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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
is not such a book. It breathes the air of actuality: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). The New Testament deals with real people and actual events. It cannot be maintained that the resurrection is just one occurrence among many in the New Testament, and that one fictitious fact does not invalidate a book. The resurrection is such a great factor that by it the char acter of the New Testament stands or falls. If the prophecy, story and result of the resurrection were to be deleted from the Bible, the Book might as well be discarded. Paul’s argument about the resurrection itself might be parodied to refer to the New Testa ment: “ If this did not happen, then have we no Book. But now have we the Book, and it tells of the resurrec tion.” “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” It happened. It is a fact of history. It Did Not Just Happen Having established the fact that the resurrection was an actual historical date, it is necessary to show that it was the most unusual event in his tory. It did not just happen; it was the result of the active purpose of Almighty God. Indeed, all of the ex periences of Jesus in His Passion were the result of definite planning on the part of the Holy Trinity. Those who were responsible for the crucifixion meant to get rid of Jésus. For too long He had been a problem to them; and they had seen in Him a menace to t h e i r influence and authority. T h e y sought how they might belittle His teaching; and then how they might destroy Him. When Judas turned traitor, they welcomed that opportunity to seize Him, and to perfect the nefarious deed for which long ago the plot had been laid. Jesus meant to give Himself into their hands, no less than the rulers of the Jews intended to take Him. After the events at Caesarea Philippi, where the disciples made their con fession that Jesus was indeed “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), Jesus began “to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matt. 16:21). Nor was He just the victim of great forces which were too strong for Him. He was a willing yîüftim. “No man taketh it from me, fetit I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18). These things did
not happen to Jesus; He brought them about. The same is true of God, the Father: especially in respect to the resurrec tion. Paul wrote of Jesus “who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4). Men had no part in the act of the resurrection. They did not conceive it, nor did they wish it. The resurrection was God’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Men “killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead.” The Passion was a c o n f l i c t of dynamic p u r p o s e s , in which God showed His conquering power against the hosts of hell. The early chapters
was no accident. It was God’s de liberate act of t r i u m p h over the powers of evil. It Changed Everything The resurrection is the most in fluential fact of history. It was be cause such extraordinary things hap pened as the result of preaching it that men were arrested, and imprisoned, and even killed. In fact, the apostles, because of their testimony, were called “these men that have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The resurrection of Jesus altered the calendar. Time is reckoned in terms of “Before Christ” and Anno Domini. The entire Christian world adopted “a chronological s y s t e m which reckons the years and cen turies backward and forward from a supreme moment in the r e i g n of Augustus, the humble birth of a Babe in Bethlehem of Judea.” This would have been strange if the story had begun and ended at Bethlehem with the obscure Babe; but the triumph of the resurrection gave new meaning to the life of Christ. By the time of Charlemagne, even secular authority saw in Qhrist and His resurrection the greatest e v e n t of history, and made His birth the pivot of the years. The resurrection also changed cus tom. No custom was more firmly established than the Sabbath. The seventh day was dedicated to God. When, however, the disillusionment of the passion week was dispelled by the resurrection, and the disciples were empowered by the risen Christ, they saw in the resurrection a greater event in Christian experience than any other, and they made the Easter Day, the first day of the week, their great day of worship. Custom yielded to the in fluence of the resurrection. The secret of that influence was in the fact that the risen Christ was able to change character. The-real proof of the resurrection lay in re deemed lives. By it, the cowards of the crucifixion were transformed into heroes, who planted the Christian flag in every part of the world. Barnard R. H. Spaull writes, “It is notable that the coming of Jesus marks an era. History broke in two at that point. Is it pure accident that in the whole of the Old Testament there is not one case of a transformed life parallel to what has been an almost daily miracle - in the history of mankind since the miracle of conversion? It was the coming of Jesus that released a new spiritual force in the history of humanity.” “ Jesus lives; to Him the throne High o’er Heaven and earth is given; We may go where He is gone, Live and reign with Him in Heaven: God through Christ forgives offence; ‘KUs shall he our confidence.”
of the Acts of the Apostles, after the account of Pentecost, are devoted to a series of episodes for which the Apostles, through Peter, their spokes man, furnish a remarkable apolo getic. The focal point of their preach ing was the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the miracles of power and grace which resulted. The argu ment is the same throughout: man thought he was accomplishing some thing, but God really did it; and God triumphed. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give re pentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30, 31). The rew^Mfwa
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