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end all because after Jesus died He arose again. To prove that the Old Testament promise was "fulfilled in Jesus, Paul quotes the second Psalm and seventh verse as suggesting the resurrection of Christ, and follows that up by citing Isaiah 53:3 as having foretold the truth that He would be raised from the dead and no more “return to corruption,” i.e., that His resur rection was not to be followed by another death, but that the one raised was to “return to corruption” no more. Paul quotes Isaiah 53 :3 from the Septuagint version. And then Paul turns to still another passage of Old Testament Scripture to prove his position, the sixteenth Psalm (the same passage that Peter, quoted on the day of Pentecost). This Psalm has in ifi the clearest possible pre diction of the resurrection of the Holy One of God, i.e., the Messiah. Paul goes on to show that the sixteenth- Psalm, which he has just quoted, did not refer to David, for it was not fulfilled in David, for he “saw corruption,” but Jesus' whom God raised up saw no corruption. Of course the corruption here spoken of refers to the corruption, or decay, of the body. Not only did the Spirit of Christ remain alive after it left the body, but His body itself was preseryed from the natural consequences of death, viz., “corruption,” or decay. Friday, January 12 . Acts 13 : 38 - 41 . The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead not only proved that He was the Messiah; it proved another'thing, viz., that there is forgiveness of sins through Him. Jesus Christ when here on earth claimed to have power to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-10), but how do I know that He really had this power which He claimed? Others have made the same claim, or at least a similar claim. But God has set His endorse ment upon the claim of the Lord Jesus by raising Him from thp dead. This was the one thing that Paul would have his brethren know, “that through this man (i. e., Jesus) is proclaimed unto you the remission of sins.” That Jesus can forgive sins, and that this remission of sins is through Him-
revealed truth for'the sake of their own notions, and só they killed their own Mes siah, and in so doing fulfilled the very Scripture that they rejected. But God’s Word is sure, whether men accept it or reject it,-' Not one word will fail in spite of all the critics. By their action they did not upset God’s Word ! No, “they fulfilled all things that were written of Him.” And there is not a prediction about Jesus that concerns His second coming that shall not be fulfilled to the very letter. Paul passed from the crucifixion of Jesus to His resur rection. It is a remarkable fact that every sermon recorded in the Acts of the Apostles comes around to- the resurrection of Jesus before it gets through. So it is evident that the great fundamental fact of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus (cf. Rom. 10:9, 10). “God raised Him from the dead,” cried Paul. Establish that fact and you establish every doctrine of Christianity. Thank God,, that fact is so firmly established that it cannot be shaken. There is not a fact of history that is more sure than that. If it is not sure that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, then nothing is sure. But that fact is sure. “He was seen for many days by-them that came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem,” and at the time Paul was speaking these witnesses were still living to testify unto the people. Thursday, January II. Acts 13 : 32 - 37 - Paul here defines the gospel (gospel means “good tidings”) which he brought to them. The gospel, or glad tidings, was that God had fulfilled thè promise made unto the fathers. He had fulfilled this promise in raising up Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus was the fulfill ment of God’s Old Testament promise to Israel, the fulfillment of the promise of a Messiah whom God should raise from the dead, and of the great promise that though a man died he should live again. We know that Jesus is the Messiah because He ful filled the- Old Testament predictions, and we furthermore know that death does not
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