Signature of Approval

He is Risen Just as He Said – Matthew 28:6

As a business owner, I am frequently asked to sign stuff.  Whether it is contracts or agreements or what have you.  The signature is a stamp of authority.  I recently discovered that I can digitally sign documents and therefore do not have to print the signature page out only to have to scan or fax it anyway.  So I now digitally sign everything.  Adobe has a way of verifying the signature.  When I save the document prior to signing it, it puts some kind of encryption ID that if someone tried to alter the document, it would invalidate the signature.  Thus, once I sign a document, no one could forge it, at least electronically. 

When I think of the resurrection, I think that it is a signature.  It is God’s stamp that Jesus’ death on the cross was validated and the atonement was accepted.  Even if you accepted what the Scriptures say as pointing to a suffering Messiah and you believed that Jesus would die the death he predicted, you could not possibly be sure it was accepted without the resurrection.  That is why Paul puts so much emphasis on it in 1st Corinthians 15.  Without it, we are silly people (Paul says of all people most to be pitied).  With it, we have the power of God.  It is not a trivial event.  An unsigned document could commit our company to a whole bunch of tasks but without the signature of someone in authority, it is just a bunch of words with no teeth.

Now my digital signature is effectively an electronic witness.  Adobe knows that I am the one signing it because I do it on my computer.  In a manual signature, a notary public (someone licensed to be a witness) testifies that I am the one signing it.  In the case of the resurrection, there needed to be eyewitnesses and there were – many.  1st Corinthians 15 says there were more than 500 at one time.  These eyewitnesses verified the resurrected Christ and many of them were alive at the time the Gospels were written.  No fake out here – it is authenticated.  Do you think the disciples would have gone out with power from where they were unless the resurrection was authenticated?     The resurrection launched the power source because when Jesus went up, the Holy Spirit came down. 

Digitally signed by God.