175
April 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
SUVv The Risen Christ B y D r . E. L. M c C reery (Dean of the Faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles)
0 ds-\er
ING in the place of LIFE, not in the place of DEATH— not in a tomb.” How strangely these words must have sounded to their ears! But had not the Master Himself, before His awful suffering, spoken to them mysterious words—which then they had not understood—about suffering and death and the third day rising again? Could this be what He had meant them to understand by His words? Yes, this zvas' the third day! Truly the light is beginning to creep over their darkened, perplexed souls, just as that Easter sun
“Why seek ye the living among the dead?" “He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said. COME, SEE the place where the Lord lay.” —Luke 24:4-5; Matt. 28:6. HE vision of Christ upon the Cross left the dis ciples discouraged, disappointed, with their hope and expectation cast to the ground. The senti ment of the entire company of the disciples must in large degree have been reflected in the state ment of the two on their way to Emmaus, “But
is sending its radiant rays to an ever-widening h o r i z o n bringing a brightness beyond compare. Just as the rising sun dispels; the lingering dark ness, so the angelic messen gers were not to stop with a veiled announcement to the women; t h e y immediately follow it by II. T h e A ngel ’ s D eclaration A BOLD DECLARA TION of the SAVIOUR’S RESURRECTION— “He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said.” They not only thus assure the women that He is no longer to be found in a tomb, in the place of the dead, but they give the reason. It is, “for he is. risen, even as he said.” No thieves have covertly stolen away His body to further harrow the feelings of the sorrowing disciples. N o t
we hoped that it was he who. s h o u l d r e d e e m Israel.” T r u l y .redemption W A S WROUGHT OUT u p o n the Cross, but was not mani fested in its fulness either while the Saviour’s b o d y hung upon the Cross, or when it lay in the tomb. The glory of that FIRST EAS TER MORN was essential for the full revelation to man of the greatness of the power of God in the saving of a lost and sinful world. . Woman’s love, which lin gered last at the Cross and hastened earliest to the tomb, “at early morn, . . . on that first day of the'zveek,” was recompensed by being com missioned F I R S T to an nounce an empty tomb and a living Christ to the sorrow ing followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene.- Perplexed at finding the tomb EMPTY, the women who had brought the spices
Let Lis G o On B y A n n ie J o h n so n F l in t
Some of us stay at the Cross, Some of us wait at the tomb, Quickened and raised together with Christ, Yet lingering still in its gloom; Some o f us bide at the Passover feast With Pentecost all unknown — The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place That our Lord has made our own. I f the Christ who died had stopped at the Cross, His work had been incomplete, I f the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb, He had only known defeat; But the Way of the Cross never stops at the Cross, And the Way o f the Tomb leads on To victorious grace in the heavenly place Where the risen Lord has gone. So, let us go on with our Lord To the fulness of God He has brought, Unsearchable riches of glory and good Exceeding our uttermost thought; Let us grow up into Christ, Claiming His life and its powers ,— The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place That our conquering Lord has made ours
even have any of the timid disciples in the silent night watches bribed the guarding sentry' in order to secure the body of their beloved, to lay it in another and unknown tomb. No, His body had not been taken from the tomb. HE HIMSELF had gone forth from the sepulcher bear ing triumphant on His shoulders the gates and the bars and the pillars of the grave. He has overcome the last enemy—DEATH. His life of holiness has been vindicated by heaven, even though He had suffered as a criminal on the Cross. His claim of being God’s Son is verified by the Father Himself, who would not suffer His Holy One to see corruption. For it was He “who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrec tion from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1 : 4 ). Such is the divine answer in solution of the mystery of the empty tomb and the missing body of the crucified Christ. But how is the mystery explained by His enemies? If the body of Jesus was not raised from the dead, its dis-
which they had prepared were affrighted by the voice of the heavenly messengers— -“the two men who stood by them in dazzling apparel,” who announced to them the mystery. I. T h e A ngel ’ s Q uestion Their method of announcing the mystery is in address ing to the women a question. Luke 24:5; “Why seek ye the LIV ING among the DEAD?” They are seeking Jesus, but they are in the wrong place to .find the Saviour, though they knew it not. Hence the question put to them by the angels, “Why seek ye the LIVING among the DEAD?” as though to say to them, “Have you failed to comprehend WHO HE WAS while He dwelt among you? Do you not know that HE is the LIVING one, the GIVER OF LIFE; the one who has an infinite life in Himself ? Do you not know that He could never be holden of death; that even though it should lay its clammy hand upon Him, it can be but for a season, for He will utterly break its bands asunder and set the captive free? This question was equivalent to saying to them, “Seek the LIV-
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs