Two thousand years ago, a man named Jesus walked on the earth.

This is a historical fact that even secular scholars will affirm. Jesus of Nazareth was a real person who lived in first century Israel. Even if they don’t believe that Jesus was divine in any way, even if they don’t believe that Jesus performed wonders and miracles during His earthly ministry, they do acknowledge and believe in Jesus’ existence. Even other world religions, like Islam and Baha’i, teach that Jesus was a great prophet and teacher in His day.

What keeps secularists and those who subscribe to other religions from believing in the true Jesus, from professing that Jesus was truly divine? Different people are likely to give different responses, but it really boils down to a disbelief in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. We live in a post-Enlightenment world, after all, that thrives on science and reason, a society that balks at the ideas of miracles or spiritual afterlives. Coming back from the dead is impossible, something that would quite literally require a miracle. So, for a people who don’t believe in the miraculous, they can’t bring themselves to believe that Jesus could have actually resurrected from the dead, especially three days after the fact.

While Christianity is a religion that is rooted in faith, it’s also based on fact—the fact that Jesus died for our sins and resurrected to give us new life. This isn’t something that we just blindly believe in; there’s evidence that points to the veracity of these claims. And when we review this evidence, we can become more confident in our faith and be emboldened to spread the truth about what really happened in Jerusalem two millennia ago.

Did Jesus Really Die?

To have truly resurrected, it obviously would have been necessary for Jesus to die. You can’t come back to life if you never left it in the first place. But many people argue that Jesus never truly died. Those who don’t believe in resurrection read the accounts of Jesus being seen after His supposed death and conclude that He must not have actually died on the cross. They assume that Jesus must have simply lost consciousness after enduring hours of torture and agony, and the people around him thought He was dead until He finally came to.

However, the “swoon theory,” as this belief is often dubbed, is unlikely. The Romans were professional killers. They knew how to execute their criminals and enemies, and to somehow fail at doing so would be to risk their own deaths. Additionally, John 19 describes one of the Roman soldiers piercing Jesus’ side with a spear after he appeared to have died. This wasn’t a mere stab or prick. The spear was likely thrust under Jesus’ ribs, piercing His heart, which is why the passage mentions that water poured out of the wound (v. 34). Even if Jesus had somehow survived hanging on a cross for hours after already being flogged, there’s no way He could have been alive after being stabbed in the heart.

Also, what would have been the disciples’ purpose in claiming that Jesus died? Jesus did prophesy His own death, but the disciples never really understood what He meant. Peter even went so far as to rebuke Him for suggesting such a thing (Matthew 16:21-22). The first-century Jews were expecting the Messiah to come as a warrior who would defeat the oppressive Roman Empire and reinstate the Kingdom of Israel, not a humble carpenter who would die amongst thieves. If Jesus never truly died, why would the disciples say He did? Wouldn’t it have been a better story to tell these first-century Jews that the Man they believe to be Messiah defied the Romans by surviving a crucifixion? Surely, that would have won more of their fellow Jews to their side. Instead, they insisted that their great and all-powerful Savior and Messiah died a criminal’s death on a cross. There’s no logical reason for them to have stuck with that story unless it was the truth.

Did Jesus Really Resurrect?

So, it’s been established that Jesus really did die on that old rugged cross, but even so, skeptics still doubt that Jesus could have resurrected three days later. The major problem with this claim is that many people witnessed the risen Jesus. The first people to do so were a small group of women who went to visit his tomb (Matthew 28:1-9). He later appeared to his closest disciples (John 20:19-28), as well as Saul of Tarsus who was a former murderer of Christians and converted to Christianity shortly after Jesus appeared to him (Acts 9:1-22). The risen Christ also once appeared to over five hundred people at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6).

Some skeptics will argue that these claims of Jesus’ appearances were just made up by His followers to make it seem like He resurrected when He actually did not. But if this was the case, the disciples executed their plan poorly. Like I mentioned in the paragraph above, the first witnesses that the Gospels mention are a group of women. In our modern era, we don’t blink an eye at that statement. But in biblical times, women did not have such a high standing in society like we do today. In those days, women would have been viewed as unreliable witnesses. If the disciples wanted the people in their culture to really believe their claims of resurrection, they would not and should not have chosen the first and primary witnesses to be women.

If the disciples really did make up the appearances of Jesus, you’d think it would be for a purpose, that they did so in order to gain power, riches, and fame. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, they faced great persecution—including torture, exile, and crucifixion—and most of them ended up losing their lives for their commitment to Christ (2 Corinthians 6:4-9). Despite all the horrible things they were forced to endure, none of them denied the resurrection of Christ or recanted their Christian beliefs. If the resurrection was just made up, why were the disciples willing to suffer and die over that claim? If it was all a lie, why wouldn’t they admit the truth to save their lives? Why would they go through such things unless they believed the resurrection really happened?

So, it seems evident that the disciples did not just make up their visions of the risen Christ. But those who do not believe in resurrection may still argue that they were simply hallucinating. Sure, they truly believed they saw Jesus, but He wasn’t really there. They must have just seen a ghost or a figment of their imaginations. The problem with this theory is that people cannot share hallucinations. Many of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances that are recorded in Scripture happened amongst groups of people, and experts agree that there is no way that they all could have imagined or hallucinated the same thing. These people actually saw Jesus, and not just His ghost. Jesus was there in the flesh. He walked with them (Luke 24:15). He ate with them (John 21:12-13). He even showed them the wounds in His hands and side from His crucifixion (John 20:27). And at the time the New Testament was being written, most of these witnesses were still alive and could back up the claims that Jesus had resurrected and appeared to them (1 Corinthians 15:6).

The Evidence is Clear

Religious skeptics often balk at the wild claims of Christianity, at the idea of putting faith in a risen Savior. They thrive on facts. They need evidence. They want to follow the science. And their understanding of science does not allow them to believe in a man resurrecting from the dead three days after He was crucified.

But Christianity is far from being just a blind leap of faith. It’s a faith based in fact—the fact that Jesus truly did die on the cross and He truly was risen from the grave. He did not merely swoon on the cross only to regain consciousness days later. His death and resurrection were not just made up by His followers. And those who claimed to see Him post-crucifixion were not simply imagining Him. Jesus died, and He resurrected. For you and for me. That we might be forgiven of our sins and get a chance at spending eternity with Him. These facts, this evidence, this truth does not just encourage us; it emboldens to spread the good news of this gospel so that others may believe and be saved.

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, ESV