Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Nothing in Christianity matters more than this question. If Jesus stayed in the grave, the Christian message is empty. If He rose, everything He said about Himself is true. The Bible does not ask us to believe in a resurrection without evidence; it points to an empty tomb and to people who saw Him alive.

The empty tomb

On the third day, women who came to anoint His body found the tomb open and empty. Two angels told them what had happened.

He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

Luke 24:6 · King James Version (1769)

The New Geneva Study Bible notes that the four Gospels tell the story in their own way but agree on the main facts: on the morning of the third day the tomb was empty, women were the first witnesses, and the disciples believed only slowly and with difficulty. Matthew Henry finds it astonishing that disciples who had been told so often that Jesus would rise were so slow to believe it. These are not the reactions of people inventing a story.

The rulers had their own explanation. They paid the guards to say the disciples stole the body while they slept (Matthew 28:11–15). William MacDonald says this raises more questions than it answers: how could the guards know what happened while they slept? He adds that sleeping at the post was punishable by death under Roman law, so the guards were paid to tell a story that accused themselves. John MacArthur says the story was plainly fictional and shows how stubbornly the leaders resisted undeniable facts. The New Geneva Study Bible adds that the most obvious evidence has no effect on those who have chosen unbelief.

People who saw Him alive

Peter preached the resurrection in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus had been put to death.

This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

Acts 2:32 · King James Version (1769)

The Lopukhin commentary says the apostles had seen Him risen, talked and eaten with Him and touched Him. Adam Clarke notes that the whole company of about 120 had seen Him and was ready to testify even in the face of persecution and death.

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, lists the witnesses.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

1 Cor 15:3–6 · King James Version (1769)

Then he goes on: Jesus appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all to Paul himself (1 Corinthians 15:7–8). The New Geneva Study Bible points out that Paul says “appeared” three times, to make clear that the resurrection is not only certain but open to checking, because most of the five hundred were still alive. It adds that so many witnesses at once cannot be explained as one person’s hallucination. MacDonald notes how touching it is that Peter, who had denied Jesus, is named first.

The same commentary notes that James, the brother of Jesus, came to faith only after the resurrection (John 7:5), and that Paul was persecuting the church until he met the risen Christ (Acts 9:1–8).