September, 1933
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Christ risen means that the demands o f the law are fully satisfied. Christ risen is the magnanimous reply of God’s grace to human rebellion. Christ risen means that “ He is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make interces sion for them” (Heb. 7 :25 ). The risen Christ is the proof o f immortality. Immor tality, apart from Christ, is at best a dream. Men have discussed it as a possibility, reasoned that it is a probability, hoped that it might be an actuality. Jesus did not dis cuss it; He assumed it. He did not reason about it; He affirmed it. He did not hope for it; He demonstrated it. Socrates, the greatest teacher o f the pagan world, after a long and involved argument for the survival o f the soul after death, said to his disciples in the hour of his own
The resurrection had exalted Him far above all the powers o f earth at the right hand of God. Because they considered themselves to be His representatives, they dared to defy all lesser potentates and councils that bade them be silent. The risen Christ is the authority for the protection o f the message as given through the messengers. Compare His utterance to them, “ As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,” with His reply to Pilate’s boast, “ Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” As the Father assured the Son o f His personal protection until the work of the latter should be fulfilled, so Christ watched over the safety of His followers as they, went about His business. W e have the classic example in the arrest o f Saul on the Damascus
death: “ So we go, I to die, and you to live: Which is better, only God knows.” His best message ended with a question mark. How infinitely better the words o f the Lord Jesus: » ‘Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). With that message, He sent forth His disciples, and with it He sends us forth, too. Many won der why we do not change the message with the changing times. Do not new circumstances require new doctrine? Have not the ideas o f men so progressed that we need a new truth? Do not our civiliza tion and culture demand a less ele mentary gospel? The answer is that, in the nineteen centuries since the first Easter morning, human nature has not changed. It has the same sorrows, fears, and sins that it always had, and it is still under the same condemnation. Neither has Christ changed in that time. He is still a living personality, none the less real because invisible. Since He has committed to us the word o f reconciliation, we dare not change it until He shall appear to declare the work finished.
road. When persecution threat ened to strangle the infant church in its cradle, He intervened by transforming the chief opponent into His greatest apostle, and the flight from persecution into a world-wide evangelistic campaign. T h e R isen C h r ist ^ t h e L eader in M issions Not only did He protect His followers from the onslaughts of their enemies, but also He directed their advance and led the attack. The book o f Acts tells us that the third Gospel relates “ all that Jesus began both to do and teach,” with the implication that He continued “ to do and teach” through His dis ciples. He led them in facing a new world. From that upper room, the little group o f unlearned fish ermen went forth to present to a cultured and cynical age the gospel o f the cross. T o the Gentile, it was utter foolishness to think that so irrational a procedure as belief in a crucified Jew could assure him o f salvation. To the Jew, it was blasphemy to assert that one who had been hung on a tree could pos sibly be Israel’s Messiah. Who o f
A M B A S S A D O R S OF T H E R I S E N I j w C H R I S T
This promising quintet, all g r ad u a te s of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and accepted candidates of
the China Inland Mission, are sailing this fall, the Lord willing, to take the message of
the risen Christ to those in China who perish without it. Left to right, they are: Dick Hillis, Wilda Miller, Marguerite Goodner, Hilda Riffel, and Edwin Cory. They represent another and larger company of Biola alumni who look forward to leaving soon, either as new or returning missionaries, to serve in Africa, Central and South America, and elsewhere. Hun dreds of others are already at work in their respec tive fields. Biola seeks always to exalt the risen Lord, and her sons and daughters go forth fearlessly to the ends of the earth to make His praise glorious.
T h e R isen C h r ist , th e A u th o r it y for M issions
that group was able to plan a campaign that could make this gospel triumphant over Greek philosophy and over Jewish legalism? The risen Christ directed them to tarry at Jerusalem until power should come upon them from on high. He told them that they should present their message as witnesses, not as rhetoricians— “ the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” “ The Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved.” He led them in matters o f procedure. Through His Spirit, He indicated by revelation every major change o f policy, organization, and itinerary. The appointment of the seven for the social service o f the church, the begin ning o f the ministry to the Gentiles, the decision o f the council at Jerusalem with regard to the status of Gentile converts, the routes to be followed in the evangelization of the Roman world were all determined by Him. He did not always preserve His servants from death; but though the workmen passed, the work persisted. He opened and shut the doors for them. He emboldened them in the face o f opposition. He wrung victory from defeat, until the [Continued on page 302]
It is one thing to have a message to deliver; it is quite another to have the authority to deliver it. On what authority have we the right to traverse sea and land with the imperious declaration that man must choose the alter native o f believing the message to be saved, or o f rejecting it, and so be lost ? The fact o f the resurrection is the supreme proof o f the reality o f our teaching. “ As my Father hath sent me,” He said, “ even so send I you.” During His years o f ministry, He constantly affirmed that the words which He spoke were not His, but the Father’s, who sent Him. A s He delivered the message committed to Him by the Father, so we proclaim that which He entrusted to His apostles, and which they transmitted to us by the records which they left. The risen Christ is the authority for the propagation o f the message. When Peter and John were asked, after the healing o f the lame man, “ By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?” they replied: “ Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name o f Jesus Christ o f Nazareth . . . whom God raised from the dead . . . doth this man stand here before you whole.”
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