With Easter having just passed, and given the enormous popularity of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” I asked myself what I ponder every Easter season:  “On what basis should I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive today?”

To me, that is the foundational question of Christianity.  The Christian faith is based on historical events and facts, not just spiritual ideas or experiences such as “Do humans have a soul?”, or “Does faith in a higher power have good psychological effects?”

Here’s part of the evidence that I consider.  The 13 New Testament letters written from the pen of the Apostle Paul, a contemporary of Jesus, indicate that Paul claimed to have seen the risen Jesus.  The people living in and around Jerusalem during the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, many of them very hostile to Jesus, could have produced Jesus’ body following his death, if he had not risen from the dead.  The diversity of the many writers of the New Testament all claiming to believe in the resurrection seems credible, and certainly as worthy of my confidence as in the skeptics of our day.

Put simply, if the events now being celebrated by Christians throughout the world are false – if they did not happen or will not happen – then Christianity is false and no one should believe it.

But the events not only are historical.  To me, they point to the fact that Jesus is both sovereign (he was raised from the dead) and merciful (He died for our sins). 

As I get older, I feel a greater need for mercy.  Like everyone, I have a guilty conscience.  I have failed to live up to my own standards, let alone God’s.  With hundreds in my congregation, I stood on Resurrection Sunday and prayed a prayer admitting my sin, stating that I am more in trouble with God than with myself. 

If God is sovereign, holding the world together by his power, but not merciful, I am done for.  There is no hope.  I may as well eat, drink and be merry.  My heart tells me I need a Savior who is full of mercy.

On the other hand, if God is merciful, but he doesn’t have the sovereignty to rule the forces that threaten us, what good would his mercy be?  Humanity is fragile and vulnerable in hundreds of ways.

What will happen in Iraq?  What will happen between Israel and the Palestinians?  What will happen with North Korea and its nuclear threat?  When will the next 9/11 come to American soil?  What will happen to my health? Or the health of my spouse, children and parents?  What natural disaster will befall my family?

Can any of us protect ourselves from these things?  In fact, many devote their lives trying to become more and more secure from disaster.  They become what theologian John Piper calls “a pitiful old man or woman barricaded and lonely behind the illusion of self-made security.”

After Jesus’ resurrection and just before he ascended into heaven, he said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  The resurrection means that Jesus is risen.  And that means he is sovereign.  He has authority over Iraq and Israel and North Korea and all natural disasters. 

What’s remarkable during this season of resurrection is that God does not use his sovereignty against us.  That’s because he’s merciful.  Prior to his crucifixion, Jesus predicted that his disciples would desert him.  “You will all fall away because of me this night.”  And they did.  Peter denied Jesus three times, deserting him during his greatest hour of need.

But Jesus said, “After I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”  What a picture of mercy.  Here is Jesus saying he would be the friend, leader and God of those who deserted him.

Who of us has treated someone far worse than they deserve, only later to discover that they didn’t speak to anyone about it?  They didn’t bad-mouth us, or plot revenge.  They were kind to us.  That’s mercy, and it is one of the sweetest things in the world.

You can spend a lifetime deserting, betraying and denying the risen Lord.  But those who humbly turn to him find a sovereign, merciful God.  The risen Lord of Christianity mercifully forgives sins forever.  By his sovereignty he guides and protects us so that nothing happens to us that ultimately is not good for us.