The Only Proof of the Resurrection and Glorification of Jesus

The Spirit is the witness because the Spirit is truth.

1John 5:6b

An empty tomb.  The accounts of the resurrection found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The testimonies of witnesses found in those gospels.  Paul’s testimony, and others in the Bible.  All that falls under the category of evidence to the resurrection and glorification of Jesus.  None of it is proof.

Evidence can be debated.  There may still exist the empty tomb in Jerusalem that actually was the tomb from which Jesus arose, but Christian tradition notwithstanding, nobody really knows where it is.  Evidence can be interpreted in various ways, depending on the opinion of the individual observing the evidence.  Were the authors of the gospels stating facts concerning the resurrection, or were they speaking of the resurrection of Christ as a metaphor, to communicate a profound spiritual reality?   Was Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus a real event, or was it a psychotic episode produced by a troubled mind?  No evidence is above debate or beyond question.

Proof, on the other hand, is conclusive and irrefutable, and there is only one thing that is absolute proof that Jesus’ resurrection was real and that he ascended into heaven and was glorified by God to sit at His right hand, and that is the proof God alone gives: the baptism of the holy Spirit.

John the Baptizer proclaimed that the baptism of the Spirit would be the credentials of the Messiah.  He told those who came to hear him, “I baptize you with water upon repentance, but after me is coming one who is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to remove.  He will baptize you with holy Spirit!” (Mt. 3:11).  And shortly after Jesus’ disciples received that baptism from Christ in Acts 2, they boldly said to the Sanhedrin,

Acts 5

30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.

31. This man God has exalted to His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

32. And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is the holy Spirit, which God has given to those who obey Him.

Jesus’ disciples are all gone; they are no longer among the living on earth.  They left us some writings, and so, they, themselves, are no longer witnesses for us.  The writings they left are evidence for the Lordship of Christ which can be, and are, interpreted in many different ways.  However, the holy Spirit has gone nowhere, and it is the only proof of Christ.  It was the Spirit which made the disciples, and has made many others since, witnesses of Jesus.

It is understandable that we might doubt and demand confirmation when we hear testimonies of humans.  Humans have the capacity to lie, or to be mistaken.  But not God.  The Spirit is God’s witness to His Son, and it is evil not to believe Him:

1John 5

9. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this [the Spirit] is the witness of God that He has given concerning His Son.

10. He who . . . does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has given concerning His Son.

It is not the mere existence of the Spirit that is proof of the resurrection and glorification of Christ; the Spirit existed before Jesus was even born.  The proof for each of us that the gospel of Christ is true is the experience of receiving the Spirit which God gives to those who believe in and obey His Son Jesus (Acts 5:32).  That experience, the baptism of the Spirit, of which John the Baptizer spoke, is God’s irrefutable proof that Jesus is Lord, sitting in heaven at the right hand of the Father.

Now, when an individual who believes in Jesus is blessed by receiving the Spirit, he may truly know – because God has given him His witness of it – who Jesus is.  Some who hear that person’s testimony will doubt it (because it is a human who is talking), but if God touches a person’s heart, he will believe that testimony.  And if he believes, he will receive the testimony God gave to man to His Son.  Jesus said so:

John 7

37. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

38. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water!”

39a. But he spoke this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive.

It Is God’s Gospel

“I have written you, brothers, because of the grace

that is given to me by God

for me to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,

ministering as a priest the gospel of God.”

Romans 15: 15b–16a

“We were bold in our God to declare to you

the gospel of God in the face of much opposition.”

1Thessalonians 2:2

For the appointed time has come for judgment to begin

at the house of God, and if it begins with us,

what will be the end of those who refuse

to obey the gospel of God?”

1Peter 4:17

The first thing we need to understand about the gospel of God is that when Paul and Peter said “the gospel of God”, they did not mean “the gospel about God”; rather, they meant “the gospel from God”.  There are as many gospels about God as there are religious sects, each having its own standards and rituals, but the gospel that comes from God is known only when it is revealed.  God’s gospel is beyond all human understanding and experience.

The second thing we need to understand about the gospel of God is that His gospel belongs solely to Him.  He alone decided what it would be, when it would appear on earth, and by whom it would be believed.  To this day, He alone decides who will believe His gospel.  When the Spirit was poured out and the gospel of God began to be preached, we are told that “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48b).  God’s gospel must be revealed to a heart; it cannot be figured out.  Saving faith in the true gospel must be granted by God; it is not in man.  This includes faith in Jesus.  “No one”, Jesus said, “can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (Jn. 6:44).  If anyone believes a gospel because he has researched it and decided to believe, he cannot be believing the gospel of God.  And the Jesus of such a gospel cannot be the real Jesus.  Only if God chooses and calls someone can he believe His gospel.  And even afterward, when he has received the grace to believe God’s gospel, he will continue to believe it only if God continues to give him the grace to do so, day by day.

We live, every moment, by the mercy of God.  Nothing else.  The Bible is consistent and clear in its message that God’s grace can be, and has at times been, withdrawn from rebellious souls to whom it had been given.  I have seen this happen, and to see it is a frightening, humbling experience.

I once visited a brother who had fallen away from Christ.  He was sweet-natured, though backslidden, and was happy to see me.  As we talked in his home, he attempted to bring up something from the Bible, but then realized that he could not say what he wanted to say because it was gone from his mind.  With some sadness, he looked at me and said, “I used to warn people that God could take back what He gives us if we are unfaithful, and now, look at me.”

Another brother close to me used to write songs filled with the truth of God’s gospel and testify about it, but he compromised the truth that God had shown him to become an ordained minister in a Christian sect that proclaims a different gospel.  At first, he would not, and today, he cannot testify to the truth, and none of his songs are filled with God’s gospel because it is gone from him.  He did not value it, and God took it away.

Always remember that after we are blessed to hear and to understand God’s gospel, His gospel is still His, and He is free to take it back if we cease to value it.

The third thing we need to understand about the gospel of God is that God alone determines who can preach His gospel, and He does this by revealing His gospel to a person and then ordaining him to declare it on behalf of Christ.  We are told that Jesus “went up on the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him.  And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him and that he should send them out to preach” (Mk. 3:13–14).  Paul told the Galatians, “I would have you to know, brothers, regarding the gospel preached by me, that it is not according to man.  For I neither received it from a man, nor was I taught it, but I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11–12).  And he told Timothy, “I was ordained a preacher, an apostle” (1Tim. 2:7), and he repeatedly emphasized that his ordination was from God, just as the gospel he preached was from God: For example, he began his letter to the Galatians with these words: “Paul, an apostle, not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, and by God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1).

Paul loved God’s gospel and demonstrated his gratitude for it by not compromising it.  He told the Galatians of a meeting in Jerusalem attended by some brothers who did not believe the gospel that God had given Paul.  They demanded that Paul teach their gospel instead.  But Paul told the Galatians that he did not yield to those men “even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might continue for you” (Gal. 2:5).  Paul was faithful to God with the gospel entrusted to him, and God was faithful to Paul and never took it away from him.

Jesus, too, loved the gospel he received from God, and he cherished it.  “My doctrine”, he said, “is not mine, but His who sent me” (Jn. 7:16), and Jesus valued that gospel above his own life.  But after saying that, Jesus added this precious promise for us all: “If anyone is willing to do God’s will, he will know of the doctrine, whether it is from God or if I speak on my own” (Jn. 7:17).  This promise is for “whosever will”, my friend.  Whoever is truly willing to do the will of God will recognize His gospel when he hears it, and will believe it.