23. —RESURRECTION.
This subject being more manageable than some of the larger subjects we have had, seems to have encouraged more to work at it, and the result is that we have presented to us a very fairly complete collection of all that is said about Resurrection in the New Testament, we might almost say in the Bible, for very few passages in the Old Testament speak of it.
The first resurrection brought before us is our Lord’s. Foretold as it was by Himself, announced by angels, and proved by the (at first slowly believed, yet) positive testimony of between 500 and 600 credible witnesses, it stands as the great fact on which the gospel rests. That Jesus should be crucified was nothing marvelous to man, though the believer may well marvel at the depth of wickedness that such an act reveals, but that Christ should rise again was entirely contrary to all human possibility, and at once attested the Divine mission of the Lord to the world, the accepted character of His work by God, and became the pledge of a future resurrection to all His people. We have abundant evidence how it proved the center of the marvelous story the apostles everywhere proclaimed.
To the Christian, however, a far deeper interest attaches to this event then that of a mere historical fact, however true and miraculous, for the life in which Christ rose he possesses, as being spiritually now raised with Christ, and alive from among the dead. The resurrection of Christ marked the dawn of a new era, a new creation. Hence the day Christ rose, is not only the Lord’s day, but the Christian’s day. It is the first day of the new week of the new creation. Christ came unto the old creation at the very close of its moral history, that God again might have His pleasure in man. Where God had been doubly dishonored, Christ doubly glorified Him. Such was indeed a glorious close to the moral history of the world. But as yet the first day of the new creation had not dawned. Christ lay in the grave for three days and three nights. From the “It is finished” of the cross, until the morning of the resurrection, an unbroken silence on God’s part reigned on earth. It was indeed a “full stop,” between the old and the new placed by God Himself. The dawn of the resurrection morning was first illuminated, not by the Sun of the old creation but of the new. The Lord rose from the grave before the rising of the sun. And if we now turn to the history of Saul of Tarsus, God’s pattern to those that should after believe on Him to life everlasting, we find God’s full stop placed there just as emphatically as between the end of the old and the beginning of the new; for it was three days and nights before he opened his eyes, heart and lips to, and for the new Light and the second Man. As with Paul so with us; we are raised in the power of an endless life, and all we need is to pray with the apostle that we may know more of the power of His resurrection. A letter from one of the Bible Student’s Class has been placed in our hands and well illustrates this.
“I had never before thought of going through that epistle and summarizing the subject, so found it very agreeable and most profitable. Resurrection is indeed a practical truth-in the way that we are shown how we should walk now, as those alive from the dead. No doubt this truth would answer the thousand and one questions which our deceitful hearts often ask. May I go there? May I do this? &c. For we can say, Would such a place, or course of action, become those who are “alive from the dead,” dead to sin, and who are therefore to serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter? I do pray that the study of this precious truth may have the effect of making us unworldly and more Christlike. The brightness of His coming cheers us on.”
Surely to this prayer we can all say Amen, while we look forward with the writer to the full harvest of which our Lord’s resurrection was but the firstfruits. We notice, in closing, as we are obliged to do, our very brief notice of this interesting subject, that four facts stand out. We shall be raised in incorruption—no more to die; we shall be raised in glory—no more despised; we shall be raised in power—no more weakness; we shall be raised in spiritual bodies—fitted to enjoy to all eternity the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.