This Actually Happened

On one hand, the resurrection is a fact to be believed. On the other hand, it is an experience to connect with. If you have one without the other - if you believe in the resurrection as historical fact but have never experience the resurrection personally, orif you think of the resurrection as a spiritual experience but don't believe it was a fact - you come out with a form of religion with no power.

My question is: Do you know them both? Do you believe in the resurrection as a historical event, and have you also had that profound personal experience of spiritual resurrection? Christianity refuses to be stuck in either category. It is not all about rationality, or it it all about mysticism. It's both. On one hand, Christianity is about beliefs, propositions, and ethics. But that's not enough. You have to experience him to know him. There has to be a real connection. And on the other hand, Christianity is not only a mystical religion. It's not like Eastern religions with no rational content. Christianity has hard edges to it. It says, "This is true, and this is false. This will get you saved. This will get you damned. This actually happened."

Timothy Keller

From the book Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross by Nancy Guthrie