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How the Resurrection Fills Your Life with Meaning, Purpose, Happiness, and Hope
Existential Evidence
Early in C. S. Lewis’s career, he questioned Christianity and its supernatural elements. His letters reveal that he chided his friends for not recognizing the scientific account for the growth of religions. According to Lewis, Christianity was on the same footing as other pagan myths of history. All religion was an attempt to cope with the terrors of life. Lewis thought Jesus’s resurrection was just another myth that helped people handle their sadness and the chaos of life.
On one occassion, though, Lewis was walking with his friend J. R. R. Tolkien at Magdalen College in Oxford, and they were talking about the stories of old. Tolkien argued that the myths they studied were not false but imitations of the true reality.
Lewis agreed. Stories of a sacrificial death followed by life stirred something within him. Tolkien went on to argue that these stories are “splintered fragments” of a much greater story.1 The account of Christ’s death and resurrection serves as the archetypal narrative from which these other tales drew their power. The difference is that Jesus’s resurrection really happened. Lewis’s objections melted away; he realized that the Christian story was satisfying.
The Hope of the Resurrection
Patrick Schreiner
In this accessible study, Patrick Schreiner explores the history, theology, and ethics of the resurrection, helping both Christians and seekers understand what is true, good, and beautiful about Jesus’s victory over death.
Notice Tolkien’s approach with Lewis. He showed Lewis how the story of Jesus’s resurrection was satisfying—that is, it served as the key that unlocked the meaning behind other experiences in life. The resurrection is not only intellectually fulfilling but also emotionally gratifying. This is perhaps the most neglected argument for the resurrection—what I call the existential argument.
James K. A. Smith has rightly pointed out that human beings are not thinkers first but “oriented primarily by love and passion and desire.”2 We are “aesthetic creatures . . . moved more than convinced.”3 Whether people realize it or not, they are usually driven by visions of the good life that appeal to them. Lewis was convinced of the resurrection because he found it appealing to his sensibilities.
Like Lewis, I believe that the resurrection is true, in part, because it is satisfying. Some people reject Christianity by insisting that it’s too good to be true. I think we can flip this argument on its head. We should consider the resurrection precisely because it is too good to be true. Although many people say that life after death is impossible because it can’t be proved, what if life after death is possible because it is wonderful?
Below I will explain three implications of believing in Jesus’s resurrection. If you reject the resurrection, then none of the following things can be true. However, if you believe in the resurrection, your life can be filled with meaning, purpose, happiness, and hope.
1. God Personally Wipes Our Tears Away
One of my favorite images for the resurrection has to do with tears or, more specifically, their absence. In the last book of the Scriptures, John says that when God comes to dwell with his people, “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 21:4; see Isa. 25:8). I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped and thought about the beauty of this image—God will personally wipe away your tears. This shows us a few realities about God’s response to our suffering and the happiness of the resurrection.
First, it shows that God validates our suffering. When God comes to dwell with us, he doesn’t downplay our tears. He doesn’t erase them or paint over them. He doesn’t explain our pain away, ignore it, or neglect it. He doesn’t say that we should have been tougher. He doesn’t say it wouldn’t have happened if we would have been a little smarter or better behaved. He doesn’t even say that the tears made us stronger and that we should have just seen the bigger picture. No. He validates our tears by acknowledging them. He truly sees our tears and affirms that our life was filled with suffering. He sympathizes with our tears.
Second, it shows that God particularizes our suffering. When God wipes away every tear, he sees each person’s particular pain. He does not wipe away the single tear of the world but individual tears. Each tear represents some sad reality in each person’s life. Each tear is like a window into a situation we wish would have never occurred. Each tear focuses God’s attention on one particular moment that was filled with sadness. One tear might signify a broken relationship, another tear a tragic death, another our own grief about our sin, another a pattern of abuse that was forced on us, another the lack of love we received. When God comes to us, he sees each person’s particular pain and acts as our comforter.
Finally, this image affirms that God reverses and transforms our suffering. Notice the verb used in the Scripture verse: God not only sees the pain but also “will wipe away” the tears. He does away with them as our gentle consoler. He wipes them away with tenderness. God reverses the pain and suffering and turns them to glory. When Christians affirm the resurrection, we are not merely saying we return to life as it was. Rather, the resurrection means the introduction into a new kind of life, a new kind of body, a new kind of earth. The resurrection is the emergence of a new order. And this new order will include not only the end of pain but the mending and redemption of it.
The resurrection is the Christian’s unrivaled weapon and defense tactic that the enemy cannot conquer.
One of the best ways to see the mending of pain is in the scars retained in Jesus’s resurrection body.4 The resurrection doesn’t erase his scars; it transforms them into everlasting reminders of his love. In the same way, the resurrection doesn’t merely conceal our sufferings; it turns them into trophies. In this way the resurrection is unspeakable happy news. Tim Keller put it this way:
The Biblical view of things is resurrection—not a future that is just a consolation for the life we never had but a restoration of the life you always wanted. This means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater.5
Like Jesus’s scars, your sufferings will be transformed into trophies that gleam with glory. The resurrection is not simply a return to life as it was; it is the offer of a life that is more happy and filled with satisfaction than you have ever imagined. Remember one of the happiest days of your life and realize that this is only a shadow. Every day in the new creation will be infinitely better than your happiest day on the earth. If the resurrection is true, then suffering has an expiration date.
On the other hand, if you don’t believe in the resurrection, then no comfort is to be found after death, no justice for what you have endured, no ultimate judge who makes all things right. If Jesus’s resurrection is a myth, there is no satisfying response to suffering. At the end, there will be no one to wipe away your tears.
2. Nothing Can Destroy Us
One of the attractions to superhero movies is the invincibility of the star. One of my favorite superhero films is the animated Into the Spiderverse. Miles can be thrown to the ground from great heights, punched into a different universe, or trampled. Yet he somehow always escapes. Though we know that the main character can die, he seems invincible.
In a similar way, the resurrection is satisfying because it confirms that nothing can finally harm those who are in Christ. The resurrection affirms that Christians cannot be destroyed in the ultimate sense. According to Paul, since Jesus has been raised from the dead, nothing can separate Christians from the life of God—not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or the sword (Rom. 8:35). Paul recognizes that many of these things do occur. Some people starve to death. Some are executed with the sword. Some suffer persecution. Some experience distress. Yet in all these things Christians are victorious because no one can take away our life after death. Even if people maim a body, they can’t reverse the resurrection. What a comfort this is. Satan is incapable of destroying us. We’ve been given impenetrable armor.
The resurrection is the Christian’s unrivaled weapon and defense tactic that the enemy cannot conquer. I’m currently watching the Star Wars series with my seven-year-old son. The rebels (the good guys) are continually trying to ascertain the plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star. They must destroy the Death Star before it destroys them. The great news is that our enemy can’t destroy our ultimate weapon, find its secret plans, or turn off its power source. It is beyond what Satan can undermine. There is no countermeasure that can defeat it, no plan that can outmaneuver it, no power that can overcome it. Therefore, the resurrection makes Christians invincible. People can harm a Christian’s body or feelings. They can suppress and persecute Christians. But they can’t take away the resurrection life that is to come.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then there is always the chance that someone can take everything away from you, including your life. However, if Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, then everyone in Christ has a satisfying end to his or her story.
3. You Will See Your Loved Ones Again
The most heartbreaking reality in our world is death. It steals those we love. Death separates us from our loved ones so that we can’t touch, see, smell, or hear them. For many, the reality of death is almost too much to bear.
One of my greatest fears is losing one of my children to some accident and having to live not knowing what the rest of their life would have been like. At random times in the past, I have had a nightmare in which one of my kids was swimming and began to drown. I tried to save them, but the water was too muddy and deep. I searched in panic but couldn’t find them. Then I would wake up.
I know that many people have lost children. I don’t know how they are able to keep going. I know every parent would rather die than see their children die before them. For me, the only comfort is the resurrection. Our bodies are the central means of connecting with others. If there is no body, there is no relationship. The Christian conception of bodily resurrection affirms the restoration of relationships.
The Gospel of John tells the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. When Lazarus’s sister Martha heard of Jesus’s arrival after her brother’s death, she ran to him and said that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been there. Jesus told her that her brother would rise again (John 11:23). Martha agreed that Lazarus would rise in the resurrection on the last day; however, she wanted to see him now, not wait for the last day. Though this story is about Martha not wanting to wait, many readers miss Jesus’s affirmation that Martha would see her brother again, even if Jesus does not raise him from the dead.
The risen Lord Jesus is the King of restoring relationships. He promised Martha that she would see her loved one again. Death is not the end of the story—if there is a resurrection. For those who don’t believe in the resurrection, however, there is no happy reunion. There is no body to connect with. Death is simply the end. This feels like an incomplete story, an un-ending, an anti-resolution.
Notes:
- See Joseph Loconte, “How C. S. Lewis Accepted Christianity,” National Review, April 4, 2021, https://www.nationalreview.com/.
- James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, vol. 1 of Cultural Liturgies (Baker Academic, 2009), 76.
- James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Brazos, 2016), 91.
- Gavin Ortlund, Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism (Baker Academic, 2021), 203, mentions this point.
- Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton, 2008), 32 (emphasis in original).
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, directed by Peter Jackson (New Line Productions, Inc., 2003).
This article is adapted from The Hope of the Resurrection: How Jesus’s Defeat of Death Changes Everything by Patrick Schreiner.
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