Christ's resurrection not a metaphor - Otabil

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a metaphor or a fairytale for simple minds, Pastor Mensah Otabil, General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church said on Easter Sunday.

This reality, he said, has become a source of some of the deepest rifts in Christianity and a stumbling block for some Christians, and more than a few skeptics.

Delivering a sermon on Resurrection Sunday on the theme: "Jesus the Resurrection" at the Christ Temple in Accra, Pastor Otabil said Christ’s bodily resurrection completed the work of redemption.

“His resurrection and his virgin birth are realities that people find difficult to accept. This separates Jesus from any historic leader. So you cannot embrace Christ and not accept this truth.”

“The story of Doubting Thomas touching him as stated in John 20:26-29 helps us to believe Jesus really died and resurrected, so is the absence of the guards at the tomb, the empty tomb, the folded grave clothes and the broken seal, are proof of his resurrection” Pastor Otabil told his congregation.

“Jesus disciples were fully convinced by the evidence of His resurrection even at the very peril of their lives and brutal murders they faced, they still proclaimed that Christ really resurrected,” he said.

Pastor Otabil said although some see Christ as a revolutionary who was killed, the risen Lord rose so that Christians would have salvation; rather salvation was a personal thing that each one should encounter to access eternal life.

“People live like there is no life after death, but death is just the beginning of another life. There is a heaven and a hell and a punishment that is eternal,” he added.