The Resurrection and the Truthfulness of God

Part of the beauty of Christianity is in its enduring relevance for all people in every age.

Charles Octavius Boothe (1845–1924), an African-American man born into slavery and later freed, became a pastor to help average or uneducated people understand the gospel message.

In this excerpt adapted from Plain Theology for Plain People, Boothe explains how Christ’s resurrection relates to a firm, unshakeable faith.

***

It will be seen that from the resurrection of Christ there followed several exceedingly important results.

It established his perfect truthfulness. He had foretold that he would rise again within a specified time, and also within a very brief time. As he went out to the Mount of Olives, he had made a distinct promise to his disciples that, after rising again, he would go before them into Galilee. Some of them seem to have been very slow of understanding. For as Peter, James, and John came down with the Lord from the mount of transfiguration:

He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. (Mark 9:9, 10).

But after the promise made on the way to the Mount of Olives, they probably had more correct views. All that he had said to them would probably be remembered, and the fulfillment of his promise was a convincing proof of his truthfulness. They would naturally say of every other gracious word that he had spoken: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance.” A failure to fulfill one promise would have opened the way in their minds to doubts as to all his promises and all of his teaching.

Again, Jesus Christ was “declared to be the Son of God, with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” It was God’s testimony to his Sonship, and to his own full satisfaction with what Jesus had done as the substitute of sinners in bearing their sin in his own body on the cross.
The way thus was prepared for calling on men to believe on the Lord Jesus, with a faith firm, strong, and that cannot be shaken—a faith that honors God our Savior and gives rest to the troubled soul.¹

***

Pick up your copy of Plain Theology for Plain People on Faithlife Ebooks, and check out other books geared toward spiritual growth.
______

1. Boothe, Charles Octavius. Plain Theology for Plain People. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017.