perfectly paid all our debt, removed all our guilt. Therefore, He rose; death had no claim on Him. Instead of worrying about sin and wishing you could live your life over, just trust the resurrected Lord. If God is satisfied, you should be! Christ’s resurrection — real, though unseen by us—assures trusting sinners that the present record is clear. God has no charge against the person who trusts the risen Lord Jesus. “ He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for all, will he not give us all things with Him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s own? . . . It is Christ who died. Yes, it was Christ Jesus who was raised from the dead. He is at the right hand of God. He intercedes for us.” How infinitely better than trying to live it over again in your own strength! You have accepted the fact of resurrec tion; have learned the possibilities and blessings of trusting the risen Lord. You may, then, take the third and conclusive step to living life anew. Act on God's Assurance He has said, “ I will never leave you nor forsake you . . . I am with you al ways.” He wants you to act; to humbly respond. “ As a sinner I have trusted Christ. He now lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” A Christian business man recently ex pressed it this way: “ It took me many years to discover I needed more in this life than I—or even life itself—could provide. “ My discovery was the Lord Jesus Christ. I came to know Him by faith, and it is by that same faith I have tried to live these past ten years since I have known Him best. “ The essence of my Christianity is con fidence in God’s Word and His Son—not just piousness, nor self-righteousness, nor an easy escape from the realities of life—but a simple, workaday faith backed up by prayer. Faith and prayer, I have found, make an unbeatable combination, because they represent trust in and petition to an ever-living Lord. “ Some people say it is hard to live a Christian life. I haven’t found it so. To the contrary it has been an experience so rich in its rewards .that I cannot now imagine living any other way.” You are invited to trust the Lord Jesus Christ; to make the same discovery as this business man; to live life anew by following the steps outlined above. “ The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17: 30,31). “I know that my Redeemer liveth. Because He lives, I too shall live.”
died. History tells us more about the details of the hours surrounding His death in and near Jerusalem than about any other person in all the ancient world. The dead body of Jesus of Nazareth was taken from the cross and buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arima- thaea. On Sunday morning following His death, His grave was empty. The tomb was empty because Jesus of Nazareth was resurrected. He lived again. He was raised both Lord and Christ. There are excellent and numerous au thorities for saying this. The four Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John— were men of sincerest piety. They unite in unqualified testimony to the resur rection of Christ. So do the other New Testament authors. Even the enemies of the good news of living again gave unwilling witness to the resurrection. They acknowledged that the grave was empty, but circulated the story that the body had been stolen. It was a stupid tale they told because even the disciples “ knew not the Scripture that He must rise from the dead.” The amazing thing is that His enemies re membered what His friends had for gotten ! Dr. William Lyon Phelps for forty years was Yale’s distinguished professor of English literature. He spoke thus: “ In the whole story of Jesus Christ, the most important event is the resurrection. Christian faith depends on this . . . Our faith in God, in Christ, in life itself, is based on the resurrection . . .” If, perchance, Christ’s bodily resurrec tion lingers in your skeptical mind as a dubious improbability, go back to the Bible again and again. Examine the New Testament resurrection evidence hon estly, thoroughly and humbly. God’s Spirit will lead you into resurrection truth and faith. The living again of the Man Christ Jesus in His material though trans formed body is an inescapable fact. Like all facts of life it should be accepted. Thank God it is so, for in this fact lies the possibility of your living life anew. The secret of turning that possibility into reality is in . . . Trusting the Resurrected Person Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, is a Person capable of giving you new life. He can answer your needs. All He asks is that you trust Him. He is ready to respond to your trust. Your trusting Him is a matter of tak ing Him at His word. An enthusiastic little boy said “Trusting Him means believing God and asking no questions.” The Bible puts it this way: “ Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” God tells us something beyond human ken. Faith makes that thing as real and true as any thing our eyes can see. Consider some things made real by confidence in the risen Lord. Christ’s resurrection—real,though un seen by us—guarantees that He is a Divine Person and not a fraud or reli-
The Women at the Tomb
gious fake. Speaking of His body, Christ said to His enemies “ Destroy this tem ple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Speaking to His friends, He de clared, “ No man can take it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and to take it again.” If He had failed to rise from the dead, all He claimed about Himself and His power to help us would have been invalidated. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus— real, though unseen by us — displayed omnipotent power on our behalf. The Apostle Paul prayed that all Christians should have faith to understand “ the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the work ing of his great might which he accom plished in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” This means that the risen Lord re sponds to a sinner’s trust. Mighty energy was put forth to revivify the body of Jesus and raise Him from among the dead. God uses the same mighty energy to quicken trusting souls into newness of life. This same power energizes you as a child of God and will enable you to live even here on earth a heavenly life of victory over sin. The Lord’s resurrection—real, though unseen by us—is.conclusive evidence that the question of sin has been settled to God’s satisfaction. No one trusting the resurrected Person has any occasion for fear and worry over past sin. On the cross where He died, our sins were laid upon Christ. He voluntarily ac cepted responsibility for them. “He was delivered on account of our offenses, and was raised again on account of our justification.” If sin had not been forever put away, the Lord Jesus would never have come forth from the grave.. But He
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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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