You and I have a choice, just as Peter and John had a choice: to listen to God and believe Him enough to obey His words and please Him. Or listen to men and follow their rules to please them.
(NASB) Acts 4:19-20 “But Peter and John answered and said to them (Council of Jewish authorities), ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge;
20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”
Can you and I relate to Peter and John’s stand against men who had authority, who were trained and learned men? Are we willing to do that also?
Peter and John personally experienced the risen Jesus – they were with Him after his resurrection and touched His resurrected body. And they knew that He had died and had been buried and was given physical life! It is called resurrection.
After Jesus was resurrected, they heard Him, they were with Him, they touched Him and they shared meals with Him.
They knew (without any doubt) of Jesus being actually resurrected from the grave. His body had died and afterwards He was raised from the dead and given life by God the Father.
Their personal experience was valid (well-grounded; sound; supportable), was viable (living), verifiable (to prove truth of or by the presentation of evidence or testimony).
Followers of Christ can also say they know Jesus has been raised from the dead – God’s word prophesied that it would happen, and it did!
Have I seen His risen physical body? No. Have I heard His very real voice or touched His physical hands of skin, muscle and bones? No, I haven’t.
I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the witness, the testimony of Peter and John and many others recorded in God’s words, the Holy Bible.
I believe that God’s words are truth – for He does not lie, indeed, cannot lie for He is the holy God.
(NIV) Psalm 119:160 “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.”
(NASB) Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
(NASB) Titus 1:2 “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago…”
My faith is in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, my faith is valid (I have experienced His peace after receiving His forgiveness through faith in Him, it is well-grounded and sound), it is viable (it is a living faith because I know God is with me day by day, He does not forsake me, He gives me a hunger and thirst for His righteousness Matthew 5:6), it is verifiable (my life has been changed and is being transformed, others can verify this!).
~ Take it to heart ~
Is your faith in Jesus well-grounded (valid), a living faith (viable) and can it be proven because of the transformation in your life (verifiable)?