0246. Wherein the Jonah Sign Attests the Deity of Our Lord

Wherein the Jonah Sign Attests the Deity of Our Lord

"Declared to be the Son of God with power, * * by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom_1:4).

When Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Christ down from the Cross, and when they placed it in the newly-made tomb, and when they ordered the stone rolled against it–how helpless seemed the Son of God! Where were all His claims? Perhaps He was what He claimed and perhaps He wasn’t, as far as what had happened was concerned. To all human appearances He was not God’s Son.

Who would have accepted his claims to Deity, as He lay lifeless and helpless in His tomb? His sun had set in ignominious shame and disgrace. He had wrought miracles and taught the multitudes, but in the end He had succumbed, seemingly, to His foes; and, in seeming impotence, had been led as a lamb to the slaughter.

No one, not even His own disciples knew the meaning of that Cross; they did not know that Christ had, in His dying, spoiled principalities and powers, making openly a show of them.

To them Christ was dead, and all was lost. Chaos had come again. They had thought it would be He, Who would redeem Israel, but their hope was in total eclipse.

1. No wonder Christ did not stake the proof of His Deity upon His miracles or His teachings or His life. Any and all of these gave witness that He was God, but He knew that such a witness would not suffice the people, as He lay cold in death.

2. But Jesus Christ arose from the dead and was, therein, declared to be the Son of God with power.

Who can fathom the power that God wrought, when He raised Christ from the dead? If Christ had been a mere man He could not have possessed that power, within Himself, to take up the life which He had, of Himself, laid down. If He had been mere man, God would not have raised such an impostor from the dead. Therefore the very fact of His resurrection sets the seal to His Deity.

3. But there is more than mere resurrection. Christ was also received of the Father at His own right hand. Raised and made to sit with the Father on His throne. God would not have thus exalted Christ had Christ made false claims and taught false hopes.

Only God can raise the dead, and had Christ been a mere man, blasphemously claiming Deity, He had remained in the grave unto this very hour. The Jonah sign was Christ dead, buried and in the grave three days; and Christ alive again. And this sign, given by the Lord as the test of His Deity, was fulfilled to the letter, establishing our Lord’s claims.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR