The Difference a Day Makes

Can you think of a pivotal day when something important changed the course of your life? Remember the day you accepted Christ as Savior? What about the day you graduated from high school or college? Your wedding day? Or the day a child or grandchild was born?

Bad days change things, too. Maybe you remember a day when the boss said, "You're fired," or your spouse said, "I'm leaving," or the doctor said, "Your condition is incurable."

No day ever changed things more than the day when Jesus rose from the dead. Imagine what our world would be like if the resurrection never happened. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, he was a false teacher—for he claimed to be the Son of God, predicted his resurrection as proof, and claimed power to raise others from the dead as well (Matthew 16:4, 21; John 2:18-22; 11:23-26). If he's still in the grave, baptism and the Lord's Supper lose their meaning—for a dead Savior can't really save anyone, commune with anyone, or answer anyone's prayers. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, the apostles were fools for preaching Christ, writing the New Testament, and giving their lives as martyrs for a false faith—and we who believe their testimony are gullible, hopeless fools worthy only of pity (1 Corinthians 15:19).

But what a difference a day makes! Three days after he shook the earth during Jesus' crucifixion, God shook the earth again—and the aftershocks still continue. Brisk eyewitness narratives describe the scene: lightning-like angels, terrified guards, bewildered women, skeptical apostles, an empty tomb, leftover graveclothes neatly folded. People running, Mary crying, Jesus appearing, Thomas doubting. Chief priests and elders scheming up a damage-control plot to pay off guards who couldn't keep their dead prisoner from escaping! Jesus teaching and eating and rebuking and explaining and convincing for 40 days until there's no denying: He is alive!

"With the Lord . . . a thousand years are like a day" (2 Peter 3:8). From God's perspective, a thousand years can pass as swiftly as a day does to us. So consider the other half of Peter's words: "a day is like a thousand years." God can compress a millennium of meaning into a moment of time. What eternal significance God packed into the day Jesus rose from the dead!

No other historical event surpasses the importance of Jesus' resurrection. Christ is when he claimed to be—the victorious Son of God. Anyone who can conquer sin and death as Jesus did demands our attention and deserves our devotion.

His resurrection changed the disciples from fearful huddlers in an upper room to bold witnesses in the streets of Jerusalem. It changed Saul of Tarsus from a persecutor to a missionary. It changed Jesus' skeptical brother James to a loyal church leader and a New Testament writer. It changed history. And if you're a Christian, it's changed you.

What a difference a day makes! And there's another great day coming. The risen Lord will make another dramatic postresurrection appearance on the day he comes again. That's our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:15).

That's why today and every day, Christians sing and celebrate and remind a dying world, "He is alive!" And that makes all the difference in the world.