APRIL, 1946 155 THE RESURRECTION AND HISTORY
Rey. William J. Grant, M. A. Pastor of Beechen Grove Baptist Church, Watsford, Hertfordshire, England
T HE g r e a t e s t justification for linking the resurrection of our Lord with history is that the New Testament as an isolated fact. It is one in a sequence of events. It has its roots in the past; its effect is in the future. The Apostle Paul owed his Christian experience to the fact that he had been apprehended by the risen Christ. He did not know Christ “after the flesh.” In his writings, if anywhere, one might expect to [find an emphasis, upon the resurrection without reference to other factors; but that is not so. It is only simple truth to say that he emphasizes the resur rection, but he does not deal with it as an episode apart. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, he links it with the crucifixion and the grave, as he seeks to define the Gospel by which he had been saved, and which he urges upon his hearers. “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, a n d wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures; and that he was seen.” The link is not only with the past, but with the future as well. It had its immediate effect in quickened and fortified discipleship, and Paul may be allowed to bear testimony for all when he writes, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). It has its ultimate contact in a triumphant and glorified Church. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miser able. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept,” and “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Cor. 15:19, 20; 1 Thess. 4:14).
signed on a specific date, so surely did the resurrection of Christ'Jesus take place at a definite time. The attempt to make it a fable, without foundation, is an old one. The chief priests and the elders bribed the soldiers to say “His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept” (Matt, 28:13). That device was completely upset by the personal appearance oif the Lord Jesus. “He was seen,” says Paul (1 Cor. 15:5). Paul’s evidence lends great assur ance to the believer today, especially when he remembers what kind of man Paul had been, and when and how he was won to the allegiance.of Christ and to belief in His resurrection. As a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he had at tempted to suppress the fact of the resurrection. More zealously than any other, he, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way . . . he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1, 2). If there had been any flaw in the evidence for the resurrection, this zealot would have discovered it, and put an end to the story. Remem ber that his conversion took place not more than five or six years after the event—certainly near enough to verify the evidence. Does modern psychology help us to understand the r e f e r e n c e to the “pricks” against which Paul kicked (Acts 9:5)? It was a figure of speech, of course, having reference to the ox goad. Were the “pricks” the facts of the case? Was Paul’s fanatical zeal the last effort on the part of one who knew he was being defeated by truths he did not want to accept? Did he finally surrender to those unimpeach able facts? Any suggestion that the resurrection is fiction is false to the spirit of the New Testament. The works of Lewis Carroll are imaginative. In his Alice in Wonderland, the white rabbit, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter are interesting, and Lewis Carroll has made them convey the message he had to impart; but these creatures never actually lived, and the events never happened. The New Testament
It Actually Took Place It is necessary to emphasize that the resurrection was a date in history, that it actually happened: for there are those who seek to make it a figment of the imagination rather than an actual historical event. It is essential to remember that, as surely as the Declaration of I n d e p e n d e n c e was
resurrection is not presented- in the
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