APRIL, 1946
U t
President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles B EFORE a shopwindow in Cairo, Egypt, a small boy stood gazing at a picture of the crucifixion of Christ. A stranger approached and stood beside him. “What do you think the picture means?’’ the man asked him. The boy, a Christian, told him how Jesus came into the world at Bethlehem, and how after teaching who God was, became our Sin-Bearer and died on the Cross. The stranger asked a few questions and then went on his way. When he had walked a distance, he heard the lad calling him. On turning around, he saw that the boy was running toward him as fast as he could. When the boy caught up with the stranger, he panted, “Oh, Mister, I forgot to tell you that He rose again from the dead!” The little fellow had the conviction that he had left out of his story the crowning event. And he was right. If the seal that had been placed on the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea had remained unbroken, we would have had no Gospel, and death would have been to us an endless separation from God. “But now is Christ risen from the dead.” Christ is the “first-fruits of them that slept,” and of them that are asleep; and, because He lives, we, too, shall live. It is not my plan to deal with proofs of Christ’s res urrection. There is no other event more thoroughly au thenticated than the resurrection of Christ. The Word speaks of those “ to whom . . . he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertain ing to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). It is always stimulating to faith to dwell on those “infallible proofs,” but for our present study, we present four great facts that are assured to believers by the resurrection of Christ.
David, by the pen of inspiration, wrote in the six teenth Psalm that the flesh of Christ would not see corruption; and Peter appealed to this ancient prophecy of the Holy Scripture to support his argument concern ing the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:27; 13:35). Thus it is clear that the Old Testament Scriptures testify to Christ: to His character, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection. Now, with Christ risen from the dead, these Scrip tures stand as certified truth. But if Christ is not risen from the dead, then they are not true. Hear the triumphant words of Scripture: “But now is Christ risen from the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20). This fact sets the seal of God upon the truth of all of the Scrip tures, including promises fulfilled and those that are yet to be realized. Somebody has counted the promises made by God to man, as recorded in the Word of God, and has found them' to number more than ten thousand. There are covenants and promises well nigh unlimited in their scope; there are promises of the forgiveness of sins; there are promises of the creation of a new heart and of help in time of trouble; there are promises for this life and for the life to come; there are promises of
The Divine Origin and Authority of the Scriptures The greatest question of the hour with many is this: “ Is the Bible the Word of God?” The resurrection of Christ furnishes that knowledge and establishes that fact. Hundreds of years before Christ came into the world, the Holy Spirit drew portraits of the Person and ministry of the Son of God. One of the disciples of John the Baptist said of Christ: “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write.” This we know: all the writers of the New Testament demonstrated that Jesus was He of whom all the prophets gave testimony. They also quoted a great many Old Testament passages to prove that fact. The Lord Jesus Himself, after His resurrection, ih speaking of His passion, said unto them: “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were writ ten in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their under standing, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it be hoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day” (Luke 24:44-46).
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