BODILY RESURRECTION (cont.) arch, equal in importance and supply ing strength to our faith. We must hasten to add that this single event is that which gives Chris tianity a vibrant and energetic faith and hope. It is the resurrection that verifies that “our faith is not in vain.” Paul’s weighty words ring down the corridors of time, “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” “He is not here, He is risen,” the angel cried out at the doorway of the sepulcher. What did the angel mean? Simply that He arose according to His word — as He predicted — but the heavenly visitor did not indicate the manner in which He arose. Jesus, who had but three days be fore suffered an ignominious death, had truly risen bodily from the grave. This resurrection was not réanimation, but an actual reunion of the body and spir it. True, the body was similar to the earthly body, recognizable as we under stand in His later relations with His disciples, yet it was different. Scrip ture furnishes a perfect illustration of this concept — Lazarus was reani mated, Jesus was resurrected. The stone was removed from the tomb of Lazarus to permit him to come out. Jesus did not require the stone to be rolled away that He might come forth. The angel removed it that outsiders might be let in. In that tomb lay the evidence upon which hangs the whole of the Chris tian faith and it was want that the dis ciples might see it. Lazarus brought with him from the tomb, the wrappings of burial that were about him, Jesus came forth from the tomb without the winding sheets of death. He left the grave clothes in tact, except the head roll which, when released, fell back to a place by itself. And then He proceeded through the walls of the sealed tomb and out into the resurrection atmosphere of that first great Easter morning. There is remarkable proof that Jesus rose bodily that day. Interesting to note is the fact that the Jews were un
able to produce the body following the stirring event. There are passages to support the fact that He had risen in a body and not just in spirit. The Word takes us to a beach beside the Sea of Galilee. As we see Jesus standing be side the sea with His disciples, we rec ognize Him as did they. His figure had the same form that it had before His death. That is fact number one. Fact number two lies in the words which He spoke — “Why are you troubled?” — they thought Him to be a spirit. Facts three and four: His wounds clear ly visible in His body and His partak ing of food with them there. In God’s wisdom and power, Christ had died and risen bodily as He said He would. Paul gives us assistance in under standing this event in I Cor. 15. Here Paul describes our sowing. When we sow wheat, oats or barley, we sow not the body that shall be — but we sow bare grain, and in that strange, mys terious new life which succeeds death, God gives it a body as it pleases Him, to each seed its own body. It will be a body adapted to the new order of na ture in which it is to live. Even so with the resurrected body. There is no thought in the mind of Paul regard ing a disembodied spirit; he refers con stantly to a body. It is an incorrupti ble body, a spiritual body, adapted to the spiritual existence into which en trance is gained by. resurrection. Other proofs of His bodily resurrec tion are found to be His numerous ap pearances to individuals and groups of people following that first Easter morning. The two on the road to Emmaiis did not know to whom they spoke until the bread was broken and their eyes beheld the marks in His hands. Then He vanished from their sight. Again, His appearance before the Apostles when Thomas was absent and later in Thomas’ presence. This latter proof of His physical, bodily resurrec tion brought Thomas to exclaim “My Lord and my God!” The survival and growth of the church give further evidence of the resurrection of Christ. He is risen! 14
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