Robert G. Lee, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
T h e C r o ss To get the full glory of the empty tomb of Joseph’s of Arimathea, we must stand at the place called Calvary. To know the dawn at its highest, at the unsealed tomb, we must know the night at its darkest, at Golgotha. At Calvary, at the Interlocking of the ages, Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, re deeming man from death to life, canceling man’s debt of judicial obligation by an equivalent which afforded legal satisfaction, voluntarily passing under death’s dreadful shadow, though owing the law no debt. At the Cross, God’s eternal attributes emptied their vials of burning wrath upon the sinless Christ in agony enough to make the earth shudder, the sun in darkness hide, the spheres go wailing in their orbits. There love in carnate was rejected, tortured, killed—there where the history of human guilt culminates, where the purposes of divine love are made intelligible, where the serpent’s head is bruised, where the fountain of salvation is un sealed, where our death sentence is revoked, where God in crimson garments dressed, courted our love, where Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. T h e C o m p l e m e n t The resurrection of Jesus, the whole alphabet of hu man hope, the certification of our Lord's mission from Heaven, the heart of the Gospel in all ages, the best established fact in human history, the proclamation of His claimed and attendant deity, is the complement of the Cross. Christ's Cross, purposed from all eternity, prophesied through ages, peered into by angels, found its complement in the empty tomb. Christ’s sacrifice found its complement in the empty tomb where He wrested from Death's black brow his ebony diadem, where Jesus wrenched from Death’s hand his cruel scep ter, where Jesus shivered at a single blow Death’s em pire of skulls, where Jesus changed humanity's bleak winter into flowery summer, where Jesus took away the hideous skeleton and left the radiant lily, where Jesus “brought life and immortality to light,” where He "arose a victor from the dark domain.” Had the Cross been all, then all the truth we now cherish would be as painted fire where no heat is, as the water of the mirage, as a roofless house where no shelter is afforded. Forever is it true that all Gospel preaching is vain; all Christian faith is vain; all Christians are yet in their sins; all who have fallen asleep in Jesus are perished; and “we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:18), had the Cross been all and had Christ not risen. T h e C e r t a in t y But on the authority of this Book, a work far superior to human invention, 4 Book confirmed and validated by the Spirit of God, a radiation from an orb Infinitely higher than reason, and brighter than fancy, a direct and decisive disclosure from the high and lofty God who inhabits eternity and yet is pleased to dwell with those of an humble and contrite heart—rests this as serted certainty of the resurrection. The Bible, honored with the supreme sanction claimed for it, declares the resurrection with a certainty which makes the fact un doubted save by those who see the light and deny the T H E K I N G ' S I U S I N E S S
Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms, Washington, D. C. O F resurrection realities, the following words come to mind: Chief, Cross, Complement, Certainty, Comfort, Confirmation and Confession. T h e C h ie f The chief one, the central personality, amid all resur rection scenes is Jesus, who never sought a chief seat in any synagogue; who “took upon him the form of a servant”; who said: “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all” (Mark 10:44). Of Him whom God hath highly exalted, to whom He has given a name which is above every name, these words are written: "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief est among ten thousand” (S.S. 5:10). Jesus, the ob served of all observers, during the crucifixion scenes and the resurrection revealings, is among the greatest of men “As the lily among thorns” (S.S. 2:2) and among the most radiant men of all ages, as the sun above candles. Jesus, the most hated by haters, the best loved of those who know the holy sacredness of pure love, is called “the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20). Jesus, who during the crucifixion horrors, was the object of vilifi cation and who, after the resurrection, was the object of adoration and worship, the one upon whom all eyes were fastened, is “the chief shepherd” (1 Pet 5:4), the highest among the high of all who ever lived on earth, the brightest among the bright who serve in Heaven, forever the chief, unlike and unique. The Father of Glory has set Him on an incomparable eleva tion "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1 : 21 ). ' )«|< Ten
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