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THE KING’S BUSINESS
painted story, a concocted tale; then the words of the preacher are empty words, the hopes he has aroused are idle dreams; then his message is ¡a sham, a delusion, a tissue of falsehoods, an empty phantom, a worth less fiction; instead of being a proclamation of the truth, it is the dissemination of a lie, for if Christ be not risen, the Gospel has no reality, our message is a vain, worthless, empty sham; in reality we have no Gospel to preach., “Your- faith also is vain.” If Christ be not risen, if He remained in the grave after the third day, then we have put faith in the wrong person and in the wrong thing. The Jews crucified Christ as a betrayer and blasphemer; they said he suffered death justly. It is utterly useless then for us to put our trust and confidence in one who was unjust and a betrayer and a blasphemer. Christ distinctly stated that His resurrection would prove that He was not such a person. If He did not rise from the dead, they had the right to believe these things. To build our hope on One whose most solemn asser tions have fallen to the ground would be nothing less than sheer madness; such an act would be credulity not faith. “You are yet in your sins.” It is acknowl edged that Christ alone can save from sin, but if He could not save Himself from death’s power, which is the wages of sin, how can He save us from its penalty? Christ Himself distinctly taught that His death had redemptive value, and that His resurrection from the dead would be proof positive of that fact. The Apostle Paul says, “Christ died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification.” If Christ had remained in the grave, if He still remains under the power of death, how can He release others from the penalty from which He could not release Himself? Then that tomb in Joseph’s garden becomes the tomb, not only of a man, but of a religion, too, with all the hopes and ambitions it has inspired. TREMENDOUS STATEMENT. Further, the Apostle says here that if Christ be not risen from the dead, “we are
found false witnesses of God, because we have testified that God raised up Christ from the dead, whom He raised not up if Christ be not risen.” What a tremendous state ment! Then, if Christ be not risen from the dead, you have practically no Bible. Fourteen out of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written by the Apostle Paul, who claimed to have seen the risen Christ. Just think of what this means : Romans and the Galatians dealing with their wonderful doctrine of justification by faith; Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians dealing with the doctrine of the person of Christ; the Corinthians dealing with the doctrine of the Church ; the Thessalonians dealing with the blessed hope of the coming of our Lord ; the Pastoral Epistles—all these books which have been the blessing of thè race, and the inspiration of the finest moral achievements of the centuries, all these books are prac tically forgeries. The God who spoke through the Apostles in the New Testament is thus considered a party to the forgery. Ihese letters, these books—this Bible—shall we throw it away as a forgery, as a false witness? If Christ be not risen, then the Bible is a false witness and false testimony. Then the whole plan and scheme of salva tion, together with the written record that contains its history is true or false, a delu sion, a sham, a falsehood, “if Christ be not risen from the dead.” And yet we are told it makes no difference to Christianity whether you believe in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead or not ! Is God a party to fraud ? Did God and the apostles make up a story that was not true? Can you be lieve that? Further, do you think that God would leave One so spotless, so pure as Christ, covered with shame, defamed, to re main under the stigma of an im poster and traitor, which would be the case if He did not raise Christ from the dead. Then what hope have we? What is the use of trying to be good, if the end of it is a skull and some ashes'? Think of the sufferings of the life of the innocent Christ. Now if there is no resurrection to that
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