It’s become popular for intellectual types to say things like “the resurrection of Jesus is a symbol of hope.” The problem for many is that it remains just that: a mere symbol, but not reality. 

In the film The Shawshank Redemption, the main character Andy tells his fellow inmate, Red (played by Morgan Freeman), that hope is the only thing the prison guards can’t take from them. Red’s response is memorable: “Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend: Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” Red does have a point. If you are in locked in prison for life and there is zero chance of escape, hope can eventually fade into severe disillusionment. In the end, a metaphorical or symbolic hope is no help at all.

The Apostle Peter discusses hope in his first epistle found in the New Testament:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3, ESV)

He starts this sentence saying, “Blessed be” or “Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” This is the starting point. For Peter, everything begins and ends in worship, because everything begins and ends with God.

And he says this great God of all has shown unspeakable mercy to us, by causing us to be “born again.” In other words, God is the fountain and source of all spiritual life. We were spiritually lifeless and hopeless, but He stooped down to rescue us. In fact, He not only saved us but made us His own child.

Something we never want to take for granted is the fact that, as followers of Jesus, we are privileged to call God our own Father. For some people, this has taken some getting used to. Maybe you doubt you could ever be worthy of addressing God as “Father.” Or maybe you can’t get past the fact that your earthly father failed you growing up. And it’s hard to understand God as a father. 

But let me tell you that there is incredible peace in knowing that, despite all the promises broken and failures of your earthly father, you have a heavenly Father who will never abandon you, never fail you, and will keep every promise perfectly.

God is a Majestic King, a Fearsome Warrior, and Just Judge. But before anything else–for the Christian–God is our loving Father. He loves as only a perfect Father could. He delights in His children and He lavishes us with His love in a way that sometimes seems unthinkable.

Peter says we have been “born again,” meaning we have been given new spiritual life and made a child of God the Father.

“… he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3, ESV)

Our hope is alive. Why? Because our Savior is alive. So many people think that the Christian idea of Heaven is just pie-in-the-sky. They assume it’s just a fairytale for grown-ups, to help us cope with life’s hardships. Some even imagine Heaven to be boring. 

That may be the case for other religions and philosophies out there, but from the very beginning the Christian church has always had its hope rooted in historical reality. And Heaven is about the reconciliation, redemption, and restoration of all that we hold dear in life. It’s about the satisfaction of all our earthly longings: our longing for justice to be satisfied, love without end, freedom from futility, and purpose for our existence.

Remember what Paul said? After listing all these evidences that Jesus really did rise from the dead (the tomb is empty, He appeared to people at many different times and in different contexts, the birth of the church itself), he added that Jesus even appeared to Paul himself, after His ascension!

And then Paul says something pretty radical:

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17, ESV)

He is willing to hang everything on the truth of the resurrection. That is something no other religion or belief system is willing to do. But here he says, “If this one event did not happen, it’s all for nothing… and we have no hope. If the stiff corpse that lay in that tomb for 36 hours didn’t miraculously and supernaturally come back to glorious resurrected life, then we have no hope whatsoever.”

Of course, he goes on to say, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

Some of my favorite Christian testimonies are of those who, in God’s providence, set out to disprove Christianity and ended up realizing the evidence actually supported the resurrection. 

That’s how it was for Josh McDowell. He was a hardened skeptic who thought Christianity was a bunch of old myths that had no bearing on life. 

And some Christians challenged him on that, to do the research and really investigate everything historians know about the resurrection. And so he did just that. He went all over Europe desperate to prove everything about Jesus was a myth: His claims to deity, His resurrection, all of it. Until one night, he found himself in a library in London. Here’s what Josh writes:

“After several hours of research studying some out-of-print books, I leaned back in my chair, rubbed my eyes, and without remembering I was in a quiet library, I spoke out loud, ‘It’s true. It’s true! It’s really true!’”

He is just one example. Many other skeptics have done the same thing and found the evidence actually works against them. That is not to say that you have to go out and become a historian before you can be a Christian. The point is that even for the skeptic who demands compelling evidence for belief, the evidence is available if you’re willing to look. 

Because Jesus is alive today, Christians have a living hope rooted in history.

My friend, you need to know that, if you’re not a Christian, the evidence for Jesus conquering death is compelling. Investigating the truth about it might just change your life. And if you are a Christian, you need to know that you have a living hope, because you have a living Savior. If Jesus can beat death itself, then what could possibly stop Him? Who else in history has conquered the grave? And just as He promised ahead of time to rise from the dead, He promised to raise us from the dead. The fact that He already did the first guarantees that He will do the second.

Have thoughts on this post? I’d love to hear from you!