March, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
91
What Must We Preach?
By HERBERT LO C K Y E R Chicago, Illinois
Illustration by Ransom D. Marvin
W HEN Jesus Christ came out of His grave, all the tremblings and doubts of the d iscip les were changed into assurances. Uncertainties were transformed into an invincible faith. With the cruel death of Christ their hopes had gone out like candle flames. "W e trusted that it had been he which should have re deemed Israel,” was their wistful lament. Disconsolate, they felt that their Master had been mastered, and that death had done it. Their Master had found His master. Their Lord had become a slave, seeing that death had exercised dominion over Him, who had professed to be the Lord of life. Those distressed disciples, however, came to witness His triumph. They had seen their Lord marching through the hosts of sin; now they beheld Him marching through the corridors of death, proving Himself to be its Conqueror. And this is one reason that the apostles echoed forth the angelic message, “He is not here, but is risen” (Lk. 24:6). They went everywhere preaching Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:18). If Roman guards could have kept His body in a grave, then prophecy would have failed: Christianity, which the Lord had set out to found, would have been blasted in the bud; and they, His disciples, would have been cruelly deceived. But on the third day the seal of the Roman Empire snapped, the rocks moved, the armed guards were stricken with awe, and a unique message was created, which humble lips proclaimed with mighty power. They "preached . . . Jesus, and the resurrection”! Let us likewise center our attention on this glorious and fundamental theme as at this Easter season the resurrection is em phasized anew.
Christ's Resurrection— An Imperative Necessity
"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again: The eternal years of God are hers." Christ's Resurrection— An Incentive to Worship Dead! Jesus Christ might continue to be revered, but in order to be loved, wor shiped, and obeyed, He must rise again. Had Christ remained dead, power would never have been His to apply His cleasing blood to the smitten conscience of the sinner. If He would fully save, He must rise again. A stiff arm in Joseph’s new tomb cannot snap the fetters of sin. The Pauline asser tion is that if Christ did not rise again, we are yet in our sins. Cold lips silent in death could never plead a guilty sinner’s need. Feet bound with graveclothes could never run errands of peace and mercy. Some there are who mourn a dead Jesus. A crucifix is ever before their eyes. The cross and tomb of Christianity, however, are empty! Praise be to God! Christ is alive forevermore. The Christian does not kneel over a gravestone, but worships a living, loving, lasting Lord. He lives! Lives to pardon sin, to carry heavy burdens, to wipe away earth's tears, to raise our happy dead! Let the certainty of the apostolic message come to us with a strange, unique fascination. Our Redeemer liveth! Let us in faith hear His voice from the throne saying, “I am He that liveth; therefore bring all your cares, sorrows, trials and sins, and bury them in My bosom.”
What positiveness there is in the decla ration, “He must needs have...risen again” (Acts 17:3)! He must! Of course, He must. If He expected to die, He also expected to rise again, "a Victor from the dark domain." And in that masterly exposition of the resur rection in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul unfolds the necessity and blessed results of the empty tomb. Christ must rise again because truth and righteousness cannot be buried. Since both met in Christ, He could not be holden of death. Truth and righteousness are eternal in nature and therefore can never be buried successfully. True, these twin qualities were stabbed by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and the world has tried to bury them, but they ever rise again to confound their foes. Jo seph, cast into the pit, rises from his prison house to rule a nation; Daniel comes from a lion’s den to become prime minister of Babylon. Apostles were laughed at in Jeru salem as men full of new wine and were persecuted even to martyrdom. Millions, however, have rejoiced in the risen Christ they preached. The blood of martyrs be came the seed of the church. Thus was it with Christ! A bleeding corpse, sweetly perfumed, was laid away in a sealed tomb; but as a Conqueror He rose again, and making His shattered grave a pulpit, He bids His followers proclaim the resurrection. Proud men may bolt Truth and Righteousness in the prison house ot earth, and may roll the stoutest stones against strong doors in order to prevent such fair sisters from rising again. But some bright morn deaf ears are made to hear the music of the cymbals of triumph, for
Christ's Resurrection— A Proof of Immortality
By His resurrection, Jesus became "the firstfruits of them that slept." This is one [Continued on page 96]
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs