The historian, Philip Schaff, is often cited
regarding the resurrection of Christ: ‘Truly, Jesus
Christ, the Christ of the Gospels, the Christ of history, the crucified and
risen Christ, the divine-human Christ, is the most real, the most certain, the
most blessed of all facts. And this fact is an ever-present and growing power
which pervades the church and conquers the world, and is its own best evidence,
as the sun shining in the heavens. This fact is the only solution of the
terrible mystery of sin and death, the only inspiration to a holy life of love
to God and man, and only guide to happiness and peace. Systems of human wisdom
will come and go, kingdoms and empires will rise and fall, but for all time to
come Christ will remain “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”.’ It must be
recognised that the apostle sees the resurrection of Christ in ‘all or nothing’
terms: if true, it makes Christianity the best, indeed the only, religion; if
false, it transforms it into a giant and miserable hoax (1 Cor.15:12-19).
For now, consider three things, the first being
that the resurrection shows – in fact, proves – that Jesus is the eternal Son
of God. The liberal English Methodist, Leslie Weatherhead, whose theology
resembled psychotherapy more than anything from the New Testament, rejected the
historicity of all the miracles of Jesus but then accepted His resurrection.
That is like a builder building a house, but then being unable to put together
a cardboard box. It makes no sense at all. When the resurrected Christ appeared
to Thomas, it all fell into place for the doubting disciple, and he confessed:
‘My Lord and my God’ (John 20:28). Paul told the Roman church that Jesus Christ
our Lord was ‘declared to be the Son of God in power … by His resurrection from
the dead’ (Rom.1:4). In seeking to evangelise the Stoic and Epicurean
philosophers at Athens, Paul spoke of God who would ‘judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom He has appointed and of this He has given assurance
to all by raising Him from the dead’ (Acts 17:31). Ah, it fits – the miracles,
the prophecies, the claims to forgive sinners and to judge the whole world, the
insights into human nature, the sinlessness. This is the eternal Son of God who
speaks the language of God, and His resurrection demonstrates that all this is
true.
Secondly, Christ’s resurrection guarantees the
future inheritance of His people. Christ told Peter to take up his cross and
follow Him, that is, to exchange any hopes of a comfortable life for one of
suffering and death. Peter accepted that, and so wrote to his readers: ‘Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy,
He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading, kept in heaven for you’ (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Contrast that to The Free Man’s Worship, published
in 1903 by Bertrand Russell where he said that there is nothing beyond the
grave and everything is doomed to extinction: ‘Only within the scaffolding of
these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s
habitation henceforth be safely built.’ The reason why we are to reject the
adulterous philosopher, Russell, and believe the martyred apostle, Peter, is
not that Peter sounds better. Rather, it is because it is true. The foundation
is not unyielding despair but glorious certainty that Christ rose from the
dead. This gives His people a living hope and an everlasting inheritance.
Because Christ lives forever, His people will live forever.
Thirdly, this comforts
all Christians that there will be a wonderful reunion in the new heaven and new
earth of all those who are bought with the blood of the Lamb. The Christian will see Christ
and be made like Him (1 John 3:2). That is the most life-giving of truths; but
there is more. Some of the Christians at Thessalonica were bewildered when some
of their number died, so Paul wrote to comfort and encourage them: ‘we do not
want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may
not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have
fallen asleep’ (1 Thess.4:13-14). Will Christians know one another in the new
heaven and the new earth? Clearly, the answer is a decided ‘yes’. It does not
mean that all who played cricket or rugby here on earth will play cricket or
rugby in the life to come. It means that all who have repented of sin and
rested on Christ for salvation will join with brothers and sisters who have
done likewise, and join in an everlasting communion with each other in glorifying
the triune God.
One cannot read the book of Acts without seeing
this repeated emphasis on Christ risen. An apostle was one who had witnessed
the resurrection (Acts 1:22); the resurrection showed that the Father exalted
the one whom sinners condemned (Acts 2:24-36); and it was the great claim to
the Jerusalem crowds (Acts 4:2, 33). Then, as now, it is the proof that Jesus
is the Son of God; the guarantee of our future inheritance; and our comfort
that all Christ’s people will meet again.
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