches the gospel to thousands and is eventually crucified because he won’t back down.

3. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, as First Witnesses of the Resurrection

In the first century, women weren’t considered credible witnesses. Yet, Jesus first appears to women, and they go and are the first to announce the good news. If a first-century person was going to fabricate a story they wanted others to take seriously, they wouldn’t have made women the first witnesses.

4. Paul’s Appeal to Common Knowledge

Paul’s letters were written while the first generation of witnesses to the resurrection were still alive. In 1 Corinthians 15, he writes, “He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive.” Don’t take my word for it—go ask one of the hundreds of people who saw him die and rise. He treated this information like it was common knowledge. This would be easily and immediately refuted if it wasn’t true.

5. The Empty Tomb

Nobody in the first century disputed the empty tomb or the absent body of Jesus. We tend to take this for granted, but the highly guarded, prominently located, and publicly understood burial site was either the subject of a Netflix-worthy heist or there was a resurrection. Would those who stole a body subject themselves to crucifixion for their claim that the body was risen from the dead? And, a stolen dead body cannot appear to more than five hundred witnesses.

6. The Extra-biblical Accounts

Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in Book 18, Chapter 3, Section 3 of “Antiquities of the Jews” (94 AD), writes this: “Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

This is good news! Believe and be baptized.

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Seth Troutt, Teaching Pastor of Ironwood Church, provided the above content. While we don’t have a face-to-face friendship, we are in absolute agreement about the Resurrection.

Jesus Christ is alive, and that changes everything!