Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? – Part 3

“If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15:14)

We have been looking at reasons to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that do not include the divinely inspired testimony of the Scriptures. If an unbeliever says to you, “You’re saying that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead because you read it in the Bible, but I don’t believe the Bible,” you can offer up these three pieces of “uninspired” evidence. On Monday we looked at the “embarrassing evidence” of the testimony of the women who came to the empty tomb, and on Wednesday we unpacked the “enemy evidence” provided by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Today we will look at the Pharisee Saul, another bitter enemy of Jesus.

Saul of Tarsus

For more than two thousand years, no skeptic has been able to offer any kind of plausible explanation for Saul, the bitter persecutor of the church, becoming Paul, the beloved pastor, preacher, and disciple of Jesus who penned much of the New Testament.

Saul of Tarsus was feared among the first-century church. He was relentless in his persecution of the followers of Jesus; he frankly confessed his “zeal [in] persecuting the church” (Philippians 3:5), and he testified to that truth in several of his epistles (1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13; 1 Timothy 1:13). The book of Acts also testifies to Saul being a persistent tormentor of the church. Then something happened on the road to Damascus.

Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:1-6).

There may have been no greater enemy of the early church than Saul of Tarsus. Luke, ever the careful historian, recorded that Saul stood watch over the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:58). Saul was blinded by his self-righteous, works-based, false religion, and he did everything in his power to extinguish the light of the Gospel, but to no avail. The resurrected Jesus appeared on the Damascus Road and transformed Saul the persecutor into the apostle Paul. How can we explain this dramatic transformation? There is only one way: It happened just like the Scriptures say it happened.

One more thing. It is beyond contestation that Paul was martyred under the emperor Nero for his faith in Jesus. The early church fathers, such as Polycarp, Tertullian, and Clement of Rome, all testify to this truth. The only way a man could go from killing Christians to being executed for being a Christian is because the resurrected Jesus showed up and changed his life. From embarrassing testimony to enemy attestation, we have lots of powerful proof for the resurrection of Jesus. So, the question is, Do you believe?

Believe it! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!