March, 1942
THE K I NG ' S BUSINESS
83
What the Resurrection Means to Me
SONG OF ASSURANCE
"From heaven fought the start, From their courses they fought against Sisera. The river Kishon swept thiSn away, O my soul, march on with ' strength.“ (Judg. 5120, 21, R.V.) By CLARA BERNHARDT Think not that heaven Is silent to our cause. Or ignorant of what we would defend, , The forces set in motion by God’s laws Are His to use; on this We may depend. Whence came the Dunkirk fog upon the seas,. To save the rescue ships from ruthless foes? The wind and rain He looses when He please. And snows which conquer armies are His snows. What though we are outnumbered, when His Word Can shake the earth, creating flood or hall; For 'not by might nor power, saith the Lord, But by my Spirit.’ Thus shall man pre vail. And only when we live as Christ decreed. Can we expect God’s answer to our/ need. ity and power, and He has commanded me, saying, “Go . . . and, lo, I am with you alway.” His resurrection means, therefore, that all the power and vie- tqry which are His have been vouch safed to me. 6. It means that there is. One in heaven who is managing my affairs. Had Jesus Christ never come forth from the grave, my hopes, my joys all would have been buried with Him. I could never have \ known redemption, because of the defeat of my Redeemer. I could never have knpwn victory, be cause Satan would have remained a conqueror of the only One who could give me help. In the empty tomb, however, we >who have trusted Christ were all begotten again unto a living hope. He lives; shall I despair as if He were not there? Does not He carry my burdens? Does hot He control my life? 7. It means that there is One in heaven who is abiding the time of His coming again. The Lord Jesus not only is risen; He not only is exalted to the
By R. E. NEIGHBOUR Los Angeles, California
y'^ENTRAL in God’s plan of re- I demption, the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the seal of His perfect life and His mighty atonement for sin at Calvary. When this great fact of his tory is made personal, Easter joy be comes a reality in the believer’s heart. What does the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ mean to me? 1, It means that there is One up there who was once down here. I revel in the knowledge that my Lord was once an earth-dweller. He moved about in the very sphere of action in which I am now moving, among the same kind of people, and amid the same world setting. He rubbedshou l ders with sinners; He touched hand and heart with men and women of all classes. He knew 'what ’it was to be wearied from the toil of the day. - He did no sin, knew no sin, and in Him there' was no sin. He, however, bore the sins of, others and suffered for others, the Just for the unjust. Ac cordingly, we are correct in saying He had a personal contact with all of those things which we now see and feel and know. He .was once down here. 2. It means that there is One up there who remembers the days and years He spent down here. Our Lord has not cast from Him the .memories of the past. He has not forgotten what it is to be maligned and misrepre sented and misunderstood; nor has He forgotten what it riieans to a human being to be loved and admired, and trusted by his fellow men. It is all with Him still. The memory of John leaning on His breast, arid of Judas betraying Him with a kiss—He still feels them both. He has not shaken off the meaning of His hard days of toil in the carpenter shop. The cries of the sick, the maimed, the halt, and the blind gtill linger with Him. His poverty. With nowhere to lay His head—it is all there! The men who, • like bulls of Bashan, beset Him round as He hung upon the cross, despised and rejected of men—He has not for gotten! His life of mingled joy and sorrow—He remembers it all. ,3. It means that there is One up there who cares for me. He cares be cause He is my risen and exalted High Priest, touched with the feeling -of my infirmities. He knows my care,
for He was down here; He understands the conditions which make my care, : for He knew similar conditions; He does more than both: He thinks upon my care, and He cares. There is One up there who is walking with me down here; His presence is real to me here.® • ■ * What does it matter, though dark my path may be? What - does it matter, though naught of light I see? There’s One above me, who lives to love me, . There’s naught can matter when Christ lives, and cares for me. 4. It means that there is One up there who has passed up through, and above, all principalities and powers Why should I fear what men may do? Why should I fear-Satan and all of his hosts? Christ leads me in the train of His triumph; I am more than a conqueror through Him. His victory is my victory. He has, as it were, carried me up with Himself, and has made me to sit down with Him, far above all rule and authority satanic; Christ has placed them all under my feet. How can any one who believes in a risen and ascended Lord dwell in the lowlands of defeat, when Christ has placed him on the high planes of con quest and triumph? 5. It means that there is One up there who is seated at the right hand of the Father. On the cross, Christ was set at,naught of men. He had come into a world that knew Him not. He had come unto His own, and they had received Him not. There had been no room for Him in the inn at His birth, and finally there Was no room for Him among men at His death. He died in ignominy and in shame, numbered with the transgressors. But on the third day, the Lord Jesus Christ arose, breaking the bands of death, and carrying in His hands the keys of death and hell. Later He ascended up into heaven amid the loud acclaim of the heavenly host, and took His seat at the right hand of God the Father. Men would not have Him, but heaven would. The rulers on earth refused Him; the Ruler of all in the glory received Him, acclaimed Him, and seated Him. , What does this risen, seated Christ mean to me? The answer is very simple: He is clothed with all author
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