We gather, we sing, we say the words — *He is risen, He is risen indeed* — and then we go home and eat ham (or Chicken Biryani) and wonder if we actually believe what we just said. Not because we’re bad people. But because the resurrection is an audacious claim. A man died. A man rose. And somehow, that changes everything about everything.

I was once asked on a podcast if there was anything that could shake my faith and cause me to move from belief to disbelief.

I responded simply - Yes, show me the body.

So let’s slow down and actually deal with it.

The Cross Was Not a Defeat

Before we get to the empty tomb, we have to understand the cross rightly. Because most people, even many Christians; read the cross as a tragedy that God turned into a triumph. Like Jesus lost round one and won round two.

But that’s not what happened.

Jesus on the cross was victorious, not defeated. Here’s why that matters: the cross was understood in the ancient world as the ultimate sign of judgment and shame. It was the place where criminals were condemned. It was Rome’s loudest statement that this person had been tried, found guilty, and executed.

But Jesus reverses this. He doesn’t just survive the cross — He judges sin and death on the cross. The place of judgment becomes the instrument of victory. The victory of Jesus makes possible our reconciliation, repairing the rupture that impacted all of creation at the fall — the relationship between God and humanity, fractured in Genesis 3. And that reconciliation isn’t just individualistic, its communal. It sends us outward. The reality of our union with Jesus requires us to proclaim His victory in a broken world that is desperately longing for restoration.

Which is exactly what Easter is.

Dealing With Our Doubt

John 20:1-10 gives us a scene of confusion and doubt. The women come to the tomb. The disciples run. Nobody quite knows what to make of the empty grave. And Luke 24 tells us that when the women reported what they had seen, “these words seemed like nonsense to them.”

Could the resurrection actually be true?

It’s a fair question. Let me give you two reasons to take it seriously.

1. First: It was anticipated. Psalm 16:10 declares, “You will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay.” Scholars have traced the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament and found close to 300 — all of them fulfilled in Jesus. Just take 8 of those 300. The mathematical probability of one person fulfilling just 8 messianic prophecies by chance is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That’s a 1 with 17 zeroes behind it. To illustrate: it would be like filling the entire state of Texas with silver dollars one foot deep, marking one of them red, mixing them all together, blindfolding someone, and asking them to reach down and pick the marked coin on the first try.

2. Second: There is no body. 2,000 years later and nobody has produced a skeleton. No bones. No grave. Every alternative theory

   1. The swoon theory

   2. The stolen body theory

   3. The hallucination theory,

   4. The twins theory

All of these collapses under scrutiny. What we do have is endless evidence of a man who fulfilled every messianic prophecy of the Old Testament, who lived and loved his people to the point of death, and whom death and sin could not hold in the grave.

The empty tomb is empty because Jesus is victorious.

What the Resurrection Means

Paul puts it plainly in 1 Corinthians 15: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?” So what does the resurrection actually mean for us?

The resurrection puts the dark forces of the world on notice. It dealt a fatal blow to the enemy. Their final defeat is not coming — it has already been secured. As Paul writes, “None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). The cross looked like their victory. It was their undoing.

The resurrection is a promise of new heavens and new earth. In his resurrected body, Jesus walked, talked, ate, and was in fellowship with those he loved. This is a preview. Revelation 21 tells us that God’s dwelling will be with humanity, that death will be no more, grief will be no more, crying and pain will be no more. The resurrection of Jesus is not just about what happened to Him. It’s a down payment on what happens to all of creation.

This Is Why We Say, “He Is Risen”

So when we say “He is Risen” on Easter Sunday, we are not just reciting a tradition.

We are proclaiming a statement of fact, backed by eyewitnesses and a 2,000-year tradition that has never been successfully refuted.

We are testifying to something that this broken world longs for — that death is not the end, that sin does not win, that the story is not over.

And we are declaring a truth that is available to us as well. Because He rose, we can rise. Because He lives, we can have eternal life. Because He is united to the Father, we can be united to the Father.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

And that is the most important thing you will hear today. And these words will continue to be proclaimed until the one who is risen, returns.

In a world consumed with “what can I get” and “how does this benefit me” — in a culture that designs mobile devices to make taking selfies easier and almost automatic, we find ourselves in great danger.

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And before we think this is a new or novel idea, we would be wise to remember that there is nothing new under the sun. The people who celebrated Jesus as he entered Jerusalem had their own motives and agendas. They had their own terms, their own conditions, for accepting the kingship of Jesus. Those terms were communicated through the symbols they held and the words they shouted.

John 12:12–15 (CSB): The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him.

It would be easy to gloss over the symbol of palm branches, but that would be a crucial mistake. The palm branch was both a religious symbol and a symbol of revolt and rebellion. In 1 Maccabees 13:51, there is a historical description of a celebration for Simon of the Maccabees after a victory over the Syrians. Earlier in Jewish history, the palm was even minted on coins during times of rebellion. In other words, by the time Jesus is being celebrated, the palms had become a symbol of nationalistic hope — and the people greeted Jesus with nationalistic expectation.

The symbols they held powerfully reinforced the words they shouted.

The word Hosanna is Aramaic, literally a plea: “Save us, please.” The next phrase — “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” — comes from Psalm 118:26, likely a greeting used for a king leading his people into the temple after a military victory. The strings attached to their cheers were rooted in nationalistic hope and the expectation of an earthly king. In all fairness, this is completely understandable. But it was not the intent or aim of Jesus.

Have you ever considered the symbols and words of Jesus in response?

Jesus rides in on a donkey. This was intentional and should have been an alarming sight for the cheering crowd. In the ancient world, the symbol of war was a horse, a stallion. The symbol of peace was a colt, a donkey. Jesus rode in on the symbol of shalom - not war. He kept teaching his disciples, then and now, that the ethics of the Kingdom of God are subversive to the kingdoms of the world. Just read Matthew 5 the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the Beatitudes.

In just a few days, the same crowd that cheered Jesus with celebration would chant and scream for his crucifixion.

The. Same. Crowd.

Let that sink in.

How do we know it’s the same crowd?

Both John 12:12 and Matthew 21:15 use the Greek word ὄχλος to describe the crowd Luke calls disciples. The word ὄχλος/crowd means a massive mob, a gang, an assembly of people. It is the exact same word used for those who gathered in Matthew 21:15. The ὄχλος yelled to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus.

As we ponder this change of heart by the same crowd that once cheered for their arriving King, only to cry out for his death days later - we have an opportunity to reflect in a way that crowd did not.

Today, Palm Sunday, is where we are confronted with our terms. Our own preconceived notions of who we want Jesus to be and how we want him to act. We see it in the world today.

The world wants war, believing that peace can only be achieved through force. Jesus brings peace through his own suffering and self-sacrifice on the cross.

The world wants unity through uniformity found in echo chambers of worldviews that treat Godly virtues like humility, compassion, and empathy as weaknesses to be rejected at all costs. Jesus establishes a unity marked by diversity. There is room in the family of God for you to be distinctly who you are as long as, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12, we all live in harmony.

To live in harmony is to have our thoughts, actions, and beliefs ordered by our allegiance to King Jesus.

The world wants to exalt the strong, the proud, and the powerful. Jesus shows us that God uses the weak, the powerless, and the humble for his purposes.

So what is the actual condition of our hearts in relationship to Jesus? Do we want Jesus on our terms, or his?

We are so consumed with me that the person of Jesus has been repackaged in our own image to meet our own needs and desires. This is, in fact, a perversion of sanctification. Sanctification has both an aim and an ambition. The aim is King Jesus. The ambition is to become like the one we are aiming for.

Everything in me wants to tie this up in a neat bow. But sometimes, that’s the worst thing we can do. The best thing is to sit in the tension — to allow the uneasy conflict within our souls to lead us to honesty, humility, and ultimately a willing submission to Jesus on his terms.

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A key to living in submission and allegiance to Jesus is the ancient virtue of humility. Humility is the soil of the Christian life. We are planted into the humble life of Christ. We grow from that place in spiritual maturity as we are being conformed into the image of Jesus. These next few days leading up to Easter would be the perfect time to dedicate to cultivating humility. You can do this intentionally by reading, “The Hidden Peace.” A book that unpacks the Biblical theology of humility and why it is so important for our lives today.

Get The Hidden Peace

The other day, walking into a church in Lubbock, TX to speak at a college ministry, I had a panic attack. In the moment, I didn’t realize what was happening to me. In my mind I was totally fine, but my body had finally had enough. It triggered a response to help my mind catch up to the constant state of panic, anxiety, and chaos I had been feeling for the last four weeks since my book, The Unseen Battle, released.

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I sat in the green room and found myself on my knees in prayer, earnestly asking the Lord to calm my nerves, bring healing to my body, and meet me in my weakness. He did just that — through His Word. I picked up my Bible and flipped to Psalm 46, a passage I’ve come to truly treasure. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, Psalm 46 reminds us:

I suspect many of you have had some of these same feelings. And if you haven’t yet, it may happen sooner than you’d like. I’m convinced that in these times of constant chaos, we need to renew our commitment to the Word of God. It is in the pages of these God-breathed scriptures that we encounter the unchanging God who cares for us and meets us in our weakness and fear.

I know Bible study can be hard. Devotions can feel dull at times, and honestly, the time commitment alone can feel daunting. This is why I’m excited to share a new podcast I’m hosting this season for the NIV Application Bible.

Watch The Devotions

Most devotions are less than six minutes. You can watch them on YouTube while you multitask, or simply listen. Either way, you’ll get Bible, theology, and practical application for your life today.

The first few episodes have already released! Praying these quick but deep devotions equip you in your personal study and encourage you in your love for King Jesus!

In Christ,

Joel

P.S. - if you want to follow along with me, you can pick up your copy the NIV Application Bible!

NIV Application Bible

And fittingly, launch week was… a battle.

Not just the kind you see, but the kind you feel.

On the very day the book was released, I had to fly to Dallas. We found out my dad had to undergo triple bypass heart surgery. What was supposed to be one surgery became more complicated: a valve replacement was added, and the procedure was delayed because of how complex everything became.

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Flights were canceled. Then delayed.
Plans unraveled. Charlotte was hit with a massive snow storm that we haven’t had in almost 10 years which created more travel delays.
Organizational hiccups surfaced with a live stream we had planned to launch the book.
Complications piled up with relational dynamics, some I can’t even talk about.

And yet, here’s what is still true today:

Christ is victorious.
The dark powers have been stripped of their ability to blind the nations.
The gospel is still the best news anyone could ev…

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In Homer’s telling of the fall of Troy, the war is fought over Helen. Every battle is always fought over something. In Troy’s case, it wasn’t ultimately brute strength that brought the city down, but deception that was made possible because obsession.

The Trojan Horse wasn’t a military failure.
It was a failure of discernment.

The Trojans, and King Priam interpreted the horse as a sign of divine favor.

In reality, it was a beautifully packaged act of vanity, designed to deceive from the inside out.

Troy didn’t fall because of what attacked it from the outside, but because of what it willingly welcomed in.

Troy fell because of what it let inside.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Today, spiritual warfare rarely looks like open confrontation. It looks like deception. It looks like the slow sleight of hand that convinces us we’re experiencing “divine favor,” while quietly forming habits, loves, and allegiances t…

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In The Unseen Battle, I trace how warfare language slowly moved from daily vigilance to occasional explanation.

“Spiritual warfare became abstract not because Christians stopped believing in it, but because it no longer shaped how they interpreted ordinary life.”

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We still use the language, but we apply it only when things become extreme or unexplainable.

The biblical pattern is the opposite.

Scripture locates spiritual conflict in:

– allegiance

– loyalty

– attention

– habit

“The enemy is not primarily interested in dramatic moral collapse. He is interested in shaping the conditions under which collapse becomes i…

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The modern Christian imagination has been quietly reshaped.

Not simply by heresy.

Not solely by disbelief.

But by specifically through disconnection.

We still affirm spiritual realities. We still conceptually believe in angels, demons, resurrection, and heaven. But somewhere along the way, we stopped organizing our lives around what Scripture assumes is real - a cosmic worldview.

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As I argue in The Unseen Battle, the Bible never stops to defend the unseen realm. It simply presupposes it.

“Scripture does not argue for the existence of an unseen realm. It assumes it. The biblical authors write as though heaven and earth are overlapping spheres of the same reality.”

This is why the language of the Bible feels so foreign to us.

It was written from within a worldview we no longer inhabit.

The problem isn’t that modern Christians reject the supernatural.

It’s that we’ve been discipled to treat it as background noise.

The biblic…

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“Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:25–28, NIV)

(Source1)

This poses some difficult questions.

• How is it possible that evil forces could have any kind of “authority?”

• What does all of this mean in light of Jesus and the …

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I actually wrote a section in a PhD paper some years ago identifying how God views “multi-ethnicity” and what his “ideal” is for humanity. Check it out, and let the Biblical text drive your theology, not political ideology or philosophy.

(Source: Horne, Charles, and Julius Bewer. The Bible and Its Story: The Law, Levi…

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“Should people listen to their favorite social media theologians over the personal pastors who lead them?”

Now, obviously this is much more complex. But it gets to the heart of the issue I’ve been struggling with.

Sometimes—actually, lately it’s been often—I’ve found myself wanting to quit my presence on social media. I love teaching theology. I love commenting on cultural issues from a biblical worldview rooted in the text. I want to always start from the biblical text, not from human philosophical ideologies.

So here’s the rub: I think we’ve lost (or neglected) the spiritual practice of discernment and applying discernment to theological triage. Gavin Ortlund has an amazing book on theological triage that’s been so helpful for me. There are primary…

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One of the things I love doing is partnering with local churches to teach a course called “How To Study The Bible.” I usually come in on a Friday or Saturday to teach this course and then stick around to preach on Sunday. (If you’re interested in this, I’d love to hear from you!)

Now, I’m bringing parts of that teaching directly to you.

I’ve created an exclusive video series for my paid Humble Theology Substack subscribers. This is the kind of content I usually only deliver in person at churches, but I wanted to make it available to everyone who supports this work.

Watch the trailer below:

Ready to dive in? Upgrade to a paid subscription to access the full “How To Study The Bible” series and all premium content.

Thank you so much for your support! I literally could not keep writing, researching, and providing the theological and biblical resources that I’ve been able to release over the last few years without you.

This is the first teaching in a new series that will equip you to study God’s Word with confidence and clarity. Let’s get started.

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It could be a “me” thing or it could be a “journal” thing. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s both. You may be like me. The thought of a journal excites you. You get started, but then fall off. The same is true for a Read the Bible in a Year plan. The idea of it is exciting. The possibility of learning and growing in the Word is a true value. But then you get into it, and like around 94% of the people who say they will read the entire Bible in a year—you bounce.

You’re not alone. I’m right there with you.

Over the last few years, I’ve found myself doing my very best to get into a Read the Bible in a Year plan and have it stick. I finally realized that I’ve got things in so many different places I wasn’t able to finish and stay consistent. So I thought, “What if we create…

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If you’ve ever felt like the Bible has hidden layers you’re not seeing, you’re right. And good news. You’re in the right place.

I’ve never seen this done before. A Bible reading plan that is specifically focused on the theme of the spiritual realm. Angels, demons, nephilim, leviathan, supernatural encounters and miracles - all of it. Ever wonder why we get so stuck in Leviticus? What is the point of all of this clean vs. unclean policy and procedures? Why the various sacrifices and feasts? What if the reason God cares so deeply about our “holiness” is because of what took place in Genesis 6 with the unholy (unclean) alliance between the Sons of God and the daughters of man? What the Nephilim actually give us is a backdrop that brings a bit of clarity to why God wants us to be a people who are set apart and holy?

This year, it’s time to break the cycle of skipping the weird parts of the Bible. It’s time to join the 6% who actually finish reading the Bible in a Year. And good news - the…

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If you’ve watched (or read) the story of the Wizard of Oz you know that the wizard is working behind a curtain. It’s not until the very end until the curtain is exposed and we all get to see what is really happening. Well, sometimes it can feel like that with theologians and scholars. They are writing, and researching, and teaching and it feels like they have access to some secret resources.

Well, you’re right. They do. And I really think it’s important for the everyday reader of the Bible…

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I’ve been writing Humble Theology for years now, and I’m consistently amazed by the community that’s formed around these explorations of Scripture, theology, how to respond to the cultural moment with a Biblical perspective, and the supernatural worldview of the Bible. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or just stumbled upon my work recently, thank you for being part of this conversation.

Today, I want to extend a special invitation to go deeper.

For a limited time (next 48hrs), I’m offering 30% off an annual subscription to Humble Theology.

Get 30% off for 1 year

What You Get as a Paid Subscriber

First, you’ll unlock the complete backlog of all my theology essays. Years of work on how to read and understand the Bible, Old Testament Theology, New Testament Theology, Angels and Demons and much more. These aren’t just blog posts; they’re carefully researched pieces that connect the ancient worldview of the Biblical text to our modern context.

Second, you’ll get exclusive posts that onl…

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“The church can’t survive on sentiment and nostalgia. Sentiment, nostalgia, optimism - these are weak thin fuels.” - Fleming Rutledge"

It’s early in the morning. I usually write my posts weeks in advance. So I have time to edit them. If they’re deeper theological posts, I try to get other people’s eyes on them for feedback. But this morning, Thanksgiving morning, I woke up early to sit down and just write some words from my heart. Not polished. Not neat.

Just raw.

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Giving thanks when things aren’t the way you thought they would be is tough. Most often it’s pretty dysregulating. Normally for Thanksgiving my family and I go to Houston to celebrate with our extended family. It’s quite the scene to behold. We’ve been doing this since I was in high school. My Uncle Calvin moved from Illinois to Houston. The distance created a reason for us to be intentional with holidays. So he made it a staple. We always go to Houston, to his house, for Thanksgiving.

For twenty-five-some years this ha…

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God is triune: There are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it. - J.I. Packer

Sadly, one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated doctrines in our culture and time today may be that of the Holy Spirit. It seems like there are two typical responses to the study of the Spirit (Pneumatology)—both pendulum swings. One is a hyper-conservative and almost “taming” approach to the nature, prominence, and power of the Spirit. The other is an over-realized, overactive, and often dangerous obsession with certain aspects of the Spirit. The goal here is to see and think rightly about the importance of the Spirit and how crucial it is for us to embrace the reality and implications of living by the power of the Spirit. Herman Bavinck captures this well, saying, “Just as breath comes out of our mouth, so the Spirit pr…

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First, the Hebrew grammar of Malachi 2:16 and why the phrase “God hates divorce” is inaccurate from an exegetical standpoint in my opinion, based on Hebrew grammar supported by ancient sources.

Second, why this clarification is a distinction WITH a difference. In other words, it has real-life applications and consequences for men and women in destructive and dangerous marriages.

(Source: From Bod…

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I was really excited when Colin Hansen announced he was working on a kind of biography on Keller that was more about the influences “on” him versus his influence on others. In a way, we get insight into what formed Keller and shaped his life, ministry, and theology. Sadly, Pastor Keller passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2023 at the age of 72. His death has been particularly difficult for me in these last few years, as I’ve often found myself thinking: what would Tim Keller say about this?

You see, his books on God and humanity—rooted…

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It really is fascinating the symbolic/poetic and literal function of the heart in Biblical language. Just as God designed the physical heart to pump blood throughout our bodies, sustaining life through its rhythmic circulation, He created our spiritual hearts with an equally vital purpose: to pump love toward its proper object, God Himself. This concept was first introduced by the early church father, Augustine who suggested our hearts were a kind of love pump. Philosopher and theologian James K. Smith developed this even further painting a picture of heart as a love pump that was always intended to pour out love onto God. However, when sin e…

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