Opening the Scriptures
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized [Jesus], and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” ~ Luke 24.31-32 NIV
1 Peter, Standing of God's People # 3
Reasons for Peter's Living Hope
A Supplemental Study
David Anguish
We previously saw that 1 Peter begins with praise: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter’s declaration is a response to God’s merciful action to give Christians a “new birth,” the renewal that is the basis for “a living hope.” Both the transformation and hope are accomplished “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1.3).
As we read his letter, it is not hard to imagine Peter remembering his own journey from despondency over Jesus’ death to optimism upon discovering the empty tomb and seeing the risen Lord. He knew firsthand that failure did not have to be the final word and that death was not the end of his story (cf. Luke 22.62; Acts 2.14–36). He was therefore confident in encouraging his suffering readers to endure. His outlook continues to inspire our assurance as we experience our own trials.
But the antisupernaturalist assumption that pervades our culture poses a serious challenge to that confidence. Beasley-Murray reminds us that this assumption is “a remnant of the deism that flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and a mechanistic view of science which developed, ironically, from the deeply religious Sir Isaac Newton.” He also observes that, because the view is generally assumed, “it is not uncommon to hear the miracle stories of the Bible grouped along with the fairy stories of childhood; to relate the miracles of Jesus to children in Sunday schools does no harm, but adults shouldn’t be expected to believe them!” (Beasley-Murray 1996, 66). In his summary of the view, Colin Brown calls attention to an underlying premise behind it that we must continue to address.
To a modern person steeped in the humanistic and technological culture of the Western world, miracle stories hardly merit serious consideration. They are frequently dismissed as products of the credulous, prescientific world. Scientists and historians are therefore inclined to treat tales of the miraculous as data that tell more about the outlook of other cultures rather than actual events. To those who think like this, the miracle stories of the Bible are downright incredible. Instead of providing grounds for believing and adopting a theistic view of the world in which God acts in history, they provide good reasons for not believing (Brown 1987, 15).
In light of the current assumption, which is opposed to Peter’s conviction that Jesus’ resurrection is foundational for a living, confident hope, we will pause our examination of the letter’s instruction to briefly review why the first Christians accepted the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.
Inquiring Believers
We must first address the claim that the original Christians accepted the resurrection only because they lived in a credulous, prescientific world. This step is also important in our churches, for, as Brown observes, many worshipers have “split minds” in which they honor “the old world view” on Sunday, “but for the rest of the week … think and behave in the realm of the natural and the human” (Brown 1987, 14).
We need to show that neither ancient people generally nor the first Christians were as credulous about the miraculous as critics allege. Paul, for example, said he knew of people who found the resurrection “incredible” (Acts 26.8). Among them were those in the Corinthian church who were saying, “‘There is no resurrection of the dead,” despite having heard the proclamation that Christ had been raised (1 Cor 15.12).
Their skepticism did not mean that all believers were credulous, however. According to the Gospels, the disciples who first learned of the empty tomb had to be convinced it was empty and then that Jesus had been raised. Those who first discovered it knew something had happened, but not what. For example, when Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb, “she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!’” (John 20.2; cf. vv. 13–16; Mark 16.3).
Peter and the others did not respond to Mary’s bewilderment with a correction based on a reminder of Jesus’ predictions (cf. Matt 16.21; 17.23; 20.17; etc.). They investigated for themselves (John 20.3–9, 28; Luke 24.9–12, 22–24), and then took steps to ensure they were not deceived. According to Luke, when Jesus suddenly stood in their midst late on the day they discovered the empty tomb,
They were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. “Why are you troubled?” he asked them. “And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself! Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” Having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. But while they still were amazed and in disbelief because of their joy, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence (Luke 24.37–43; cf. John 20.19–25).
The records also say that the disciples believed only after they had adequate evidence to do so (John 20.25–27; Luke 24.25–30, 39–40, 42–43). In their declarations to others, they offered evidence in support of their resurrection claim, including references to multiple witnesses in different settings who had seen the risen Jesus (1 Cor 15.5–8). And, as Habermas points out, Paul’s account of that evidence continues to be important for our use; 1 Corinthians 15.1–11: (1) is some of the earliest documentary evidence of what the Christians believed, written just twenty years after the crucifixion; (2) states the message of the original preachers who proclaimed it (vv. 9–11); and (3) is a text that even many critical scholars agree is a credible historical report of what the first Christians preached (Habermas 2006, 127–133).
Considering the Evidence
As we think here about the reasons they believed the resurrection occurred, we’ll focus on Peter’s sermon in Acts 2.22–36. With fulfilled prophecy at his argument’s core, Peter devotes twelve of the sermon’s fifteen verses to Jesus’ resurrection and enthronement (vv. 24–35), and includes two claims that ground the event in history.
First, after noting the expectation of the event from the words of David (vv. 25–28; from Ps 16.8–11), Peter says that, unlike David’s burial site, Jesus’ tomb was empty (vv. 29–31). Beasley-Murray reminds us that the importance of the fact that he first declared the resurrection in Jerusalem, where the events had occurred just seven weeks earlier, cannot be overstated: “Paul Althaus affirmed that the proclamation of the resurrection ‘could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned’” (Beasley-Murray 1996, 61; as cited in Pannenburg 1968, 100).
But, while necessary to establish the fact of resurrection, the empty tomb is not sufficient to prove Jesus was raised; other explanations for a missing body are plausible. So, setting the precedent that the earliest preachers would consistently follow, Peter introduces a second item of evidence: “We are all witnesses of this” (Acts 2.32; cf. 3.15; 5.32; 10.41; 13.31; 1 Cor 15.3–8). Or, to use Paul’s word, the risen Jesus “was seen by” multiple people in different circumstances (1 Cor 15.5–8 NKJV; reflecting the four uses of the passive verb form, ὤφθη [ōphthē] in vv. 5–8). That the witnesses were credible finds support in the accounts of their initial skepticism, quality of their subsequent lives, and willingness to die for what they believed was true (McDowell and Wilson 1988, 118–122).
A Fact That Matters
Conditions in our world require us to continue presenting this evidence. But making a case for the resurrection in a skeptical world is not all the first preachers did. As Wright observes, in the NT, “the resurrection of Jesus is not just a single detached article of faith. It is woven into the very structure of Christian life and thought, informing (among other things) baptism, justification, ethics and the future hope both for humans and the cosmos” (Wright 1999, 126). That Peter understood that truth is clear from his declaration that Jesus’ resurrection is the basis for newness of life, living hope for a suffering church, and the assurance that “Christ will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. To him be dominion forever. Amen” (1 Pet 5.10–11; cf. 1.3, 21; 3.21; 4.16).
Works Cited
Beasley-Murray, George R. 1996. Preaching the Gospel from the Gospels. Hendrickson Publishers.
Brown, Colin. 1987. History and Faith: A Personal Exploration. Academie Books.
Habermas, Gary R. 2006. “Why I Believe the Miracles of Jesus Actually Happened.” Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe. ed. Norman L. Geisler and Paul K. Hoffman. rev. & exp., 120–134. Baker Books.
McDowell, Josh, and Bill Wilson. 1988. He Walked Among Us: Evidence for the Historical Jesus. Here’s Life Publishers.
Pannenburg, W. 1968. Jesus, God and Man. SCM. In Beasley-Murray 1996.
Wright, N. T. 1999. The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is. InterVarsity Press.
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An Additional Thought
“As rather more will need to be said in this section about the Cross than about the Resurrection, it is specially important to emphasize at the start that, for Paul, there is no good news in the former apart from the latter, and we may be sure that, wherever he speaks to the former without also referring directly and explicitly to the latter, he is always assuming the truth of the latter. It was the Resurrection which put God’s seal upon the Cross and made clear its altogether and transcendent significance.”
~ C. E. B. Crainfield. 1979. “Essay II: Concluding Remarks on Some Aspects of the Theology of Romans.” The Epistle to the Romans, vol. II. The International Critical Commentary. T & T Clark, 826
Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible quotations are from the CSB
(All emphasis in Bible quotations added by the author)
Permission is granted to reprint original materials with the credit line, “Reprinted from David Anguish, ‘Opening the Scriptures,’ October 13, 2026”
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