0184. 181. Christ’s Resurrection

181. Christ’s Resurrection

“Him That Liveth” Margin, Luk_24:5

1. He Lives in Spite of Death. Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, declared three things of Christ as the One who had been in the grip of death—Act_2:24. (1) God raised Him up, and His act in causing Him to stand out from among the dead is the exhibition of “the exceeding greatness of God’s power” (Eph_1:19-20). (2) God has “loosed Him from the pains of death.” “Loosed” means to unloose what is fast bound, as the unloosing of a colt—Mar_11:5, the unloosing of dumb tongue—Mar_7:35, etc. (3) Then we are told the reason: “Because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” “Holden” means to “hold fast,” and is so given in Rev_2:25, hence to have rule or authority over anything, but it was “not possible” for Christ to be held by the power of death. The life within Him and the power of God around Him were factors which burst the powers that held Him, even as a living seed, dropping between the crevices of a tombstone, will lift and part it asunder.

2. He Lives, as He Said He Would—Luk_24:8. There was no accident in the death of Christ. His star of destiny was His death on Calvary. He had a purpose in dying—Heb_9:26, namely, “To put away sin,” the sin which kept us from God and kept God from us. He said He would die and rise again, and He kept His word. Well would it have been if the women and others had only remembered what Christ had said. “I have got a good forgettory,” said a little girl who had forgotten what she ought to have remembered.

3. He Lives: the Empty Tomb is the Evidence of It. The “young man” in the tomb invited the women to come and “see the place where they bad laid Him” (Mar_16:6), and when they entered the tomb they saw not the body of the Lord Jesus—Luk_24:3. He had been there in death, He was not there, for He was raised, and He will never be there again. A crucifix is not an emblem of Christianity, but an empty tomb is. How much that empty tomb proclaims! Scripture fulfilled—1Co_15:3-4; Sin answered for—Rom_4:24-25; Satan vanquished—Rev_1:18; Col_2:12-15; Salvation proclaimed—Rom_10:9-10; Sanctification assured—Heb_13:20-21; Sorrow assuaged—1Th_4:13-14; Strength communicated—Act_2:32, Act_2:33.

4. He lives: the linen clothes attest it—Luk_24:12. Peter entered into the sepulchre and “Beheld the linen clothes,” and went away “wondering;” but when John entered in, he “saw and believed” (Joh_20:8). What was it that impressed the disciples? The empty tomb; but there must have been something peculiar about the clothes. The grave clothes were not a shroud, but a swathe; that is, a band wrapped round the body as one swathes an infant. Christ had passed through the swathing, and the one hundred pounds of spices, without disturbing them. Just as the chrysalis of the butterfly, after the butterfly has emerged from the case, the case retains the form of the chrysalis, although the butterfly is gone, so Christ had gone through the clothes, and they were left in all their convolutions as if they were still wrapped round the body. So there was a miracle in a miracle. The resurrection was a miracle, and there was a miracle in the miracle in that Christ had gone through the clothes without disturbing them. The same double miracle is seen in the raising of Lazarus. He that was raised came forth from the grave “bound hand and foot” (Joh_11:44). He could not “come forth” naturally, because he was “bound hand and foot,” hence all the old pictures represent him as gliding forth.

Do we know Christ is alive in our lives? A gentleman once saw a boy holding a piece of string, but could not see to what object it was attached; and he asked the boy what he was doing, and the boy replied, “Flying my kite.” “But I cannot see any kite,” said the short-sighted gentleman; so the boy said, “Ah! sir, I know it’s there, because I can feel it pull.” So those who know Christ risen from the dead, know the pull of His risen life.

By: DR. F. E. MARSH