When ‘True for Me’ Isn’t Enough
Teenagers today are fluent in a culture of curated identities and DIY truth. The cultural water they swim in tells them:
“You do you.”
“Live your truth.”
“Believe what makes you happy.”
So when they hear that Jesus rose from the dead, they don’t necessarily push back with, “I don’t believe that happened.” Instead, they shrug and say, “So what if it did?”
This isn’t intellectual indifference—it’s a worldview collision. For many Gen Zers, the resurrection doesn’t sound false. It sounds irrelevant.
But the resurrection of Jesus is not a private spiritual experience or a poetic metaphor. It’s a public, bodily, historical event. And if it’s true, it changes everything—not just about faith, but about reality itself.
A Crisis of Meaning
We’re raising a generation in a culture allergic to certainty and wary of authority. Gen Z has been discipled by Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and TikTok influencers. They’ve inherited the mantras of expressive individualism—your identity is self-defined, your feelings are sovereign, and your truth is sacred.
But for all their freedom to define reality, many Gen Zers feel lost. Anxiety, depression, and self-harm have soared. A generation told to “be whoever you want to be” is buckling under the pressure to create meaning for themselves.
They’ve been promised freedom, but feel unanchored. Told to believe in themselves, but quietly fear they’re not enough. They scroll for purpose and find only noise.
Which is why Easter matters more than ever. Because the resurrection of Jesus is not just a claim of historical truth—it is the blazing announcement that meaning is not something we create. It is something we receive. Life has purpose. History has direction. Truth is not internal, but incarnate.
The Resurrection as Truth
In a post-truth world, the first hurdle isn’t just what we believe—it’s whether truth is real in the first place. The resurrection of Jesus is a stubborn, inconvenient claim for a culture built on relativism. The New Testament doesn’t present it as a private spiritual experience, but as a public, historical, physical event that demands a verdict.
Paul says it plainly in 1 Corinthians 15:14: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” This is not metaphor. This is not myth. This is a challenge. Jesus really lived, really died, and really walked out of the tomb on the third day—or Christianity collapses.
So when we engage Gen Z, we must be courageous in holding the line: the resurrection is not just true for us. It’s true, full stop. Jesus is not alive because we feel He is—He’s alive because He rose.
The Resurrection Meets the Ache
While Gen Z is sceptical of authority, many are deeply spiritually curious. They’re open to wonder. Hungry for transcendence. Haunted by death. Aching for justice. Longing for love that doesn’t vanish.
The resurrection speaks to all of that.
It says:
- Evil doesn’t win
- Death doesn’t get the last word
- Hope is not a coping strategy—it’s grounded in a risen King
- Your guilt can be erased
- Your body matters
- Your tears will be wiped away
The resurrection isn’t an inspirational slogan. It’s a blood-bought, death-defeating, creation-renewing event. It doesn’t just offer comfort—it redefines what’s real.
So What if He Rose? Why It Matters
When young people ask, “So what if He rose?”, we mustn’t merely pile on evidence. Yes, historical apologetics has its place—the eyewitnesses, the empty tomb, the birth of the church. But Gen Z needs more than proofs. They need personhood. They need to see why it matters.
So what does this look like in practice? Here are five ways to bring resurrection apologetics to life with Gen Z:
🔹 Unmask the idol of ‘your truth’
Help them see that relativism crumbles under suffering. When a friend dies, when a relationship implodes, when the darkness closes in—“live your truth” offers no light. The resurrection does.
🔹 Frame it in the big story
Show them the gospel isn’t a floating message—it’s a full story: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. Jesus’ resurrection is the turning point of history and the launchpad of new creation.
🔹 Speak of scars, not polish
Jesus rose scarred. That matters. Gen Z doesn’t want a plastic Saviour—they need one who understands pain, betrayal, and trauma. Let them see the beauty of a risen Christ who still bears wounds.
🔹 Show resurrection life in yourself
Live with a hope that isn’t naïve but stubborn. Model repentance. Practise joy. Point to Jesus with your priorities, not just your words.
🔹 Preach Him as King, not mascot
Don’t offer a manageable Jesus. Don’t reduce Easter to personal inspiration. Announce the risen King who calls rebels home, conquers the grave, and offers grace to all who bow the knee.
The Realest Real There Is
C.S. Lewis once said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.” There is no middle ground.
The resurrection is not a hobby for the religiously inclined. It is the unveiling of reality. The pivot of history. The truth that makes sense of every longing.
So when Gen Z shrugs, “So what if He rose?”, we don’t back down.
We speak with clarity, confidence, and compassion:
“Because if He did, then death has been defeated, your life has eternal weight, and you’re not alone.”
That’s the realest real there is.
