David Bryant Mini-Post / Four-Minute Read
What IF Jesus Were Still in the Tomb?
How Different Would Everything Be Today?
How Different Would Everything Be Today?
On December 13, 1931, on a New York City street, Winston Churchill was struck by a car going 30 miles per hour. Said the future Prime Minister: “I do not know why I was not broken like an eggshell or squashed like a gooseberry.” What if he had been killed? Then what might have been the outcome of World War II, not only for Britain but also for the world?
Or What if Abraham Lincoln had survived Booth’s assassination attempt and lived to oversee the aftermath of the Civil War? Considering Lincoln’s many farsighted gifts of leadership, how might the whole course of reconciliation, healing, and reconstruction have transformed the landscape of race relations for future generations?
Or closer to home: What if the would-be assassin had fatally shot Donald Trump as he spoke at a rally in Butler, PA, in July 2024? How different would our nation be right now, just months later?
These are examples of counterfactuals. A counterfactual is a way to think about how history might be rewritten if specific events had turned out differently, such as: “If I had known she wasn’t coming, then I would not have waited for her.”
So, consider this disturbing counterfactual:
WHAT IF Jesus had not risen from the dead? What if his body had decomposed in a borrowed tomb that later became a shrine to which people would make sacred pilgrimages to honor a moral revolutionary? What then?
What would be altered about the shape of Christianity (if it even survived at all)? Or what directions would the unfolding of world history have taken in the past two thousand years?
How about you? What would be different about your life today if Jesus had not risen? For a Christian, pondering such a counterfactual should make one shudder.
Thankfully, there is an absolutely certain “factual” we can celebrate! It is the one proclaimed in these words of Wesley’s popular Easter hymn:
Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Lives again, our glorious King, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Lives again, our glorious King, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
That is just what we read in the words of 1 Corinthians 15:
Death came because of what a man did. Rising from the dead also comes because of what a man did. Because of Adam, all people die. So, because of Christ, all will be made alive (vv. 21-22, NIRV).
Christianity is the only religion in the world that depends on the fact of a genuine miracle for its reason to exist. Other faiths may acknowledge miracles, but the Christian movement stands or falls based on the historicity of one grand miracle—which also happens to be one of the greatest miracles ever!
Among spiritual founders, prophets, and leaders of world religions, the resurrection of our Founder and Leader remains unprecedented, lifting Christ beyond all competitors and contenders for the Throne of the universe.
Resurrection, in the ultimate sense, has happened to one and only one person. He’s the one who says to all his followers: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I was dead. But now look! I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys to Death and Hell” (Revelation 1:6-18, NIRV).
To paraphrase the New Testament scholar N. T. Wright:
“Other religions take bad men and try to make them better.
Christianity takes dead men and makes them alive in Christ.”
Christianity takes dead men and makes them alive in Christ.”
This is the cosmic revolution Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 15: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” But this is only beginning to engage with how our union with the Savior, who physically and permanently defeated death, causes us not only to regain but also to surpass all that the first Adam forfeited by his deadly rebellion!
No wonder Jesus’ resurrection pervades the New Testament. The total number of passages concerning Christ’s resurrection nearly equals the combined total of passages specifically focused on his incarnation, crucifixion, and ascension.
This does not mean his resurrection is more important; all four dimensions of what Christ has done for us remain forever inseparable. Still, the Resurrection clearly forms the dominant theme in the preaching of Acts and the teachings of the epistles—even in Jesus’ earthly ministry. It pervaded the early Church!
It should equally pervade all of us believers now. This one glorious “factual” should energize us every day in our walk with our Savior and Lord. The call of the living God to all Jesus followers is clear this Easter 2025. It comes to us in these words from the Word of God:
So, if you’re serious about living this
new resurrection life with Christ, act like it.
Pursue the things over which Christ presides.
Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground,
absorbed with the things right in front of you.
Look up and be alert
to what is going on around Christ—
that’s where the action is.
See things from his perspective.
Colossians 3:1-2 (The Message)
new resurrection life with Christ, act like it.
Pursue the things over which Christ presides.
Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground,
absorbed with the things right in front of you.
Look up and be alert
to what is going on around Christ—
that’s where the action is.
See things from his perspective.
Colossians 3:1-2 (The Message)
So, shout it out all year through—but especially as we celebrate the FACT of Jesus’ resurrection this Easter time!
He is RISEN!
He is RISEN INDEED!
Our GLORIOUS REDEEMER,
REIGNING FROM HEAVEN!
NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME AGAIN!
HALLELUJAH!
He is RISEN INDEED!
Our GLORIOUS REDEEMER,
REIGNING FROM HEAVEN!
NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME AGAIN!
HALLELUJAH!
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About the Author
Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!
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