Why Do I Believe in Christ?

I’ve never given an account in print of why I believe in Christ but I feel a compulsion to do so now and largely for two reasons. The first is that my four sons have all reached a stage in life in which they exhibit what I would term a healthy skepticism. They all profess faith in Christ but they have good questions, some of which I had and some of which I still have. Secondly, I’m a facilitator in a course for skeptics, agnostics, and atheists and so I've been thinking a lot about my own journey. How I narrate the following bears the influences of C.S. Lewis and Alvin Plantinga. 

I was raised in a devout Christian family and my parents introduced me early on to the reality of sin, the temptation of the devil, the person and work of Jesus and other key dimensions to the Christian message. This inclines some to devalue my faith as if it were simply the product of early indoctrination. It seems illogical, however, to allege that one’s views should be doubted simply because they were taught by one’s parents. One would never be inclined to doubt the basics of mathematics simply because it was knowledge imparted by teachers and parents rather than obtained through personal investigation. Others are inclined to allege that had I been raised in a Muslim family I would likely be an adherent of Islam. Supposing this were true, it would apply in the same way to agnostics and atheists for whom Islam would likely be their religious conviction as well. One’s upbringing therefore cannot be used to validate or invalidate one’s views.

My faith rests on the strong conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was powerfully resurrected three days after his death. Why would I believe in such an unusual event? First, I’m convinced that the only resolution to the plight of humanity is the resurrection of Christ. Put differently, the great plight of humanity is death. The category of death fittingly applies not just to the physical realm but to the non-physical or spiritual realm. Humanity is characterized by a kind of spiritual death which renders it powerless to overcome the evil impulses it generates. Something as evil as racism, for example, cannot be eradicated, it seems, by imparting information (education), for example, or by regulating conduct (legislation). There is within the inner recesses of humanity a kind of death so powerful that even the best of human resolutions cannot overcome it. Beyond this, there is physical death, for which there is no escape. The death rate has remained constant throughout history. Everyone who is born dies. There is therefore no hope for the world apart from a power that can vanquish death, and that’s what Christ’s resurrection is.

Second, the resurrection of Christ is not so far-fetched for me because of other resurrections I encounter and experience. I go to sleep every night and my body loses certain powers (no superpowers, sadly) and all of those powers are suddenly restored in the morning. No amount of biological information about sleep can diminish for me the sense of a magical experience. I see other mini-resurrections in, for example, the planting of dormant seeds that amazingly generate vibrant plants. Most importantly, I encounter in my own life and the lives of others transcendent revolutions that are best described as resurrections. Think, for example, of an individual whose life is careening towards self-implosion because of an addictive habit he or she can’t shake and then suddenly is reborn, as it were, to be a new person with a bright new future. All of this is simply to say that the concept of resurrection is not an entirely foreign reality for me. Put differently, the resurrection of Jesus is not as unbelievable as one might imagine.

Third, the accounts of Christ’s resurrection in the Gospels accounts in the Bible are compelling to me. Historians generally agree that the Gospels are sources for historical information about, among other things, first-century Palestine. Some accounts are incredulous to some historians, however, and the resurrection account in particular is often alleged to be a fabrication of early followers of Jesus. Such a claim, however, seems specious. If the disciples had fabricated the account of the resurrection, why would they have included women as the first witnesses of the empty tomb and thus the first evangelists, given that the legal testimony of women in those days was, at best, inferior to that of men? Why would they make Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin which maliciously consented to Jesus’ death, a hero for dignifying the corpse of Jesus with a proper burial? Why would the early followers of Jesus choose a life of immense opposition, hostility, persecution, and even martyrdom all for a hoax? The claim that the resurrection account in the Gospels is a fabrication seems to be a stretch.

Fourth, I admit to being convicted by an intangible though persuasive power, identified in the Bible as the witness of the Holy Spirit, that transcends even foolproof argumentation and undeniable experience. It’s the odd feeling of being compelled, sometimes in spite of one’s intellectual inclinations, to embrace something. It’s a strange epistemological consciousness of being able to see something otherwise invisible and of being able to sense something without the use of the senses. It’s power the Bible says is attributable to the gospel message itself which, when heard, often grips people both powerfully and inexplicably. This is what Christians term “conversion,” and it’s never simply the product of intellectual persuasion.

Convinced of the resurrection of Jesus, I don't find his claims so unreasonable. Apart from the resurrection event, in other words, I would be inclined to see Jesus either as a lunatic issuing bizarre commands for people to trust him and follow him or as an evil impostor demanding that people surrender their lives to him. I now gladly admit that he is precisely who he says he is: the Son of God who out of great love has come to rescue humanity from death with transcendent power, the power of rebirth, recreation, and resurrection. Though I'm sometimes regarded as a fool for such convictions I think I would be a fool not to entrust myself to Someone with such love and such power.