Our Resurrection Receipt

When you make a large purchase (think expensive jewelry, car or motorcycle, furniture, etc.), what happens after you hand the salesperson your payment? Besides the product you purchased, what else do they hand you?

They hand you a receipt.

Now consider how the Bible speaks of our salvation:

• 1 Corinthians 6:20 – “For you were bought with a price.”
• 1 Peter 1:18 – “Knowing that you were ransomed.”
• Galatians 3:13 – “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law.”

Bought. Ransomed. Redeemed. Would you agree that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross qualifies as the most significant purchase in all of human history? He purchased our salvation.

How do we know this purchase price was acceptable to God the Father? How do we know that God doesn’t require us to do anything more for the purchase of our salvation?

Even the apostle Paul said, in 1 Cor. 15:14-19:

“If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith . . . If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins . . . If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Sooo . . . where’s our receipt?

Our receipt is the empty tomb! Our receipt is Jesus’s resurrection!

Evidences for the Resurrection:

Consider the Women:

The gospels record accounts of the first witnesses to the empty tomb: women. Skeptics question the validity of these accounts, claiming these fables were created to sell a false story. But if someone wanted to weave a false story, they would never have chosen to describe women as the first witnesses. In Jesus’s day, women were not viewed as legally credible witnesses.

Consider the Opposition:

The religious leaders argued Jesus’s body was stolen. But there was no evidence to support this assertion. While they argued against His resurrection, they never argued that there was no body found in the tomb that Sunday morning. And even though they possessed both the full weight of authority and access to finances, they were unable to find the body they claimed was stolen. In a city where the leadership was hostile to Jesus, they would have done anything to squelch the report by producing His body, but they could not do it.

Consider the Disciples:

The disciples had fled in fear when Jesus was arrested. Other than John, they cowered in hiding as Jesus was crucified. But later these same men spoke boldly about Jesus. What changed? Nothing but the resurrection!

Had they conspired to build a false narrative, even at the risk of their own lives? Logic tells us the answer is no. And then we have a great quote by a 20^th-century politician who had been involved in one of the greatest political scandals in history: the Watergate break-in in 1972. That scandal led to the impeachment and resignation of a sitting president two years later. One of the conspirators, Chuck Colson, became a powerful Christian apologist and evangelist. He said:

“I know the resurrection is a fact, & Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world – and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

Everyone—Christ-followers and opponents—agreed the tomb was empty. They just disagreed on how it got that way!

Jesus said, “It is finished.” His empty tomb, proof of the resurrection, is our receipt that our sin-debt to God was paid in full.

So as we celebrate this Easter Sunday, we can proclaim with confidence:

“He is risen.
He is risen indeed!”