The Resurrection:

The unopened gift

Gerard Chrispin

DayOne

© Day One Publications 2001

Second edition 2002

Scripture quotations are from The New King James Version.

Copyright © 1990, 1985, 1983 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available

ISBN 1 903087 27 9

Published by Day One Publications

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Designed by Steve Devane

Dedication

With heartfelt thanks to God for the vibrant example and constant encouragement of Professor Verna Wright who always helped me ‘on to victory.’

Contents

Preface by Dr John MacArthur

Author’s Preface

Introduction

1 The resurrection: did it really happen?

2 The resurrection: the credibility of Christ

3 The resurrection: was the cross a calamity?

4 The resurrection: who is Jesus?

5 The resurrection: will there be a day of reckoning?

6 The resurrection: bees without stings!

7 The resurrection: is faith a futile fantasy?

8 The resurrection: the indwelling Trinity

9 The resurrection: will Christianity crumble or will Christ come again?

10 The resurrection: is it ‘pie in the sky when I die?’

11 The resurrection: which religion is real?

12 The resurrection: ‘my Lord and my God’

13 The resurrection: Keep looking up

14 The resurrection: a very special day to remember

Appendix one

Appendix two

Preface by Dr John MacArthur

Author, Broadcaster, and Pastor/Teacher of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California

The resurrection of Christ is the very essence of what Christianity is all about. It is the culmination and the nucleus of the gospel message. It embodies our hopes for triumph over sin and death, and at the same time it proves that Christ has already won that triumph.

The resurrection also reminds us that we serve a risen, living Lord. He Himself is the resurrection and the life and the very personification of eternal life itself. ‘He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living’ (cf. Mark 12 verse 27). Life, resurrection life, infuses every facet of the Christian faith.

The resurrection is the ground of our assurance, it is the basis for all our future hopes, and it is the source of power in our daily lives here and now. It gives us courage in the midst of persecution, comfort in the midst of trials, and hope in the midst of this world’s darkness.

The church needs to recover the truth of the resurrection. We lose focus too easily. We get bogged down in the trials of this life. We become absorbed in mundane things. And we forget the power Christ’s resurrection has to elevate us above all that. We constantly need to have our attention brought back to what really matters. And nothing matters more to a Christian than the ...