Why do Christians believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

          For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
          The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an essential truth in the Christian faith. In fact, it lays the foundation of our faith. As Paul delivers this message, “ If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:14), the resurrection of Jesus Christ laid down the substance of its significance. For if Jesus Christ was not raised from the dead, then our faith is baseless and futile.
          As we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, we are faced with the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because the validity of our faith is based on His resurrection from the dead, establishing the actuality of the event is the triumph of Christianity. What then are the truths of the resurrection that we can solidly base our faith on?
          Witness of the Scriptures. The gospel books all agree to the event of the stone rolled away, the grave made empty, and the angelic news proclaimed to the disciples. All four gospel books proclaimed that Jesus Christ was risen (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20)! All books also record the announcement by the angels, and the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to a number of the disciples, to certain women, and to the disciples on the road, and on different occasions, to the eleven apostles. Even the book of Acts stands to the event of Jesus Christ’s appearance to the disciples with infallible, convincing, and decisive proofs forty days after (Acts 1:3). Even the replacement of the 12th disciple was made for the purpose of witness to His resurrection (Acts 1:22), and with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:33). Paul, whose life was a total turnabout because of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, proclaimed that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Acts 13:30) and he lived until his last breath preaching Jesus Christ and His resurrection (Acts 17:18).
          Eyewitness Accounts. The account of numerous witnesses serves as a very strong evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. During biblical times, establishing a truthful account should be accomplished by two or three witnesses to the claim, and all three witnesses must agree among each other (Deuteronomy 19:15). Even Paul requires that every Scripture be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1). These collaborating, cooperating, and corresponding testimonies are essential in establishing the truth through witnesses’ account. As eyewitness accounts were considered highly in establishing the veracity of truth being advanced, the resurrection of Jesus Christ had been substantially established when Paul spoke of the risen Jesus Christ’s appearance to over 500 people at one time, adding that most of them are still alive (1 Corinthians 15:6). With such number of people who stood as witnesses to the resurrection, it is unlikely that these number of people were simply misled of such an important event in human history.
          Transformed Lives of the Disciples. When Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples at various occasions, He fulfilled the prophecy of His death and resurrection (John 2:19, Matthew 26:61, Mark 14:58), proved His resurrection power (2 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Timothy 3:16), and fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; Luke 24:49). These events that proved once and for all that Jesus Christ was risen and is alive, caused the disciples to be more bold and courageous in proclaiming His message of love and salvation to the very ends of the Earth. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave, His disciples would have cowered in fear and the Church would not have prospered. But what caused the surge of courage even unto death and boldness over disillusionment, cowardice, fear and unbelief was the confidence in the actual sight and experience of Jesus Christ in His glorified flesh! The event of the resurrection was not a product of the disciples’ imagination and disenchantment. It was, in fact, the building up of a courageous faith in Jesus Christ’s unmistakable resurrected appearance. Andrew and Bartholomew, as well as James, son of Alpheus, Matthew, Philip and Simon were crucified. Peter was crucified upside down. James, brother of Jesus, was stoned. James, son of Zebedee, was killed by the sword. Thaddeus was killed by arrows and Thomas died of a spear thrust. Who would be willing to die for a lie about their risen Lord and Savior?
          Ease of Disproof. The soldiers who stood watch outside the tomb of Jesus were bribed by the chief priests to spread the rumor that Jesus Christ’s disciples stole His body while they were sleeping (Matthew 28:12-14). If the rumor were true, the soldiers, the chief priests, and the enemies of Jesus could have run after the disciples and showed the proof of his actual dead body. It is true that an actual corpse on the grave could have destroyed the whole essence of Christianity. But there was no record ever written as to the search for the missing corpse of Jesus Christ. It was, in fact, very easy for the enemies of Christianity to show Jesus Christ’s corpse. After all, His disciples were still in hiding in fear for their lives (Mark 14:50, Matthew 26:56, John 20:19), so they are incapable of concocting a good idea of a secure place to hide the corpse of Jesus Christ. The sight of Jesus’ resurrected body was claimed by hundreds of witnesses, and to disprove the claim needed the proof of the habeas corpus. None ever cared to produce a disproof.
           Survival of Christianity. The basis of Christian faith would have remained an illusion or a lie had Jesus Christ remained in the grave. If the disciples were wrong about what they had witnessed, heard and received, then the Christian faith would have been established on wishful thinking and fantasy, falsehood and disillusionment. But century after century, persecution from one monarchy to another, from Nero to Domitian, from Trajan and Adrian to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, from Maximus and Decius, from Valerian to Aurelian and Diocletian, with thousands and thousands of modern day Christians persecuted in North Korea, Somalia and Iraq, to Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan, the church of Jesus Christ survives and continues to proclaim the gospel of love, compassion, salvation, and the practice of turning the other cheek. Despite the Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in Jesus Christ, the church of Jesus Christ around the world nearly quadrupled in the last 100 years, from about 600 million in 1920 to more than 2 billion in 2010. That is almost ⅓ of the present world population! Christians in areas with severe religious restrictions pay a heavy price for their faith. Suffering from verbal harassment to hostile feelings, attitudes and actions, beatings, physical torture, confinement, isolation, rape, severe punishment, imprisonment, slavery, discrimination in education and employment, and even death, are just a few examples of the persecution that the Christian church experiences on a daily basis. Yet the church survives through the power of the risen Lord (Psalm 46:10, 2 Corinthians 12:10)!