Second, we should remember the resurrection because so long as we remember it, we will always have a supernatural Gospel.
Aren’t you just a bit tired of all the human schemes for human betterment, particularly since they do not really seem to be solving the deep human problems or improving our culture or environment? You do not even have to be a Christian to be disenchanted. Not long ago a leading news magazine published a special series of essays under the general title, “Second Thoughts About Man.” It was a good series, designed to examine the areas of modern life that have most often been looked to for solutions to the problems of crime, poverty, prejudice, and others that trouble us. But what was the conclusion? The conclusion, which was intended to reflect the views of those in the fields of behavioral psychology, religion, education, and science, was simply that these lines of approach have failed and that probably all purely human attempts to deal with man’s perverse nature will also prove fruitless.
The magazine said, “At the heart of the ferment of the ’70s is a deep, even humble perception that man and his universe are more complex than he recently thought. . . . Optimism had bred a false enthusiasm that this method or that system was somehow the answer. Now some of the growing skepticism questions whether any system can ever fully surmount the recalcitrance and perversity of man.”1
If the behavioral psychologists, religious figures, educators, and scientists are telling us that the ultimate hope for man is not to be found in the fields in which they are working, where is that hope to be found? They are not saying that there is no good in what they are doing. They are accomplishing much and are rightly proud of it. But they are saying that even the best that they can do has its limits and that the ultimate problems lie deep in man’s nature and are beyond merely human control. They cannot solve them. If the most brilliant men of our time cannot solve our problems, then who or what can? The only answer is something beyond man and nature, something superhuman and supernatural.
It is this that Christianity offers. It is wrapped up in our entire remembrance of the resurrection. The resurrection is a proof of new life and great power. It was seen in Christ, and it can be seen in anybody who will commit himself to Christ through faith and thus be united to Him by the Spirit of the living God. Christ can change lives. He has changed lives. He has done in millions that which no power of earth could ever accomplish.
Has he done that for you? I am thankful that He did that for me. I am glad to recommend to you a Gospel which is frankly supernatural and which can therefore change both ourselves and our society.
1Time, April 2, 1973, 78.
