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The resurrection of Christ
Tuesday 3 June
In the course of my work on a new biography of John Stott, I have re-read some words of the liberal church historian and theologian, David Edwards. They are thoughtful and worth reproducing: ´The gospels do not claim that Pilate, Caiaphas, the other enemies of Jesus or the mob repented because they found the weight of the evidence for the empty tomb overwhelming: the direct experience was essential before there could be faith. Frequently Paul insists on the absolute necessity of a trusting faith and of the spiritual rebirth. I have found in my own experience, and in all that I know of other people’s, that the empty tomb almost always seems incredible unless one has this felt, active, all-transforming faith in the utter uniqueness of the one Lord – the Lord whom one must follow in his suffering before one glimpses his victory. One has to belong to the company of those whose hearts, in so far as they are attached to the world known to the passions or to science, history and normal everyday experience, have been broken. One has to know something of what Paul meant when he said that "if only for this life we have hope in Christ we are to be pitied more than all men" (1 Corinthians 15:19.)´
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