CHRIST OPENED THE TOMB By Louis T. Talbot, D.D. T his is Easter Sunday, the gladdest day in all the year, the day in which we dwell upon the joy- not raised, then those Scriptures passed without vindication. woke Him crying, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” He arose and rebuked the winds and the waves and they were still. Creation recog nized the voice of its Creator.
In opening the tomb He guaran teed the truth of His own Word, for in the second chapter of John He declared, “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Here He was referring to the temple of His body, and if it was not raised, then His Word is not true. In opening the tomb He guaran teed for me and for every Christian, justification and acceptance with God because in the fourth chapter of Romans it is stated: “Who was de livered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” But if Christ be not risen, then we are in the world without any assurance of our relationship to God. In opening the tomb Christ guar anteed for every believer immortality of the body because in the fourteenth chapter of John He declared, “Be cause I live, ye shall live also.” But if Christ is not risen, then every tomb in the world is sealed forever. In opening the tomb He served notice upon the godless, Christ- rejecting world that there is going to be a day of reckoning for in the seventeenth chapter of Acts we read: “ Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” But if Christ is not risen, the world can go merrily on its sinful way with out judgment, or fear of consequences. Ills Deity Revealed But far beyond all this, and that upon which all the other things rest, is the fact that when Christ opened the tomb, He settled forever the question as to who He was—“ God manifest in the flesh.” A ll through His earthly ministry, Jesus declared that He was God, but men did not believe Him. He revealed His deity in the temple at the age of 12 when He shattered» the superlative wisdom of the doc tors and lawyers by the answers He gave to their questions. He revealed His deity in the little storm-tossed boat on the Sea of Gali lee when the frightened disciples
inspiring fact of the resurrection of Christ, that glorious certainty which underlies all the other glorious cer tainties of the Christian faith. In opening the tomb that first Easter morning, the Son of God did far more than just come forth from a rock-hewn, government-sealed tomb in the garden of Joseph of Arimathaea. In opening the tomb He guaran teed the hopes of all Christians for this life and that which is to come. In opening the tomb He guaran teed the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures. Hundreds of years before His birth, sages and seers had prophe sied that not only would He be cruci fied, but that He would also be raised from the dead. The sixteenth Psalm distinctly says that His body would not see corruption. If His body was
He revealed His deity as He stood before the tomb of Lazarus and said to a man who had been dead four days, “ Come forth” ! “ And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes.” Death obeyed the voice of Deity. He revealed His deity when He said to a poor paralytic, “ Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,” because for giveness of sins is the prerogative of God. Again He revealed His deity in the Garden of Gethsemane when the rabble came with their swords and staves to arrest Him. Jesus said to them, “Whom seek ye?” They said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” And when He said to them, “ I am,” they fell to the ground as dead men. “ I Am” is one of the names of Jehovah, the name by which God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. Thus Jesus declared that He and the Jehovah of the Old Testament were one and the same. He revealed His deity on the cross when He opened the gates of para dise to a poor, dying sinner. Only God Himself could do this. But now in His resurrection He is “ declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resur rection from the dead.” In Revelation l:.l 7, 18 it is re corded that the risen Christ appeared to John saying, “ Fear not: I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” (A.S.V.) He has control over the bodies and the souls of men. He is the Lord of the past, the present and the future. Some day He will open every grave. “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation.” It is a resurrection to life for the saved but of judgment to the unsaved, continued on page 32 THE KING'S BUSINESS
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Chancellor Louis T. Talbot shown giving Easter message in world famous Rose Bowl.
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