Denver Seminary

ENGAGE 23 One summer during my university days, I enrolled in a five-day course on the life of Jesus. The professor was a renowned Bible scholar who not only dazzled the class with his depth of thought but exhausted it with his high-speed, hyper-enthusiastic way of teaching. By the end of the fourth day, many students, while appreciative for what they'd learned, felt overwhelmed, hardly able to absorb another word. Maybe that explains why some slept in on the fifth day and never finished the course. I could have joined the dropouts. But I didn't. Result? On that fifth day of class, my life was redirected. The professor began that morning by mapping out the events of the so-called Holy Week. Then he moved on to the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus. He pictured the anger of the prosecutors, the bewilderment of Jesus' followers. He rehearsed in detail the horrific events at Calvary. And, finally, he reflected on the sealed tomb where Jesus was buried. And that's where things were left at lunchtime. Jesus: dead! But when lunch ended, the mood in the classroom changed. The professor—bursting with enthusiasm—shouted, "Jesus is alive." And with that declaration, he went on to speak of the significance of Christ's resurrection from the dead. I tell you, the man's lectures that afternoon were riveting. It was clear that he believed the Resurrection to be the most important event in history. When the day ended, I retreated to a lonely place and brooded on the implications of a living Christ. Jesus alive? If so, I reasoned, He must be who He said He was: God's Son, fully invested with authority and power to show us the Heavenly Father, deserving of my life's commitment. That evening my adult faith was ignited. I became an intentional Christ-follower. Down through the centuries, a similar experience has come to countless others. And that's why the resurrection of Jesus is at the core of all that is taught at Denver Seminary. BENEDICTION Gordon MacDonald, DD CHANCELLOR "Christ died for humanity's redemption, and his death on the cross is shared by all believers. Christ has been raised, according to Scripture, and he will return, having destroyed every ruler, authority, and power, including death itself. God's work in Christ is available to everyone— forgiveness of sins and new, abundant life in the Spirit. The believers' future is secure, because the hope is founded in Christ's resurrection, the firstfruits that indicate a complete harvest in the future." Dr. Lynn Cohick "The Resurrection is at the core of the Christian faith and the Christian life. Without the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no gospel message, no future hope, and no new life in Christ. With the Resurrection, Christianity stands unique in all the world." Dr. Doug Groothuis "It will not do to pretend that the story of the resurrection was a much later, mythological fabrication, long after the people who knew what really did or didn't happen were gone!" Dr. Craig L. Blomberg "Men are dead in trespasses and sins, and He who said 'I am the resurrection and the life' raises them up and makes them alive to righteousness and purity and holiness; only God can do that. Men are helplessly lost and undone, and He who said 'I am the way' saves them and remakes them so that they truly become new creations; and only God can do that." Dr. Vernon Grounds WORD FOR WORD

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