THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD
----------
--JUNE 2, MARK 16:1-8;--MATT.
28:1-15;
LUKE 24:1-12; JOHN
20:1-18.--
Golden Text--"The Lord is risen indeed."--Luke
24:34.
THE resurrection of our Lord is shown by the Apostle to be
the assurance of the resurrection of mankind.-- "For as all in Adam die, even so, all
in Christ shall be made alive;" "for he is the propitiation for our [the
Church's] sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world," all
of which, therefore, both the just and the unjust shall come forth from the grave; and, by
accepting Christ and yielding implicitly to his guidance, they may be made fully alive--be
fully restored to the original human perfection lost in Adam.
This, the Lord also taught, saying, "Marvel not at this:
for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the
Son of man, and shall come forth." And Paul said, "There shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and unjust." So important is this doctrine of the
resurrection, that the Apostle declares that without it the hope and faith of the Church
is vain.--"If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished....If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die."--1 Cor. 15:16-18,32.
This doctrine of the resurrection is, however, very little
heard or thought of to-day among professed Christians, and likewise the promise of the
Lord's second coming, at whose presence the work of resurrection is due to be
accomplished. It is written that "to this end Christ both died and rose and revived,
that he might be Lord both of the dead and living." (Rom. 14:9.) It
is his voice that shall awaken the dead, and his wisdom and grace that shall lead all the
willing and obedient to the realization of full resurrection, or restitution, to all that
was lost. This is the logical consequence of his great sacrifice, to be realized at his
appearing and kingdom.
The first work of his presence is the unobserved, thief-like
gathering of his elect--the awakening of those that have slept in Jesus, and the
perfecting and the change of those who are alive and remain to his own glorious nature [R1816 : page 124] and likeness. When this is fully
accomplished, as it must be within this harvest period, then will follow the resurrection
of the ancient worthies. Then the Kingdom of God, in both its heavenly and earthly phases,
will be established and manifested to the world,--an event due at the close of this
harvest period and time of trouble.
Then the resurrection morning will have come, and the Sun of
righteousness will have risen with healing in his wings. Yes, "the Lord is risen
indeed;" and his resurrection is the sure pledge of the resurrection of all for whom
he died--of the Church first, and afterward of the world.* --1 Cor. 15:12-23.
*See our issue of April 1, '93.
The manner of the testimony as to the fact of the
resurrection, as related in the gospels, is worthy of the special attention of Christians,
as proving three things, (1) the fact of the resurrection, (2) the Lord's change of nature
in the resurrection, and (3) his personal identity, notwithstanding the change of nature.
The fact of his resurrection was attested in three ways;
viz., (1) by an earthquake and the sudden appearance of an angel whose countenance was
like lightning and his raiment white as snow, who rolled away the stone from the door of
the sepulcher and sat upon it, and for fear of whom the keepers did shake and become as
dead men. (Matt. 28:1-6.)
It was attested (2) by the facts to which the angel called attention--the vacant tomb and
the folded graveclothes, together with the statement that he was risen-- "And the
angel said unto the woman, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was
crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord
lay." (Matt. 28:5,6.
See also Luke 24:12.)
And (3) it was finally attested by the risen Lord himself, who appeared to the women, and
others subsequently, and talked with them.--Matt. 28:9; John
20:1-18.
How great was the reward of these devoted women-- last at the
cross and first at the sepulcher, anxious to bestow upon the lifeless remains of their
beloved Lord the last tokens of their esteem and love. They sympathetically lingered near
the cross, beholding his dying agonies; they were the mourners that accompanied him to the
tomb at night; and they were there again before break of day with their precious
ointments. In their eagerness to do this loving service, they forgot the great obstacle of
the stone at the door. But the sweet incense of their devotion arose to heaven, and God
sent his angel to remove the obstacle, and their zeal was rewarded with the richest tokens
of his grace. Theirs was the honor of personally receiving the heavenly benedictions--of
the angel and of the risen Lord,--and of first bearing the glad tidings of the
resurrection to the other disciples.
The fact of the resurrection was further attested to the [R1817 : page 124] other disciples by the Lord's sudden
appearance in their midst at various intervals, and his personal testimony and teachings
on such occasions.
The Lord's change of nature in the resurrection was no less
clearly testified than was the fact of his resurrection. In evidence of this note that in
no instance of his appearance after his resurrection was he recognized by his personal
features, although the disciples were all intimately acquainted with him, and they had
been separated from him by death only three days. Mary mistook him for the gardener; the
two on the way to Emmaus walked and talked with him for some miles, entertained him in
their home, even dining with him, without recognizing him. In every case he was manifested
to them, not by face, but by some familiar expression or tone, or teaching, which they
promptly recognized as personal characteristics of him whom they so loved and revered.
Now he could enter a room, the doors being shut, and
disappear as mysteriously, as he did on several occasions; and this was in exact
accordance with his description of the powers of a spiritual body--which could come and go
like the wind, unseen (John 3:8), and
with his statement-- "All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me." It
accords, too, with all the information we have concerning the appearance of angels among
men. They came in sudden and unaccountable ways, vanished out of sight as mysteriously as
they came, and could and did assume any appearance or features they chose. These things
the Lord never did prior to his crucifixion.
Observe further the different appearances of the Lord on
different occasions. At one time he appeared as a gardener, again as a stranger, again
with prints of nails in his hands and the spear wound in his side, etc. On no single
occasion was he known by his features on previous occasions, but always by his words, his
voice, or his conduct.
Why were these changes of appearance adopted? They were for
the purpose of emphasizing the fact that the bodies which they saw were not his glorious
spiritual body, which no human eyes can look upon. And "it doth not yet appear"
what a spiritual body is, "but we know that when he shall appear, we [the Church]
shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2.)
Saul of Tarsus once caught a glimpse of that glorious body, which shone above the
brightness of the sun at noonday (Acts 26:13),
but it left him blind until by a miracle his sight was restored.
The removal of the crucified body from the tomb which was
also miraculous, for it did not see corruption, nor was a bone of it broken (Psa.
34:20; 16:10) was necessary to establish in the minds of the
disciples the fact of his resurrection. Had it remained there it would have been an
insurmountable barrier to their faith; nor could the astonished guards, nor the Jews, nor
the world, have believed that he was risen; because they could understand nothing of the
spiritual nature and the mysterious change.
To presume that Christ's glorious body is but the reanimated
body of his humiliation, is to deny the assertion of the Apostle that "it doth not
yet appear" what a spiritual body is (1 John 3:2);
and to claim that that "glorious body" is ingloriously marred with the wounds of
spear and spike and cruel thorns; and that the flesh which he gave for the life of the
world--as our ransom price--he took back, thus rendering null and void the finished work
on Calvary; and it is in direct contradiction of the statement of the Apostle that,
"Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him [so] no
more."
Let us not, dear fellow-aspirants and called ones to the
sharing of his glory and nature and Kingdom, lose sight of these blessed assurances of our
glorious inheritance with him, who is now a partaker of the divine nature and "the
express image of the Father's person" (Heb. 1:3), whom
no man hath seen, nor can see, and who dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto. (1 Tim.
6:15,16.) Praise the Lord! "when he shall appear we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is,"--not as he was; for indeed if he is as he was, then
also shall we be even as we are now. If he bear still the ignominious scars of Calvary,
then shall we also bear the scars that mar us; and every mutilated martyr will be
disfigured to all eternity. Think you, has mortal man the power thus to harm the saints of
God? Nay, verily: they shall be, "even as he is,"--"without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing."*
*See MILLENNIAL DAWN, VOL. II., page 103.
