There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus told His disciples He would be killed, as prophesied in Scripture (Isa. 53), but that He would be raised to life in three days: “Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said” (Jn. 2:22).
Jesus’ path to the cross was agonizing. It involved trials, scourging, pain, and suffering—all of which He sovereignly planned as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). He willingly took on “the form of a bondservant, . . . coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:7–8).
The Trial
The crucifixion ordeal began when Jesus was arrested and taken before the notorious Sadducean priest Annas. Asked about His disciples and doctrine (Jn. 18:19), Jesus replied that He spoke openly and without ambiguity: “I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing” (v. 20). A guard then struck Jesus in the face (v. 22).
Annas sent Jesus bound to his son-in-law Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest (v. 24). “Tell us,” Caiaphas demanded, “if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” (Mt. 26:63).
Jesus answered with a declaration, based on Psalm 80:17, that He was the Messiah and God: “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (v. 64; cf. Dan. 7:13, 22). In an unlawful and disgraceful display of judicial impropriety, Caiaphas tore his clothes while asserting, “He has spoken blasphemy! . . . He is deserving of death” (Mt. 26:65–66).
The religious leaders had a problem. They had to produce a way to convert their charge of blasphemy into a civil charge so that Rome could execute Jesus (Jn. 18:31). So, they leveled three accusations against Him before the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate: “We found this fellow [1] perverting the nation, and [2] forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, [3] saying that He Himself is Christ, a King” (Lk. 23:2).
Pilate, however, found no fault in Jesus (v. 4) and passed the responsibility to Herod Antipas, the murderer of John the Baptizer. Before Antipas, Jesus remained silent. “Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him . . . and sent Him back to Pilate” (v. 11).
Before Pilate, Jesus acknowledged, “I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth” (Jn. 18:37).
Pilate replied, “What is truth?” and again declared, “I find no fault in Him at all” (v. 38). Six times Pilate tried to free Jesus, but he succumbed to the pressure of those who wanted Christ killed. So, Jesus was sentenced to crucifixion.
Crucifixion and Death
Jesus was bound to a column and scourged savagely with a multilashed whip studded with bits of bone and metal that no doubt ripped His skin to shreds. The Roman soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, slapped it on His head, spat on Him, and struck Him on the head (Mt. 27:27–30).
He then was forced to carry a crossbeam through the narrow streets of Jerusalem to a place outside the city that we call Calvary. At the head of this grim procession, a soldier carried a wooden sign that read, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS” in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek (Jn. 19:19–20; cf. Lk. 23:38). At the execution site, Jesus was thrown to the ground atop the crossbeam. His arms were held out while iron nails pierced His wrists. Once secured, He was lifted up to an upright beam. One foot was placed over the other, and a nail was driven through them to the post. The wooden sign was nailed over His head for all to see.
The crucifixion occurred at 9 a.m. Friday morning. “With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left” (Mk. 15:27). It would have been obvious to those who knew Scripture that prophecy was being fulfilled: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:5, 12).
From noon to 3 p.m., darkness covered the land (Lk. 23:44). The darkness suggested the presence of evil and the wrath of God being poured out on His Son for the sins of the world. Through His death, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Gal. 3:13). “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
On the cross, Jesus would have heard the blowing of the shofar to begin the sacrifices of the Passover lambs. People would have started singing the Hallel Psalms 113—118, a collection of thanksgiving prayers sung on festive holidays that begins with “Hallelujah,” meaning, “Praise the LORD.”
As the last lamb was slaughtered, the shofar would sound one final time. It is probable that at the very moment the people sang Psalm 118:25—“Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity [deliverance]”—Jesus said, “It is finished!” meaning, “paid in full!” (Jn. 19:30). Jesus paid the redemption price for our sin with His shed blood (Rom. 6:23). Christ then dismissed His spirit (Mt. 27:50; cf. Jn. 10:17–18).
Burial and Resurrection
Joseph of Arimathea, a secret follower of Jesus, boldly asked Pilate for Christ’s body. He then laid it in a new tomb. Together with Nicodemus, who brought scented ointment, they anointed and wrapped Jesus’ body in strips of linen.
Calling Jesus a “deceiver” (Mt. 27:63), the priests and Pharisees told Pilate they remembered Him saying that after three days, He would rise from the dead. So, they requested that Pilate station armed guards at the tomb to prevent the disciples from stealing Jesus’ body. Roman guards and an official seal were posted.
Would Psalm 16:10 now be fulfilled? “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol [the realm of the dead], nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption [to rot in the grave].” It would indeed!
On the first day of the week, two women went to the tomb:
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said” (Mt. 28:2, 4–6).
The angel told them to tell Jesus’ disciples that He is risen. “He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him” (v. 7). As the women left, Jesus met them and said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (v. 10). And, of course, they did.
The ancient Jews believed in the resurrection. Each day they recited a prayer called the Amidah, composed of 18 blessings. The second states belief in resurrection: “Thou, Lord, art mighty to all eternity, Thou raisest the dead, Thou art mighty to save. In kindness He satisfieth the living, in great pity He raiseth the dead; He upholdeth those that fall; He healeth the sick and setteth free them that are bound; He will manifest His faithfulness to those who sleep in the dust. Who is like the Lord of might, and who is like Thee, Thou King, Who killest and makest alive, and causest salvation to spring forth? Faithful art Thou to restore life to the dead; blessed be the Lord Who restoreth life to the dead.”
The Sadducean priests, who didn’t believe in the resurrection, obviously would not have recited the resurrection prayer. However, the Pharisees, who rejected Jesus’ Messiahship but believed in the resurrection, would have. Yet, in seeking to cover up what they knew to be true, both committed a serious sin stemming from a hatred of Jesus without cause (Jn. 15:25) and hearts hardened by an antiresurrection bias.
Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith. The resurrection declares that you can whip Jesus, nail Him to a cross, wrap Him in linen cloths, and seal Him in a tomb. But you still cannot destroy Him because He is God. And this is our assurance: “He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:14).
Jesus is the eternal God of Israel. That is why He could say, “No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (Jn. 10:18). And because He lives, we, too, shall live if we place our faith in Him.
Peter Colón served as a Church Ministries Representative, Creative Resource Coordinator and a contributing editor for Israel My Glory magazine for The Friends of Israel.
By this we believe … Jesus answered, Do ye now believe? John 16:30–31 .
‘Now we believe.’ Jesus says—‘Do you? The time is coming when you will leave Me alone.’ Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone and gone into work from a sense of duty, or from a sense of need arising out of his own particular discernment. The reason for this is the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. The soul has got out of intimate contact with God by leaning to its own religious understanding. There is no sin in it, and no punishment attached to it; but when the soul realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and produced for himself perplexities and sorrows and difficulties, it is with shame and contrition he has to come back. We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus much deeper down, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to Him; instead of this we make our commonsense decisions and ask God to bless them. He cannot, it is not in His domain, it is severed from reality. If we do a thing from a sense of duty, we are putting up a standard in competition with Jesus Christ. We become a ‘superior person,’ and say—‘Now in this matter I must do this and that.’ We have put our sense of duty on the throne instead of the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to walk in the light of conscience or of a sense of duty, but to walk in the light as God is in the light. When we do anything from a sense of duty, we can back it up by argument; when we do anything in obedience to the Lord, there is no argument possible; that is why a saint can be easily ridiculed.
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
Let the reality of this next statement settle on you for a moment: you are going to die. It could be today or tomorrow, or maybe sixty or seventy years from now. For most of us, it will be sometime between now and then. Nevertheless, the fact remains, if the Lord doesn’t return before long, we are going to die. You are going to die.
In modern times, we work hard at not thinking of death. We’d rather focus on the temporal and just get on with it. But Christianity teaches that when we refuse to take death into account, we’re destined to live deluded and deceived existences. When we stave off thoughts of our own mortality, we’re doomed to waste our lives on trivial matters. For, as Moses reminds us, we never gain the heart of wisdom if we don’t learn to number our days (Ps. 90:12).
Historically, the church understood this. If you’ve ever visited Europe or a historic U.S. city and had the privilege to tour some ancient churches, you’ve likely noticed a graveyard surrounding the church. Lining the pathways that lead to the church’s entrance are tombstones with images of skulls or skeletons or angels. Bits of Scripture inscribed on the stones remind you that life is vain and fleeting (Eccl. 1:2), to die in Christ is gain (Phil. 1:21), and to lay up heavenly treasure—the only treasure that lasts (Matt. 6:19–21).
Aside from the fittingness of being laid to rest where you were most at rest in life—in the presence of God and His people—the graveyard served as a living reminder of mortality to the living. Each Lord’s Day, worshipers literally stepped over the dead on their way to offer a sacrifice of praise. They faced eternity on their way to meet with the eternal.
Now, lest we misunderstand, remembering that we are all dirt, and that the dirt we’re made of has an expiration date is not some dark, morbid reflection. Instead, it is intended to clear the mind’s eye, to help us see and live with eternity in view. When we remember our death, life is clarified and ordered. The things that seemed so important just a few moments ago disappear from view as eternal matters take the foreground.
Moses reminds us, we never gain the heart of wisdom if we don’t learn to number our days.
More importantly, remembering our death leads us directly to Jesus Christ. For starters, remembering our death is humbling. Death forces us to come to terms with our weakness, our neediness. It brings us to our knees, rubbing our faces in the sober acknowledge of our desperate estate. You are going to die.
When we first realize this, a haunting, inconsolable anguish fills the soul. Followed by a strong, desperate desire to outsmart death somehow. Followed even more quickly by a hopeless resignation: death is coming for you and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. No matter how good your life may be here, eventually death will rob you of it.
It’s at just this point that the breathtaking wonder of the gospel breaks on the horizon. For it’s against the backdrop of the bad news of death that the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ is so precious. For right at the center of the good news is a cross and a resurrection—a death that put death to death. That is to say, when a Christian remembers death, he remembers Christ, and to remember Christ is to remember life. For in Christ . . .
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:54–57)
You are dust and to dust you shall return, but dust you will not remain. For on the day of Christ’s return, a trumpet will sound and a voice from heaven will shout and the resurrection will begin. On that day, those “saints who from their labors rest” will meet “a yet a more glorious day.”1 The graveyards will become the harvest fields, and the dead in Christ will rise, robed in bright array, to meet the risen Lord and live with Him forever.
So, in death, brothers and sisters, let’s remember Christ—and live!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 14, 2022.
William Walsham How, “For All the Saints,” Trinity Hymnal (Suwanee, Ga.: Great Commission, 2014), no. 358.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know … what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.”
EPHESIANS 1:18–19
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God’s power is seen in creation, preservation, redemption, and resurrection.
Think of all the energy we get from the sun, and multiply that by the innumerable stars in space. But God by His great power created all the stars with no effort whatsoever: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host” (Ps. 33:6). He just spoke, and they were made. God’s power also preserves the universe. Christ “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3), and “in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Chaos would result unless His sustaining hands were directing the orderliness of creation (Ps. 104; Jer. 31:35–36). God’s power was beautifully demonstrated at the cross. Satan was subdued, death was conquered, and the penalty for our sins was paid. The gospel “is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes” (Rom. 1:16). When we were saved, God made each of us “a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17). Not only that, but “He who began a good work in [us] will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). God’s power saved us and gives us strength to live lives pleasing to Him. The power of God is also made evident in resurrection. Did you know that someday God is going to resurrect every human being who ever lived? The righteous will be raised to eternal life, and the unrighteous to eternal damnation (John 5:28–29; Rev. 20:11–15). Billions of people, long dead, will be resurrected. What tremendous power!
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Suggestions for Prayer: Praise God for the power He has shown in His beautiful creation. ✧ Thank God that by His power He made you into a new creation and will someday raise you to eternal life.
For Further Study: Psalm 33 is a song of praise to God for His power and sovereignty. Examine what it teaches about God’s power, and read it as your own prayer of praise.
MacArthur, J. (1997). Strength for today. Crossway Books.
A member of my church who happens to be in his mid-70s told me not long ago that he has Googled how many more years he can expect to live at his age. Beyond the oddity that he can ask a search engine to give him an estimated number of years left, his experience is quite unique in human history. Life expectancy has dropped recently, but we are still living far longer than nearly every human who has come before us. Most human beings never expected to make it to 75, much less beyond.
If you were living in the Roman Empire at the time Jesus lived, average life expectancy would be somewhere between 20–33 years of age.[1] This number was so low because nearly one third of those born died before their first year and half of people died before reaching age 10. However, if you were lucky enough to turn 10, you had a pretty good chance of living to age 50, but not much beyond it. Almost everyone died before living for half a century.
It’s only been in the last 100 or so years that life expectancy has increased to beyond 70 years of age. Even in 1900 it hovered around 47 if you lived in the US. This means that most of you reading this will experience or are experiencing what very few other humans have, old age.
Much can be said about this unique situation, and there are some wonderful resources available to help those beyond 70 to grow in wisdom and use their remaining years to honor the Lord.[2] However, we must be honest about the difficulties that accompany old age. The Bible doesn’t shy away from them and neither should we. And yet, as we identify the struggles, glorious promises bolster us and give us hope.
The Difficulties of Aging
When I first became an associate pastor 15 years ago in a fairly large church, I wasn’t prepared for the constant stream of emails asking for prayer for the physical needs of those in the body. Of course, many of the people needing prayer and healing were older members. Most pastors will have regular conversations with older members about the difficulties and struggles that accompany turning 70 or 80 years old.
The book of Ecclesiastes paints a vivid picture of the troubles that come with aging. Ecclesiastes 12:1 exhorts the young, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’”
The author then strings together a series of memorable word pictures to describe the physical breakdown that comes with old age. For example, “in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,” and a few verses later, “the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets.”
The physical changes that occur as we grow older are certainly challenging, but the difficulties don’t stop there. Aging brings a diminished capacity to do what we once did, both physically and mentally. With this reduced capacity comes a considerable change in circumstances. One simply cannot maintain the same number of projects at work or produce at the same level. Personal agency just isn’t what it once was. This produces a potential loss of significance and identity. It’s easy to feel like we are losing who we are as we age, especially if we’ve found our sense of self in accomplishments, capacity, and success.
Why bring up these challenges for those advanced in years? The book of Ecclesiastes articulates the struggle of growing old because each of us is headed toward the day when the “grasshopper will drag itself along.” We may not reach that point, but we’re certainly on that journey because our lives are transient.
One of the central messages driving the wisdom of Ecclesiastes is that our lives are temporary. We must face death. The aging process and the challenges that accompany it are a constant reminder that we won’t live forever. David Gibson writes, “One day you will come undone. God’s curse of creation in response to the fall means time will see you unmade. Maybe it will happen without the help of old age. It could come sooner rather than later. Or it may not begin to show for another thirty years. But the Preacher of Ecclesiastes is taking you by the hand and gently asking: before that day comes, how then will you live?”[3]
Living in full awareness of your coming death and the reality of growing old will shape and form how you live in the present. Ecclesiastes offers wisdom as we wrestle with the trials of aging, but we must not limit our perspective to this side of death. We must look beyond it.
Facing the Dishonor of Aging with the Glory of the Resurrection
While Ecclesiastes provides the most vivid and humorous description of growing old, it certainly isn’t the only one in Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses three words to get to the heart of the breakdown of our bodies and minds as we age. Speaking of our “natural” bodies in verses 42–43, he describes them as perishable, dishonorable, and weak.
To be perishable is to be prone to corruption and decay. It speaks directly to the way in which our physical bodies, including our minds, simply break down over time. That shoulder hurts in the morning after you work in the yard. The cartilage in your hip joint disappears and you need a replacement. Cancer invades. While we can’t always tie specific physical problems to sinful choices, the corruption of our bodies takes place because sin has entered the world.
To be weak is to have limitations and struggles. As we age, we simply can’t handle what we used to. You need help moving that table. You lack the capacity for multiple projects in a day without a nap. It’s hard to host the entire family for Thanksgiving dinner anymore.
I’ve intentionally left the middle description, dishonor, for last because I believe this gets to the heart of the struggle for many of us as we age. We know the corruption and decay of our bodies and minds, and we can’t argue with the weakness that spreads in our 60s and 70s. The dishonor hits particularly hard.
Dignity gets checked at the door of old age much of the time. The breakdown of the body is not neat, clean, or dignified. I suppose one could interpret Paul’s word, “It is sown in dishonor,” as applying only to the moment of death, but certainly the process of sickness and disease leading to death contains dishonor as well. Who wants family, friends, and loved ones to see them like this?
And yet, all three of these words are used by Paul in contrast to the spiritual body of our future resurrection. “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.”
The reality of the resurrection provides concrete and real hope for those facing the struggle of aging.
The corruption you face today will be turned into incorruption. The dishonor you feel right now will be transformed to glory and the weakness you experience will change to power. The gospel speaks good news into the trials and challenges of aging with specific promises directed to our tangible struggles.
As a pastor and shepherd, let me encourage you to make use of Paul’s contrasts in 1 Corinthians 15 to help those struggling. It’s often hard to know what to say when a believer is facing a terminal illness that will take them through some dark and difficult days of breakdown, dishonor, and weakness. Start by acknowledging the reality of their experience. This is what all of us will face in one way or another. And yet, the glory of the gospel is that Christ perished so we could be imperishable. He took our dishonor so that we could be raised in glory, and He suffered in weakness for us to experience His power. Cultivate the hope that these changes will be true for you because of Him.
The following essay was originally published in The Journal of Christian Philosophy, vol. III., 1884, pp. 305-318.
It is a somewhat difficult matter to distinguish between Christian doctrines and facts. The doctrines of Christianity are doctrines only because they are facts; and the facts of Christianity become its most indispensable doctrines. The Incarnation of the eternal God is necessarily a dogma: no human eye could witness his stooping to man’s estate, no human tongue could bear witness to it as a fact. And yet, if it be not a fact, our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins. On the other hand, the Resurrection of Christ is a fact, an external occurrence within the cognizance of men to be established by their testimony. And yet, it is the cardinal doctrine of our system: on it all other doctrines hang.
There have been some, indeed, who have refused to admit the essential importance of this fact to our system; and even so considerable a critic as Keim has announced himself as occupying this standpoint. Strauss saw, however, with more unclouded eye, truly declaring the fact of Christ’s resurrection to be “the center of the center, the real heart of Christianity,” on which its truth stands or falls. To this, indeed, an older and deeper thinker than Strauss had long ago abundantly witnessed. The modern skeptic does but echo the words of the apostle Paul. Come what may, therefore, modern skepticism must be rid of the resurrection of Christ. It has recognized the necessity and has bent all its energies to the endeavor.
But the early followers of the Savior also themselves recognized the paramount importance of this fact; and the records of Christianity contain a mass of proof for it, of such cogent variety and convincing power, that Hume’s famous dilemma1 recoils on his own head. It is more impossible that the laws of testimony should be so far set aside, that such witness should be mistaken, than that the laws of nature should be so far set aside that a man should rise from the dead. The opponents of revelation themselves being witnesses, the testimony of the historical books of the New Testament if the testimony of eyewitnesses is amply sufficient to establish this, to them, absolutely crushing fact. It is admitted well-nigh universally that the Gospels contain testimony for the resurrection of Christ, which, if it stand, proves that fact; and that if Christ rose from the dead all motive for, and all possibility of, denial of any supernatural fact of Christianity is forever removed.
Of course, it has become necessary, then, for the deniers of a supernatural origin to Christianity to impeach the credibility of these witnesses. It is admitted that if the Gospel account be truly the testimony of eye-witnesses, then Christ did rise from the dead; but it is immediately added that the Gospels are late compositions which first saw the light in the second century—that they represent, not the testimony of eye-witnesses, but the wild dreams of a mythological fancy or the wilder inventions of unscrupulous forgery; and that, therefore, they are unworthy of credit and valueless as witnesses to fact. Thus, it is proclaimed, this alleged occurrence of the rising of Jesus from the dead, is stripped of all the pretended testimony of eye-witnesses; and all discussion of the question whether it be fact or not is forever set aside—the only question remaining being that which concerns itself with the origin and propagation of this fanatical belief.
It is in this position that we find skepticism entrenched- a strong position assuredly and chosen with consummate skill. It is not, however, impregnable. There are at least two courses open to us in attacking it. We may either directly storm the works, or, turning their flank, bring our weapons to bear on them from the rear. The authenticity of our Gospels is denied We may either prove their authenticity and hence the autoptic character of the testimony they contain; or, we may waive all question of the books attacked, and, using only those which are by the skeptics themselves acknowledged to be genuine, prove from them that the resurrection of Christ actually occurred. 2
The first course, as being the most direct, is the one usually adopted. Here the battle is intense; but the issue is not doubtful. Internally, those books evince themselves as genuine. Not only do they proclaim a teaching absolutely original and patently divine, but they have presented a biography to the world such as no man or body of men could have concocted. No mythologists could have invented a divine-human Personality —assigned the exact proportions in which his divinity and humanity should be exhibited in his life, and then dramatized this character through so long a course of teaching and action without a single contradiction or inconsistency. That simple peasants have succeeded in a task wherein a body of philosophers would have assuredly hopelessly failed, can be accounted for only on the hypothesis that they were simply detailing actual facts.
Again, there are numerous evidently undesigned coincidences in minute points to be observed between the book of Acts and those Epistles of Paul acknowledged to be genuine, which prove beyond a peradventure that book to be authentic history. The authenticity of Acts carries that of the Gospel of Luke with it; and the witness of these two establishes the Resurrection.
But, aside from all internal evidence, the external evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament historical books is irrefragable. The immediate successors of the apostles possessed them all and esteemed them as the authoritative documents of their religion. One of the writers of this age (placed by Hilgenfeld in the first century) quotes Matthew as Scripture: another explicitly places Acts among the “Holy Books,” a collection containing on common terms the Old Testament and at least a large part of the New: all quote these historical books with respect and reverence. There is on external, historical grounds no room left for denying the genuineness of the Gospels and Acts; and hence, no room left for denying the fact of the Resurrection. The result of a half-century’s conflict on this line of attack has resulted in the triumphant vindication of the credibility of the Christian records.
We do not propose, however, to fight this battle over again at this time. The second of the courses above pointed out has been less commonly adopted, but leads to equally satisfactory results. To exhibit this is our present object. The most extreme schools of skepticism admit that the book of Revelation is by St. John; and that Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Galatians are genuine letters of St. Paul.3 Most leaders of anti-Christian thought admit other epistles also; but we wish to confine ourselves to the narrowest ground. Our present task, then, is, waiving all reference to disputed books, to show that the testimony of these confessedly genuine writings of the apostles is enough to establish the fact of the Resurrection. We are even willing to assume narrower ground. The Revelation is admitted to be written by an eye-witness of the death of Christ and the subsequent transactions; and the Book of Revelation testifies to Christ’s resurrection. In it he is described as One who was dead and yet came to life (ii. 8), and as the first-begotten of the dead (i. 5). Here, then, is one admitted to have been an eye-witness testifying of the Resurrection. For the sake of simplifying our argument, however, we will omit the testimony of Revelation and ask only what witness the four acknowledged Epistles of Paul-Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Galatians bear to the fact that Christ rose from the dead.
It is plain on the very first glance into these Epistles that they have a great deal to say about this Resurrection. Our task is to draw out the evidential value of their references.
We would note, then, in the first place, that Paul claims to be himself an eye-witness of a risen Christ. After stating as a fact that Christ rose from the dead and enumerating his various appearances to his followers, he adds: “And last of all, as unto one born out of due time, he appeared to me also” (1 Cor. xv. 8 ) . And again, he bases his apostleship on this sight, saying (1 Cor. ix. 1), “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” His “sight” of the Lord Jesus was, therefore of such a kind that it constituted a call to the apostleship. It was not, then, a simple sight of Jesus before his crucifixion: as is also proved from the fact that it was after all the appearances which he vouchsafed after his resurrection to his other followers, that Paul saw him ( 1 Cor. xv. 8 ). It remains true, then, that Paul claims to be an eye-witness of the fact that Christ had risen. It will not do to say that Paul claims only to have had a “theophany” as it were-a “sight” of Christ’s spirit living, which would not imply the resurrection of his body. As Beyschlag has long ago pointed out, the whole argument in 1 Cor. xv being meant to prove the bodily resurrection of believers from the resurrection of Christ, necessitates the sense that Paul, like the other witnesses there adduced saw Christ in the body. Nor is it difficult to determine when Paul claims to have seen Christ: it is admitted by all that it was this “sight” that produced his conversion and called him to the apostleship. According to Gal. i. 19 both calls were simultaneous.
Tracing his conversion thus to, and basing his apostleship on, the resurrection of Christ, it is not strange that Paul has not been able to keep his Epistles from bristling with marks of his intense conviction of the fact of the Resurrection. Compare, e.g., Romans i. 4; iv. 24, 25; v. 10; vi. 4, 5, 8, 9 10, 11, 13; vii. 4; viii. 11, 34; x. 7, 9; xiv. 9. We cannot, therefore, without stultification deny that Paul was thoroughly convinced that he had seen the risen Jesus; and the skeptics themselves feel forced to admit this fact.
What, then, shall we do with this claim of Paul to be an eye-witness? Shall we declare his “sight” to have been no true sight, but a deceiving vision? Paul certainly thought it bodily and a sight. But we are told that Paul was given to seeing visions-that he was in fact of that enthusiastic spiritual temperament-like Francis of Assisi for instance-which fails to distinguish between vivid subjective ideas and external facts. But, while it must be admitted that Paul did see visions, all sober criticism must wholly deny that he was a visionary. Waiving the fact that even Paul’s visions were externally communicated to him and not the projections of a diseased imagination, as well as all general discussion of the elements of Paul’s character, this visionary hypothesis is shattered on the simple fact that Paul knew the difference between this “sight” of Jesus and his visions, and draws the distinction sharply between them. This “sight” was, as he himself tells us, the last of all; and the only vision which on our opponents’ principles can be attributed to him, that recorded in 2 Cor. xii is described by Paul in such a manner as to draw the contrast very strongly between his confidence in this “sight” and his uncertainty as to what had happened to him then. Of course, no appeal can be properly made to the “false” history of the Acts; but, if attempted, it is sufficient to say that according to Acts Paul saw Jesus after this sight of 1 Cor. xv; but that this was in a trance (Acts XXii. 18 ff.),.), and in spite of it the sight of 1 Cor. xv was the “last” time Jesus was seen. In other words, Paul once more draws a strict distinction between his “visions” and this “sight.”
It is instructive to note the methods by which it is attempted to make this visionary hypothesis more credible. A graphic picture is drawn by Baur, Strauss, and Renan,, of the physical and psychological condition of St. Paul. He had been touched by the steadfastness of the Christians; he was deeply moved by the grandeur of Stephen’s death; had begun to doubt within himself whether the resurrection of Christ had not really occurred; and, sick in body and distracted in mind, smitten by the sun or the lightning of some sudden storm, was prostrated on his way to Damascus and saw in his delirium his- awful self-imagined vision. It would be easy to show that the important points of this picture are contradicted by Paul himself: he knows nothing of distraction of mind or of opening doubts before the coming of the catastrophe (cf. Gal. i. 13 ff.). It would be easy, again, to show that, brilliant as it is, this picture fails to account for the facts, notably for the immense moral change (recognized by Paul himself) by which he was transformed from the most bloodthirsty of fanatics to the tenderest of saints. But, it will be sufficient for our present purpose to not only that all that renders it plausible is its connection with certain facts recorded only in that “unbelievable” history, the Acts. We find ourselves, then, in this dilemma: if Acts be no true history, then these facts cannot be so used; if Acts be true history, then Paul’s conversion occurred quite otherwise; and again, if Acts be true, then so is Luke’s Gospel; and Acts and Luke are enough to authenticate the resurrection of Christ. In either case, our cause is won.
In regard to this whole visionary scheme we have one further remark to make: it is to be noted that even were it much more plausible than it is, it still would not be worth further consideration. For, Paul believed in the fact of the resurrection of Christ not only because he had seen the Lord, but also on the testimony of others. For, we would note in the second place that Paul introduces us to other eye-witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. He founded his gospel on this fact; and in Gal. ii. 6 ff. he tells us his gospel was the same as was preached by Peter, James, and John. Peter, James, and John, then, believed with the same intensity that Christ rose from the dead. We have already seen that this testimony as to John at least, is supported by what he himself has written in the Apocalypse. In consistency with the inference, again, Paul explicitly declares in 1 Cor. xv. 3 ff., that the risen Christ was seen not only by himself but by Cephas, James, and indeed all the apostles; and that, more than once. Even more: he states that he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, the most of whom were still living when Paul wrote this letter, and whose witness-bearing he invokes. Here, Paul brings before us a cloud of witnesses.
In respect to them the following facts are worth pointing out. These witnesses were numerous; there were at least five hundred of them. They were not a mere unknown mob: we know somewhat of several of them and know them as practical men. The most of them were still living when Paul wrote, and he could appeal to them to bear testimony to the Corinthians.
The result of all of which is that this notice in 1 Cor. is equivalent to their individual testimony. Paul is admitted to be a sober and trustworthy writer; this Epistle is admitted to be genuinely his; and he here in a contemporary document challenges an appeal to living eye-witnesses. He could not have made this confident appeal had not these men really professed, soberly and earnestly, to have seen the risen Christ. We have, then, not only Paul claiming to be an eye-witness of the Resurrection; but a large number of men, over two hundred and fifty of whom were known to be still living when he wrote. We have to account not for the claim of one man that he had seen Jesus alive after he- had died, but for the same claim put in by a multitude. Will any arguing that Paul sometimes saw visions serve our purpose here? And there is still another point which is worth remarking. The witnesses here appealed to are the original disciples and apostles of our Lord. From this, two facts follow: the one, the original disciples believed they had seen the risen Lord; and the other, they claimed to have seen him on the third day after his burial (1 Cor. xv. 4). This, according to Paul, is certain fact.
Then note once more, in the third place, that this testimony (as already pointed out) was not only absolutely convincing to the Apostle Paul, but it was so also to the whole body of Christians. Not only did Paul base the truth of all Christianity on the truth of this testimony, and found his conversion on it; but so did all Christians. He could count on all his readers being just as firmly persuaded of this fact as he was. To the Corinthians, Galatians, Romans-this is the dogma of Christianity. When Paul wishes to prove his apostleship to the Corinthians or Galatians he is not afraid to base it on the therefore admitted fact of the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. ix. 1; Gal. i. 1): when he wishes to make our justification seem sure to the Romans, he appeals to Christ’s resurrection in its proof (Rom. iv. 24, 25). These are but specimens of his practice. Both purposed and incidental allusions are made to the Resurrection through all four of these Epistles of such character as to prove that it was felt by Paul that he could count on it above all other facts as the starting-point of Christianity in the minds of his readers. Whether he is writing to Corinthians, Galatians, or Romans, this is alike true. Now, consider the force of this. In some of these churches, it is to be remembered, there were dissensions, divisions, parties arrayed in bitter hostility against one another, parties with contumely denying the apostleship, or discarding the leadership of Paul. Yet all these parties believe in the resurrection of Christ: Paul can appeal to all alike to accept a doctrine based on that. It is to his bitterest opponents that he will prove his apostleship by claiming to have seen the risen Lord. It is plain, then, that the resurrection of Christ was in Paul’s day deemed a primordial, universal, and essential doctrine of Christianity.
Again, some of Paul’s readers were far removed from credulous simplicity. There was a party in the Corinthian Church, for instance, who, with all the instincts of modern philosophical criticism, claimed the right to try at the bar of reason the doctrines submitted to their acceptance. They could not accept such an absurdity as the resurrection of the bodies of those who slept in the Lord: “If the dead be raised, With what body do they come?” was but one of their argumentative queries. The same class of difficulties in regard to the resurrection of men, as would in modern times start up in the minds of scientific inquirers, was evidently before their minds. Yet they believed firmly in the resurrection of Christ. When Paul wishes to argue with them in regard to our resurrection, he bases his argument on the therefore common ground of the resurrection of Christ. It is plain, then, that unthinking credulity will not account for the universal acceptance of this doctrine: men able and more than willing to apply critical tests to evidence were firm believers in it.
And still again, one of these letters is addressed to a church with which Paul had no personal connection. It was not founded by him; it had never been visited by him; it had not before been addressed by him. There were those in it who were opposed to his dearest teachings: there were those in it who had been humble followers of Christ while he was still raging against his Church. Yet, they all believed as firmly as he did in the resurrection of Christ. He could prove his doctrines to them best by basing on this common faith. It is plain, then, that this doctrine was not of late growth in the Church; nor had its origin from Paul. It had always been the universal belief in the Church: men did not believe it because Paul preached it only, but they and Paul alike believed it from the convincing character of the evidence. When had a belief, thus universally accepted as a part of aboriginal Christianity in A.D. 58, had an opportunity to mythically grow into being? And, if it grew, what of the testimony of those over two hundred and fifty still living eye-witnesses to the fact?
Here we may fitly pause to gather up results. It seems indisputably evident from these four Epistles of Paul: First, That the resurrection of Christ was universally believed in the Christian Church when these Epistles were written: whatever party lines there were, however near they came, yet did they not cut through this dogma. Second, That the original followers of Christ, including his apostles, claimed to be eye-witnesses of the fact of his resurrection; and, therefore, from the beginning (third day) the whole Church had been convinced of its truth. Over two hundred and fifty of these eye-witnesses were living when Paul wrote. Third, That the Church believed universally that it owed its life, as it certainly owed its continued existence and growth, to its firm belief in this dogma. What has to be accounted for, then, is: 1. Not the belief of one man that he had seen the Lord, but of something over five hundred. 2. Not the conviction of a party, and that after some time, that the Lord had risen, but the universal and immediate belief of the whole Church. 3. The effect of this faith in absolutely changing the characters and filling with enthusiasm its first possessors. And 4. Their power in propagating their faith, in building up on this strange dogma a large and fast-growing communion, all devoted to it as the first and ground element of their faith.
There are only three theories which can be possibly stated to account for these facts. Either, the original disciples of Christ were deceivers and deliberately concocted the story of the Resurrection; or, they were woefully deluded; or the Resurrection was a fact.
I. The first of these theories, old as it is (Matt. xxviii. 11 ff.), is now admitted on all sides to be ridiculous. Strauss and Volkmar, for example, both scorn it as an impossible explanation. We may, therefore, pass it over in few words. The dead body of Christ lying in his grave ready to be produced by the Jews at any moment, of itself destroys this theory. For we must remember that the belief in the Resurrection dates from the third day. Or, if the body no longer lay in the grave, where was it? It must have been either removed by their enemies, in which case it would have been produced in disproof of the Resurrection; or stolen by the disciples themselves. We are shut up to these two hypotheses, for the only possible third one (that the body had never been buried but thrown upon the dunghill) is out of the question, eye-witnesses expressly witnessing, according to Paul, that it was buried ( 1 Cor. xv. 4 f.)..). No one will so stultify himself in this age as to seriously contend that the disciples stole the body. Not only is it certain that they could not possibly have summoned courage to make the attempt; but the very idea of Christianity owing its life to such an act is worse than absurd. Imagine, if one can, this band of disheartened disciples assembled and coolly plotting to conquer the world to themselves by proclaiming what must have been seen to be the absurd promise of everlasting life through One who had himself died-had died and had not risen again. Imagine them not expecting a resurrection nor dreaming of its possibility, determining to steal the body of their dead Lord, pretend that he had risen, and, then, to found on their falsehood a system of the most marvelous truth-on this act of rapine a system of the most perfect morals. Imagine the body stolen and brought into their midst-who can think they could be stirred up to noble endeavor by the sight? “Can a more appalling spectacle be imagined,” exclaims Dr. Nott, “than that of a dead Christ stolen from his sepulcher and surrounded by his hopeless, heaven-deserted followers? And was it here, think you, in this cadaverous chamber . . . in this haunt of sin, of falsehood, of misery, and of putrefaction, that the transcendent and immortal system of Christian faith and morals was adopted? Was this stolen, mangled, lifeless corpse the only rallying point of Christians? Was it the sight of this that . . . fortified,, and filled with the most daring courage, the most deathless hopes, the whole body of the disciples?” Well have our opponents declared this supposition absurd. Christ rose from the dead, or else his disciples were a body of woefully deluded men.
II. Then, will this second theory meet the case? Is the admitted fact that Christ’s earliest followers were all convinced that he rose from the dead, adequately explained by the supposition that they were the victims of a delusion? We must remember that the testimony of eye-witnesses declares that Christ rose on the third day; and that we have thus to account for immediate faith. But, then, there is the dead body of Jesus lying in the grave! How could the whole body of those men be so deceived in so momentous a matter with the means of testing its truth ready at their hand? Hence, it is commonly admitted that the grave was now empty. Strauss alone resorts to the sorry hypothesis that the appearances of the risen Christ were all in Galilee, and that before the forty days which intervened before the disciples returned to Jerusalem had passed, the site of the grave (or dunghill) had been wholly forgotten by friend and foe alike. But, there is that unimpeachable testimony of eye-witnesses that the appearances began on the third day; and the equally assured fact (Rom. vi. 4; 1 Cor. xv. 4), that the body was not thrown on a dunghill but that there was a veritable grave. So that the empty grave stares us still in the face. If Christ did not rise, how came the grave empty? Here is the crowning difficulty which all the ingenuity of the whole . modern critical school has not been able to lay aside. Was it emptied by Christ’s own followers? That would have been imposture, and the skeptics scorn such a resort: moreover, the hypothesis that the apostles were impostors has been laid aside already (in the preceding paragraph). Was it, then, emptied by his enemies? How soon would the body have been produced, then, to confront and confound the so rapidly growing heresy! Or, if this were not possible, how soon would overwhelming proof of the removal of the body have been brought forward! Then, how was that grave emptied? Shall we say that Jesus was not really dead, and reviving from the swoon, himself crept from the tomb? This was the hypothesis of Schleiermacher. But not only is it in direct contradiction with the eye- witness testimony (1 Cor. xv. 3; 2 Cor. v. 15; Rom. xiv. 9, et saepe), which is explicit that Christ died; but it has been felt by all the leaders of skeptical thought to be inadequate as an explanation. Strauss has himself executed justice on it. It not only casts a stigma on the moral character of our Lord; but it is itself laden with absurdity. “It would have been impossible thus to mistake a wounded man, dying from exhaustion, for the Messiah of Jewish expectations, or then to magnify this into a resurrection from the dead.” A dying man in hiding, the center of Christianity’s life! This fill with enthusiasm and death-defying courage the founders of the Church! Besides all which, the hypothesis makes the apostles either knaves or fools, neither of which, as the skeptics admit, is possible truth. Hence, they themselves unite with us in rejecting as wholly absurd this dream of Schleiermacher. Once more, then, how can we account for the empty grave? We hazard nothing in asserting that this one fact is destructive to all the theories of Christ’s resurrection which have been started in the nervous effort to be rid of its reality. That empty grave is alone enough to found all Christianity upon.
But, suppose for a moment, we assume the impossible, and allow to Strauss that the site of the grave was already lost. What then? The disciples were still convinced that Christ had risen. How shall we account for this invincible conviction? The only possible resort is to the worn-out vision- hypothesis. Renan draws a beautiful picture of Mary Magdalene in her love and grief fancying she saw her longed-for Lord; and a not so beautiful one of the abject and idiotic credulity of the disciples who believed her, and then, because they believed her, fancied they had seen him themselves. But will all this fine picturing of what might have been, stand the test of facts? That grave stares us in the face again: if the body was still in it, there was no place left for visions of it as living and out of it; if not in it, how came it out?
But laying aside this final argument as premised, even then the theory cannot stand. 1. There was no expectation of a resurrection, and hence no ground for visions. So far we can go here. Could we appeal to the Gospels we could go farther and show that the disciples had lost all heart and “so far was their imagination from creating the sensible presence of Jesus, that at the first they did not recognize him.” Renan gains all the facts on which he founds his theory from the Gospels: let him be refuted from the same records. How could Mary Magdalene’s own mind have created the vision of Jesus when she did not recognize him as Jesus when he appeared? 2. There was no time for belief in the Resurrection to mythically grow. That well-established third day meets us here. And within forty days the whole Christian community, over five hundred in number, not only firmly believed in the Resurrection, but believed, each man of them, that he had himself seen the Lord. We must account for this. 3. These five hundred are too many visionaries to create. Was all Palestine inhabited by Francises of Assisi? What might be plausibly urged of Paul or Mary loses all plausibility when urged of all their contemporaries. And thus we cannot but conclude that all attempts to explain the belief of the early followers of Christ in his resurrection as a delusion, utterly fail. If it was not founded on fraud or delusion, then, was it not on fact? There seems no other alternative: eye-witnesses in abundance witness to the fact; if they were neither deceivers nor deceived, then Christ did rise from the dead.
We must not imagine, however, that this is all the proof we have of that great fact. We have been only very inadequately working one single vein. There is another very convincing course of argumentation which might be based on the results of the resurrection of Christ-in transforming those who believed in it-in founding a Church. And, then, there is that other form of argument already pointed out which consists in the not very difficult task of vindicating the authority of our Gospels and Acts, or of the account included in them. Taking all lines of proof together, it is by no means extravagant to assert that no fact in the history of the world is so well authenticated as the fact of Christ’s resurrection. And that established, all Christianity is established too. Its supernatural element is vindicated its supernatural origin evinced. Then, our faith is not in vain, and we are not still in our sins. Then, the world has been redeemed unto our God, and all flesh can see his salvation. Then, the All-Wise is the All-Loving, too, and has vindicated his love forever. Then, the supreme song of heaven may be fitly repeated on earth: “Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” Then, we can know that nothing can separate us from his love-that even death has failed in the attempt; and that it is thus given to mortals to utter in triumph the immortal cry, “Death is swallowed up in victory!”
Notes
1. Enquiry Concerning Human Understandings, sec. 10 (1894, p. 115f.)..). “No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the face which it endeavors to establish.”
2. Still a third method of procedure would be to waive all questions of the authenticity of the Gospels, and examine into the origin and trustworthiness of the triple or double tradition embodied in the three Synoptists or any two of them. Satisfactory results may be reached thus
3. Such individual extremists as Bruno Bauer, Pierson, and Loman need not be here taken into account.
“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of [God’s] might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead” (Eph. 1:19–20).
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In Christ you have all the power you will ever need.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the great hope of believers. Because He lives, we will live also (John 14:19). Peter said that we have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away” (1 Peter 1:3–4). We and what we have are protected by God’s power (v. 5). In Ephesians 1:19–20 Paul draws two comparisons. The first is between the power God demonstrated in the resurrection and ascension of Christ and the power He demonstrates on behalf of every believer. That power is described as God’s “working,” “strength,” and “might.” Together those synonyms emphasize the greatness of God’s power, which not only secures our salvation but also enables us to live godly lives. The second comparison is between our Lord’s resurrection and ascension and ours. The grave couldn’t hold Him, nor can it hold us (1 Cor. 15:54–57). Satan himself couldn’t prevent Christ’s exaltation, nor can he prevent us from gaining our eternal inheritance. In Christ you have all the power you will ever need. For evangelism you have the gospel itself, which “is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes” (Rom. 1:16). For difficult times you have the assurance that the surpassing greatness of God’s power is at work in you (2 Cor. 4:7). For holy living you have God Himself at work in you “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). No matter how weak or ill-equipped you may at times feel, realize that God “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that [you] ask or think, according to the power that works within [you]” (Eph. 3:20). So keep striving according to that power (Col. 1:29), but do so with the confidence that ultimately God will accomplish His good in your life.
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Suggestions for Prayer: Thank God that He can and will accomplish His purposes in your life (Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 5:24). ✧ Pray for wisdom in how you might best serve Him today.
For Further Study: Read Psalm 145, noting every mention of God’s power David makes. Allow those examples to fill your heart with confidence and praise.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 40). Crossway Books.
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:50–58, NIV
Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Risen our victorious Head! Sing His praises! Hallelujah! Christ is risen from the dead Gratefully our hearts adore Him As His light once more appears, Bowing down in joy before Him, Rising up from grief and tears.
Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Risen our victorious Head! Sing His praises! Hallelujah! Christ is risen from the dead. John Samuel Bewley Monsell, 1811–75
Manser, M., ed. (2015). Daily Guidance (pp. 24–25). Martin Manser.
Declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness,by the resurrection from the dead.
ROMANS 1:4
Jesus Christ had to be more than a man; He also had to be God. If Jesus were only a man, even the best of men, He could not have saved believers from their sin. If He were even the right man from the seed of David, but not God, He could not have withstood the punishment of God the Father at the cross and risen from the dead. He could not have overcome Satan and the world but would have been conquered as all men are conquered. If there was ever any question that Jesus was the Son of God, His resurrection from the dead should end it. He had to be man to reach us, but He had to be God to lift us up. When God raised Christ from the dead, He affirmed that what He said was true. As clearly as the horizon divides the earth from the sky, so the resurrection divides Jesus from the rest of humanity. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh.
MacArthur, J. (2001). Truth for today : a daily touch of God’s grace (p. 22). J. Countryman.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
The duke of Wellington once remarked that “man must be a coward or a liar who could boast of never having felt a fear of death.”
Samuel Johnson, the British essayist, commented that “no rational man can die without uneasy apprehension.”
While the prospect of death can create emotional conflict even for Christians (death is still our enemy, though a defeated one), the sure hope of the Resurrection settles our souls.
“Jesus Christ is able to set free even those who all their lives have been ‘held in slavery by their fear of death,’ ” writes John Stott in The Cross of Christ.
This is because by his own death he has “destroyed” (deprived of power) “him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).
Christ had died for our sins and taken them away. With great disdain, therefore, Paul likens death to a scorpion whose sting has been drawn, and to a military conqueror whose power has been broken. Now that we are forgiven, death can harm us no longer.
So the apostle shouts defiantly: “Where, Oh death, is your victory? Where, Oh death, is your sting?” There is of course no reply.
Until Christ returns, we must face the physical and emotional pain of death. Yet our perplexity and fear can be displaced by the reality of the Resurrection, when death was overthrown.
Father, when I face the physical and emotional pain of separation from loved ones, help me realize that death is overshadowed by the reality of the Resurrection.1
1 Stanley, C. F. (2000). Into His presence (p. 381). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
We are coming toward the end of our look at the life of Jesus through scripture. The first section of His life was seen through verses focused on prophecy, arrival, and early life.
The next section of verses looked at Him as the Son, second person of the Trinity.
We proceeded into looking at Jesus as the Son’s preeminence, His works, and His ministry. Under ministry & works, I chose verses showing His attributes and aspects of being servant, teacher, shepherd, intercessor, and compassionate healer; and His attributes of omniscience, having all authority and power, and sinlessness.
Now it’s the last section. We’ll look at His resurrection, ascension, and prophesied return. When we finish, we will be looking at the New Year with all that entails, the feeling of freshness, hope, optimism for a new start. And when we finish the last verse, we will be looking through the lens of scripture at the hope and optimism of His return and that all will be made new.
On to today’s picture verse. He came to die. That was the point of His life. Death. He put death to death so we may live. Note Paul’s statement “of first importance”.
Further Reading:
CARM: Jesus’ resurrection was physical The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental and essential doctrine of Christianity. The resurrection of Jesus is so important that without it Christianity is false. Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:14, “and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.” Three verses later, in verse 17, he again says, “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” Though there are many subjects with which Christians may disagree and still be considered Christian, this is not one of them. To deny the resurrection of Jesus is to deny the heart of Christianity itself.
Al Mohler: Of First Importance: The Cross and Resurrection at the Center And what is of first importance? “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,” and “that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” The cross and the empty tomb stand at the center of the Christian faith. Without these, there is no good news — no salvation. Paul gets right to the heart of the matter in setting out those truths that are “of first importance.” Following his example, we can do no less.
Thirty Days of Jesus Series-
Introduction/Background
Prophecies:
Day 1: The Virgin shall conceive Day 2: A shoot from Jesse Day 3: God sent His Son in the fullness of time Day 4: Marry her, she will bear a Son
Birth & Early Life-
Day 5: The Babe has arrived! Day 6: The Glory of Jesus Day 7: Magi seek the Child Day 8: The Magi Offer gifts & worship Day 9: The Child Grew Day 10- the Boy Jesus at the Temple Day 11: He was Obedient Day 12: The Son! Day 13: God is pleased with His Son
The Second Person of the Trinity-
Day 14: Propitiation Day 15: The Gift of Eternal Life Day 16: Kingdom of Darkness to Light Day 17: Jesus’ Preeminence Day 18: The Highest King Day 19: He emptied Himself
Jesus’ Ministries
Day 20: Jesus as The Teacher Day 21: The Good Shepherd Day 22: The Intercessor Day 23: The Compassionate Healer
Attributes Day 24: Jesus’ Omniscience Day 25: Jesus’ Authority Day 26: Jesus’ Sinlessness
The End of all Things
Day 27: He rises Day 28: Resurrection of First Importance
And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Books about life after death regularly make the bestsellers’ list. Major periodicals, even media specials, examine the possibility of an afterlife and how we should handle it.
Such concern, however, is not unusual. From the earliest empires to today’s high tech world, questions about death and dying have been pondered by critical thinkers and common man.
However, the analysis and conclusions of each generation are only guesswork apart from the one authoritative element—the death, burial, and resurrection of God’s Son. Christ, who was God during his ministry on earth, demonstrated His absolute deity and power over death when He rose from the dead (Romans 1:4).
In his letter to the Thessalonian church, Paul emphasized the importance of Christ’s resurrection. He did not want them to be uninformed or to grieve, as do the rest who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
Rather, because of Christ’s death and resurrection (verse 14), they could look forward to being with Christ forever and seeing their loved ones who had died in Christ (verses 17–18).
It is the same sure hope we have today. Those who know Christ shall always be with the Lord (verse 17). This is a fact in which you can find extravagant comfort. The world has no counter offer.
Father, thank You for the comfort that comes from knowing I will see You and my loved ones. I praise You for this eternal hope.1
1 Stanley, C. F. (2000). Into His presence (p. 377). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
“We … see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for every one” (Heb. 2:9).
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Jesus Christ is the only One who could recover man’s destiny.
The ultimate curse of our lost destiny is death. God warned Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die (Gen. 2:17). In the restored Kingdom we will be elevated again over a redeemed earth. But the only way we could ever reign again as kings was to have the curse of sin removed, and the only way to remove it was to pay the penalty of sin, which is death (Rom. 6:23).
There’s just one problem: how can we reign if we are dead? We need to be raised from the dead, but we certainly can’t do that ourselves. That’s why God sent Jesus Christ.
To accomplish this great work for us, Jesus had to become a man. He Himself had to be made “for a little while lower than the angels.” To regain man’s dominion, He had to taste death for every man. Christ came to die for us because in His dying He could conquer death.
But He was also raised from the dead: “Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him” (Rom. 6:9). How does that help us? “If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (v. 5).
The moment you put your faith in Christ, you were identified with Him. You died with Him on the cross, you were resurrected, and you began to walk in newness of life. You now are a joint-heir with Christ in His eternal Kingdom.
Christ tasted death for you and me so we could recover our lost destiny. Celebrate that glorious truth as you celebrate His birth today.
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Suggestions for Prayer: Before you do another thing today, praise your Heavenly Father for His wonderful plan of salvation.
For Further Study: Read Isaiah 2:2–4 and 11:6–9, noting the character of our future Kingdom.1
Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.
After Lazarus’s death, his sisters, Mary and Martha, were grief stricken. When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet Him. Mary dealt with her feelings differently and stayed at home in seclusion. The death of a loved one can be intensely difficult to bear.
Both sisters struggled with their grief. They believed that if Jesus had been with the family, Lazarus’s death would never have taken place. “Lord,” cried Martha, “if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You” (John 11:21–22).
The scene was touching. It was obvious that Martha had learned who was responsible for the restoration of life and that it was a gift God had given through His Son. She went one step further in her faith and believed that even though her brother was dead, Jesus could restore him.
Jesus went to Lazarus’s tomb and instructed those who were there to remove the stone covering, the opening to the burial chamber. Did Martha’s faith hesitate at Jesus’ command? “Lord … there will be a stench” (John 11:39 nasb).
If there was, Jesus was not bothered by it. The greater lesson had been achieved. She believed in His ability and trusted Him as her Lord. “Lazarus, come forth,” was His command over the enemy of death. A few moments later, Lazarus emerged from the grave.
Lord, You are the Giver of eternal life. You are my Savior.1
1 Stanley, C. F. (2002). Seeking His face (p. 365). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
When Rajiv Gandhi was killed several years ago, his Hindu burial was described in this manner in an Associated Press article: “Gandhi’s son, Rahul, was to perform the rites at the cremation ground along the Jamuma River, lighting the pyre and smashing the skull with a cudgel to release the soul of the departed.”
All religions of the world, except Christianity, teach confusing, uncertain, and complex concepts of life and death. The Christian faith alone teaches, professes, and focuses on the surety of the believer’s resurrection.
Because Jesus came to earth, died, and rose from the dead, proving His deity, you can be assured of your personal resurrection. The grave is not a dead end. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified for our sins and rose again from the tomb just as He promised.
When you die, your spirit is immediately with the Lord. When the Lord returns, our bodies will be joined with our spirits. It is clear we will have bodies like Christ’s after His resurrection (Phil. 3:20–21).
The burial of a Christian is but a formality. He is already with the Savior, tasting the delights of heaven, seeing God face-to-face.
Dear Lord, I can hardly wait to see You face-to-face. Thank You for the hope of the resurrection.1
1 Stanley, C. F. (2002). Seeking His face (p. 356). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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What is a soul and what happens to the soul of a Christian upon physical death?
Upon death believers are immediately placed in the presence of their Savior.
Each human being in this world consists of a material body animated by an immaterial personal self. Scripture calls this self a “soul” or “spirit.”[1]
Our souls will live forever, and believers’ souls will experience blessedness at their death. In Luke 23:42-43, we read:
And [the thief on the cross] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
For Christians, the parting of the body and soul at death will immediately place them in the presence of Jesus Christ. The thief on the cross, Christian martyrs burned at the stake, and Christians succumbing to illness, old age, or sudden tragedy will instantly upon death have the comfort of being with their Savior. This comfort is so real and certain that the apostle Paul could write,
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” (Phil. 1:21-23; see also 2 Cor. 5:8)
The believer’s body and soul will be reunited when Christ returns at the consummation.
The believer’s separation from the body is only temporary. The Heidelberg Catechism, first published in 1563, is a highly regarded summary of the Christian faith and has the following to say about the resurrection of the body:
Q. What comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you?
A. Not only shall my soul after this life immediately be taken up to Christ, my Head, but also this my flesh, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul and made like Christ’s glorious body. (Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 57)
This world is uncertain, and the mode of leaving it is also hidden from us. We can rejoice, though, that our Savior Jesus Christ has in his resurrection defeated death and hell and thereby secured a place for us in heaven with him forever. He will welcome us into his loving arms the moment our eyes close in earthly death. Whether we live or die, he cares for us and will bring us through to himself.
Rejoice, therefore, that you have a steadfast loving Shepherd, Savior, and Lord who holds your life, body and soul, in his loving hands and waits to welcome you to himself.
Which passage of the Bible is the favorite of Christians who like to defend the Christian worldview? I don’t mean which one is most inspirational… I mean “which one is the most useful for winning arguments?” Well, when it comes to the historical Jesus, the most important passage has to be 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.
The tradition in 1 Corinthians 15 is an early creed that was received from the eyewitnesses Peter and John when Paul visited them several times in Jerusalem, as documented in Galatians 1 and 2, where Paul meets the eyewitnesses. And of course, Paul records his own eyewitness experience, documented in 1 Cor 15:8.
So, is this passage accepted as historically reliable by all ancient historians? Or only by the Bible-believing ones?
The evidence that Paul is not writing in his own hand in I Cor. 15.3-5 is so powerful that all New Testament scholars recognize that Paul is here passing on a prior tradition. In addition to the fact that Paul explicitly says as much, the passage is replete with non-Pauline characteristics, including, in order of appearance: (i) the phrase “for our sins” using the genitive case and plural noun is unusual for Paul; (ii) the phrase “according to the Scriptures” is unparalleled in Paul, who introduces Scriptural citations by “as it is written”; (iii) the perfect passive verb “has been raised” appears only in this chapter and in a pre-Pauline confessional formula in II Tim. 2.8; (iv) the phrase “on the third day” with its ordinal number following the noun in Greek is non-Pauline; (v) the word “appeared” is found only here and in the confessional formula in I Tim. 3.16; and (vi) “the Twelve” is not Paul’s nomenclature, for he always speaks of the twelve disciples as “the apostles.”
Now the visit during which Paul may have received this tradition is the visit you mention three years after his conversion on the road to Damascus (Gal. 1.18). This puts the tradition back to within the first five years after Jesus’ death in AD 30. So there’s not even an apparent inconsistency with Paul’s appropriating the language of the formula to encapsulate the Gospel he was already preaching during those first three years in Damascus.
Ancient historian Gary Habermas loves to read non-Christian scholars… and then he writes about what THEY think about Jesus in peer-reviewed articles, published in academic journals. Let’s look at this one: Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Vol. 45; No. 3 (Fall, 2006), pp. 288-297; published by Blackwell Publishing, UK.
He writes:
(1) Contemporary critical scholars agree that the apostle Paul is the primary witness to the early resurrection experiences. A former opponent (1 Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13-14; Phil. 3:4-7), Paul states that the risen Jesus appeared personally to him (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8; Gal. 1:16). The scholarly consensus here is attested by atheist Michael Martin, who avers: “However, we have only one contemporary eyewitness account of a postresurrection appearance of Jesus, namely Paul’s.”[3]
(2) In addition to Paul’s own experience, few conclusions are more widely recognized than that, in 1 Corinthians 15:3ff., Paul records an ancient oral tradition(s). This pre-Pauline report summarizes the early Gospel content, that Christ died for human sin, was buried, rose from the dead, and then appeared to many witnesses, both individuals and groups.
Paul is clear that this material was not his own but that he had passed on to others what he had received earlier, as the center of his message (15:3). There are many textual indications that the material pre-dates Paul. Most directly, the apostle employs paredoka and parelabon, the equivalent Greek terms for delivering and receiving rabbinic tradition (cf. 1 Cor. 11:23). Indirect indications of a traditional text(s) include the sentence structure and verbal parallelism, diction, and the triple sequence of kai hoti Further, several non-Pauline words, the proper names of Cephas (cf. Lk. 24:34) and James, and the possibility of an Aramaic original are all significant. Fuller attests to the unanimity of scholarship here: “It is almost universally agreed today that Paul is here citing tradition.”[4] Critical scholars agree that Paul received the material well before this book was written.[5]
This is important:
The most popular view is that Paul received this material during his trip to Jerusalem just three years after his conversion, to visit Peter and James, the brother of Jesus (Gal. 1:18-19), both of whose names appear in the appearance list (1 Cor. 15:5; 7). An important hint here is Paul’s use of the verb historesai (1:18), a term that indicates the investigation of a topic.[6] The immediate context both before and after reveals this subject matter: Paul was inquiring concerning the nature of the Gospel proclamation (Gal. 1:11-2:10), of which Jesus’ resurrection was the center (1 Cor. 15:3-4, 14, 17; Gal. 1:11, 16).
He’s an eyewitness (verse 8), and he met with the other eyewitnesses, James and Peter. 1 Corinthians is early. Galatians is early. The creed is extremely early – right after the events occurred. There was no time for legends to develop.
And atheistic / critical historians agree, the creed is reliable:
Critical scholars generally agree that this pre-Pauline creed(s) may be the earliest in the New Testament. Ulrich Wilckens asserts that it “indubitably goes back to the oldest phase of all in the history of primitive Christianity.”[7] Joachim Jeremias agrees that it is, “the earliest tradition of all.”[8] Perhaps a bit too optimistically, Walter Kasper even thinks that it was possibly even “in use by the end of 30 AD . . . .”[9]
Indicating the wide approval on this subject, even more skeptical scholars frequently agree. Gerd Ludemann maintains that “the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus. . . . not later than three years. . . . the formation of the appearance traditions mentioned in I Cor.15.3-8 falls into the time between 30 and 33 CE. . . .”[10] Similarly, Michael Goulder thinks that it “goes back at least to what Paul was taught when he was converted, a couple of years after the crucifixion.”[11] Thomas Sheehan agrees that this tradition “probably goes back to at least 32-34 C.E., that is, to within two to four years of the crucifixion.”[12] Others clearly consent.[13]
Overall, my recent overview of critical sources mentioned above indicates that those who provide a date generally opt for Paul’s reception of this report relatively soon after Jesus’ death, by the early to mid-30s A.D.[14] This provides an additional source that appears just a half step removed from eyewitness testimony.
(3) Paul was so careful to assure the content of his Gospel message, that he made a second trip to Jerusalem (Gal. 2:1-10) specifically to be absolutely sure that he had not been mistaken (2:2). The first time he met with Peter and James (Gal. 1:18-20). On this occasion, the same two men were there, plus the apostle John (2:9). Paul was clearly doing his research by seeking out the chief apostles. As Martin Hengel notes, “Evidently the tradition of I Cor. 15.3 had been subjected to many tests” by Paul.[15]
These four apostles were the chief authorities in the early church, and each is represented in the list of those who had seen the resurrected Jesus (1 Cor. 15:5-7). So their confirmation of Paul’s Gospel preaching (Gal. 2:9), especially given the apostolic concern to insure doctrinal truth in the early church, is certainly significant. On Paul’s word, we are again just a short distance from a firsthand report.
(4) Not only do we have Paul’s account that the other major apostles confirmed his Gospel message, but he provides the reverse testimony, too. After listing Jesus’ resurrection appearances, Paul tells us he also knew what the other apostles were preaching regarding Jesus’ appearances, and it was the same as his own teaching on this subject (1 Cor. 15:11). As one, they proclaimed that Jesus was raised from the dead (15:12, 15). So Paul narrates both the more indirect confirmation of his Gospel message by the apostolic leaders, plus his firsthand, direct approval of their resurrection message.
Now, some of the people he lists are really biased against the supernatural, and they really hate the idea that the claims of Christianity exclude other religions. And yet they don’t deny the historical reliability of 1 Corinthians 15, or that it is based on eyewitness testimony.
That’s why when you watch debates about the historical Jesus, you see skeptical historians like Bart Ehrman, Gerd Ludemann, James Crossley, Michael Goulder, etc. accepting that the disciples thought they saw Jesus after his death. They’re not just being nice to Dr. Craig when they give him that. They are forced to accept it, because it passes the historical tests. Every Christian ought to be aware of which passages of the New Testament are seen by the broad spectrum of ancient historians as “historical”, regardless of their various biases. You can believe everything in the Bible. But when you debate non-Christians, you have to use the historical core of Christianity which successfully passes historical analysis.
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”—Matt. 11:4–6
Jesus’ deity and His message of salvation by grace through faith have been great stumbling blocks for many unbelieving sinners, but Christ did not want such doubt and unbelief to affect John. It is likely that the Lord’s response was more than adequate to renew John’s faith and confidence, even though his circumstances, humanly speaking, went from bad to worse and he was beheaded.
After burying John’s body, his disciples reported the news to Jesus (Matt. 14:12), probably because the most important person in John’s life was now their Savior as well. At death, John likely still wondered when Jesus would judge the wicked and establish His righteous kingdom. The forerunner probably also regretted not being able to see the great events he’d faithfully preached about. But his doubts about Jesus’ identity were at an end, and he was content to leave in God’s sovereign hands the things he never fully understood. This last trait is the secret for any saint who would be blessed and not cause offense.
The Baptist would have ultimately affirmed the apostle John’s later declaration, “Beloved, now we are children of God … we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2–3). Knowing this, we can always approach Jesus, even while in temporary doubt.
ASK YOURSELF
Have you ever thought about what your final words will be if the Lord enables you to utter some parting thoughts at your passing? How do you think you’d want to sum up your experience on earth with the Lord and your perspective on life, looking back?11 MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 318). Moody Publishers.
Dear sister in the Lord, I know you have for many years been the Lord’s prisoner. Great have been your trials, and many have been your trials, and long have been your trials; but to all these I have spoken at large in my treatise called “The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod,” which you have in your hand, which you have read, and which God has greatly blessed to the support, comfort, quiet, and refreshment of your soul under all your trials; and therefore I shall say no more as to those particulars. But knowing that the many weaknesses which hang upon you, and the decays of nature which daily attend you, seem to point out your approaching death, I shall at this time give you this one word of counsel, namely, that every day you would look upon in a scripture glass, in a scripture dress, or under a scripture notion; that is,
1. First, Look upon death as that which is BEST for a believer. Phil. 1:23, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” The Greek is very significant, “far, far the better,” or far much better, or much more better. It is a most transcendent expression. Eccles. 7:1, “Better is the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” A saint’s dying day is the daybreak of eternal glory! In respect of pleasure, peace, safety, company and glory—a believer’s dying day is his best day. It was an excellent saying of one of the ancients, “That is not a death—but life, which joins the dying man to Christ; and that is not a life—but death, which separates a living man from Christ.” But,
2. Secondly, Look upon death as a remedy, as a CURE. Death will perfectly cure you of all bodily and spiritual diseases at once: the infirm body and the defiled soul, the aching head and the unbelieving heart. Death will cure you of all your ailments, aches, diseases, and distempers.
At Stratford-Bow, in Queen Mary’s days, there was a lame Christian, and a blind Christian, burned at one stake. The lame man, after he was chained, casting away his crutch, bade the blind man be of good cheer; “For death,” says he, “will cure us both; you of your blindness, and me of my lameness!”
And as death will cure all your bodily diseases, so it will cure all your soul distempers also. Death is not the death of the man—but the death of his sin. Death will work such a cure—as all your duties, graces, experiences, ordinances, assurances, could never do; for it will at once free you fully, perfectly, and perpetually from all sin; yes, from all possibility of ever sinning more. Sin was the midwife which brought death into the world, and death shall be the grave to bury sin. And why, then, should a Christian be afraid to die, unwilling to die, seeing death gives him an eternal separation from infirmities and weaknesses, from all aches and pains, griefs and gripings, distempers and diseases, both of body and soul? When Samson died, the Philistines died together with him; just so, when a saint dies, his sins die with him. Death came in by sin, and sin goes out by death; as the worm kills the worm which bred it, so death kills sin which bred it. But,
3. Thirdly, Look upon death as a REST, a full rest. A believer’s dying day is his resting day. It is a resting day from sin, sorrow, afflictions, temptations, desertions, dissensions, vexations, oppositions, and persecutions. [Rev. 14:13; Job 3:13-17; 2 Thes. 1:7; Micah 2:10; Jer. 50:6.] This world was never made to be the saints’ rest. Arise and depart, for this is not your resting place—it is polluted. They are like Noah’s dove, they can rest nowhere but in the ark and in the grave. “In the grave,” says Job, “the weary are at rest.” Upon this very ground some of the most refined heathens have accounted mortality to be a mercy, for they brought their friends into the world with mournful obsequies—but carried them out of the world with all joyful sports and pastimes, because then they conceived they were at rest, and out of gunshot. Death brings the saints to a full rest, to a pleasant rest, to a matchless rest, to an eternal rest. But,
4. Fourthly, Look upon your dying day as your REAPING day. 2 Cor. 9:2; Gal. 6:7-9; Isaiah 38:3; Mat. 25:31, 41. Now you shall reap the fruit of all the prayers that ever you have made, and of all the tears that ever you have shed, and of all the sighs and groans that ever you have fetched, and of all the good words that ever you have spoken, and of all the good works that ever you have done, and of all the great things that ever you have suffered. When mortality shall put on immortality, you shall then reap a plentiful crop, a glorious crop, as the fruit of that good seed that for a time has seemed to be buried and lost, Eccles. 11:1, 6. As Christ has a tender heart and a soft hand, so he has an iron memory. He precisely remembers all the sorrows, and all the services, and all the sufferings of his people, to reward them and crown them. “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” Revelation 22:12. But,
5. Fifthly, Look upon your dying day as a GAINFUL day. There is no gain compared to that which comes in by death. Phil. 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” A Christian gets more by death, than he does by life, Eccles. 7:1. To be in Christ is very good—but to be with Christ is best of all, Phil. 1:23. It was a mighty blessing for Christ to be with Paul on earth—but it was the top of blessings for Paul to be with Christ in heaven. Seriously consider of a few things—
[1.] First, That by death you shall gain incomparable crowns!
(1.) A crown of life, Rev. 10; James 1:12;
(2.) A crown of righteousness, 2 Tim. 4:8;
(3.) An incorruptible crown, 1 Cor. 9:24-25;
(4.) A crown of glory, 1 Pet. 5:4. Now there are no crowns compared to these crowns, as I have fully shown in my discourse on “The Divine Presence,” to which I refer you. But,
[2.] Secondly, You shall gain a glorious kingdom! Luke 12:32, “It is your Father’s pleasure to give you a kingdom.” But death is the young prophet that anoints them to it, and gives them actual possession of it. We must put off their rags of mortality, that we may put on our robes of glory. Israel must first die in Egypt before he can be carried into Canaan. There is no entering into paradise but under the flaming sword of this angel death, who stands at the gate. Death is the dirty lane through which the saint passes to a kingdom, to a great kingdom, to a glorious kingdom, to a quiet kingdom, to an unshaken kingdom, to a durable kingdom, to a lasting kingdom, yes, to an everlasting kingdom. Death is a dark, short way, through which the saints pass to the marriage-supper of the Lamb! Heb. 12:28; Dan. 2:44, and 4:3; Rev. 19:7. But,
[3.] Thirdly, You shall gain a safe and honorable convoy into the heavenly world! Luke 16:22. Oh, in what pomp and triumph did Lazarus ride to heaven on the wings of angels! The angels conduct the saints at death through the air, the devil’s region; every gracious soul is carried into Christ’s presence by these heavenly courtiers. Oh, what a sudden change does death make! Behold, he who even now was scorned by men, is all on a sudden, carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom. But,
[4.] Fourthly, You shall gain a glorious welcome, a joyful welcome, a wonderful welcome into heaven! By general consent of all antiquity, the holy angels and blessed Trinity rejoice at the sinner’s conversion; but oh, what inexpressible, what transcendent joy is there, when a saint is landed upon the shore of eternity! Rev. 4:8-11; Luke 15:7, 10; Heb. 12:23. God and Christ, angels and archangels, all stand ready to welcome the believer as soon as his feet are upon the threshold of glory! God the Father welcomes the saints as his elect and chosen ones, Jesus Christ welcomes them as his redeemed and purchased ones, and the Holy Spirit welcomes them as his sanctified and renewed ones, and the blessed angels welcome them as those they have guarded and attended on, Heb. 1:14. When the saints enter upon the suburbs of glory, the glorious angels welcome them with harps in their hands, and songs in their mouths. But,
[5.] Fifthly, You shall gain full freedom and liberty from all your enemies within and without—namely, sin, Satan, and the world! Luke 1:70-71, 74-75.
(1.) Death will free you from the indwelling power of sin. Romans 7:23. In heaven there is no complaints. As in hell there is nothing but wickedness, so in heaven there is nothing but holiness.
(2.) Death will free you from the power and prevalency of sin. In this present world, sin plays the tyrant—but in heaven there is no tyranny—but perfect felicity.
(3.) Death will free you from all provocations, temptations, and suggestions to sin. Now you shall be above all Satan’s assaults. Now God will make good the promise of treading Satan under your feet, Romans 16:20. Some say serpents will not live in Ireland. The old serpent is cast out, and shall be forever kept out of the new Jerusalem above, Rev. 12:8-9, and 21:27.
(4.) Death will free you from all the effects and consequences of sin—namely, losses, crosses, sicknesses, diseases, disgraces, sufferings, etc. When the cause is taken away, the effect ceases; when the fountain of sin is dried up, the streams of afflictions, of sufferings, must be dried up. The fuel being taken away, the fire will go out of itself. Sin and sorrow were born together, live together, and shall die together. To open this fourth particular a little more fully to you, consider these four things:
First, Death will free you from all reproach and ignominy on your names. Now Elijah is accounted the troubler of Israel, Nehemiah a rebel against his king, and David the song of the drunkards, and Jeremiah a man of contention, and Paul a pestilent fellow. [1 Kings 18:17; Neh. 6:6; Psalm 69:12; Jer. 15:10; Acts 24:10.] Heaven wipes away all blots, as well as all tears; as no sins, so no blots are to be found in that upper world. The names of all the saints in a state of glory are written, as I may say, in characters of gold. But,
Secondly, Death will free you from all bodily infirmities and diseases. We carry about in our bodies the matter of a thousand deaths, and may die a thousand different ways each hour. As many senses, as many members, nay, as many pores as there are in the body, so many windows there are for death to enter at. Death needs not spend all its arrows upon us; a worm, a gnat, a fly, a hair, the seed of a raisin, the skin of a grape, the fall of a horse, the stumbling of a foot, the prick of a pin, the trimming of a nail, the cutting of a corn; all these have been to others, and any one of them may be to us, the means of our death, within the space of a few days, nay, of a few hours. Here Job had his blotches, and Hezekiah had his boil, and David his wounds, and Lazarus his sores, and the poor widow her issue of blood, Job 2:6-7; Isaiah 37:21; Psalm 38:5; Luke 16:20; Mat. 9:20. Now the fever burns up some, and the dropsy drowns others, and the vapors stifle others; one dies of a stroke in the head, a third of a tumor in the throat, and a fourth of a cough and consumption of the lungs; others of obstructions, inflammations, pleurisies, gouts, etc. We are commonly full of sicknesses; one complains of this distemper, and another of that; one of this disease, and another of that; but death will cure us of all diseases and distempers at once. But,
Thirdly, Death will free you from all your sorrows, whether inward or outward, whether for your own sins or the sins of others, whether for your own sufferings or the sufferings of others, Psalm 38:18; 2 Cor. 7:11; Psalm 119:136; Neb. 1:3-4. Now, it may be, one shall seldom find you but with tears in your eyes, or sorrow in your heart; Oh—but now death will be the funeral of all your sorrows, death will wipe all tears from your eyes, “and sorrow and mourning shall flee away,” Isaiah 51:11. But,
Fourthly, Death will free you from all those troubles, calamities, miseries, mischiefs, and desolations, that are a-coming upon the earth, or upon this place or that, Isaiah 57:1; Micah 7:1-7. A year after Methuselah’s death, the flood came and carried away the old world. Augustine died a little before the sacking of Hippo. Luther observes that all the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem; and Luther himself died a little before the wars broke forth in Germany.
Dear lady, death shall do that for you, which all your physicians could never do for you, which all your relations could never do for you, which all ordinances could never do for you, nor which all your faithful ministers could never do for you. It shall both instantly and perfectly cure you of all sorts of maladies and weaknesses, both inward and outward, of both your body and your soul. O my dear friend, is it not better to die, and be rid of all sin; to die, and be rid of all temptations and desertions; to die, and be rid of all sorts of miseries; than to live, and still carry about with us our sins, our burdens, and such constant ailments, as takes away all the pleasure and comfort of life? Here both our outward and inward conditions are very various; sometimes heaven is open, and sometimes heaven is shut; sometimes we see the face of God, and rejoice, and at other times he hides his face, and we are troubled, Lam. 3:8, 44, 54-57; Psalm 30:7; 1 Thes. 4:17-18; Isaiah 35:10. Oh—but now death will bring us to an invariable eternity. It is always day in heaven, and joy in heaven.
[6.] Sixthly and lastly, You shall gain a clear, distinct, and full knowledge of all great and deep mysteries! 1 Cor. 13:10, 12. The mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of Christ’s incarnation, the mystery of man’s redemption, the mysteries of providences, the mysteries of prophecies, and all those mysteries which relate to the nature, substances, offices, orders, and excellencies of the angels. If you please to consult my “String of Pearls, or the Best Things Reserved until Last,” with my sermon on Eccles. 7:1, “Better is the day of death than the day of one’s birth;” which is at the end of my “Treatise on Assurance”—both which treatises you have by you—there you will find many more great and glorious things laid open that we gain by death; and to them I refer you. But,
6. Sixthly, Look upon death as a SLEEP. The Holy Spirit has phrased it so, above twenty times in Scripture, to show that this is the true, proper, and genuine notion of death. [1 Cor. 11:30, and 15:51; John 11:12; Mark 5:39. The Greeks call their churchyards dormitories, sleeping-places; and the Hebrews Beth-chaiim, the house of the living.] When the saints die, they do but sleep: Mat. 9:24, “The girl is not dead but sleeps.” The same phrase he also used to his disciples concerning Lazarus, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps,” John 11:11. The death of the godly is as a sleep; Stephen fell asleep, Acts 7:60; and “David fell asleep,” Acts 13:36; and “Christ is the first fruits of those who sleep,” 1 Cor. 15:20; “Those who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him,” 1 Thes. 4:14. The saints of God do but sleep when they lie down in the grave. That which we call death in such, is not death indeed; it is but the image of death, the shadow and metaphor of death, death’s younger brother, a mere sleep, and no more. I may not follow the analogy that is between death and sleep in the latitude of it, the printer calling upon me to conclude. Sleep is the nurse of nature, the sweet parenthesis of all a man’s griefs and cares. But,
7. Seventhly, Look upon death as a DEPARTURE. 2 Tim. 4:6, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” Paul makes nothing of death. It was no more between God and Moses—but go up and die, Deut. 32:49-50; and so between Christ and Paul—but launch out, and land immediately at the fair haven of heaven: Phil. 1:23, “For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” Paul longed for that hour wherein he should loose anchor, and sail to Christ, as the Greek word imports. It is a metaphor from a ship at anchor, importing a sailing from this present life to another port. Paul had a desire to loose from the shore of life, and to launch out into the ocean of immortality. The apostle, in this phrase, has a reference both to his bonds and to his death; and his meaning is, I desire to be discharged and released, as out of a common jail, so also out of the prison of my body, that I may presently be with Christ my Savior in heaven, in rest and bliss. [Or it may be rendered, to return home, or to change rooms. It is a similitude taken from those who depart out of an inn to take their journey towards their own country.] After Paul had been in the third heaven, his constant song was, “I desire to be with Christ.” Nature teaches that death is the end of misery. But grace will teach us that death is the beginning of our felicity. But,
8. Eighthly and lastly, Look upon death as a going to bed. The grave is a bed wherein the body is laid to rest, with its curtains close drawn about it, that it may not be disturbed in its repose. So the Holy Spirit is pleased to phrase it, “He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, everyone walking in their uprightness,” Isaiah 57:2. As the souls of the saints pass to a place of rest and bliss, so their bodies are laid down to rest in the grave, as in a bed or bedchamber, there to sleep quietly until the morning of the resurrection. Death is nothing else but a rest to the weary saints; it is a total cessation from all their labor, sin, and affliction, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labors,” Rev. 14:13, etc. While the souls of the saints do rest in Abraham’s bosom, their bodies do sweetly sleep in their beds of dust, as in a safe and consecrated dormitory. Every sincere Christian may, like the weary child, call and cry to be laid to bed, knowing that death would send him to his everlasting rest.
Now you should always look upon death under scripture notions, and this will take off the terror of death. Yes, it will make the king of terrors to be the king of desires. It will make you not only willing to die—but even long to die, and to cry out, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove, to fly away, and be at rest!” At death you shall have an eternal jubilee, and be freed from all incumbrances. Sin shall be no more, and trouble shall be no more, and pain nor ailments shall be no more. Now you shall have your eternal rest. Now “the wicked shall cease from troubling, and now the weary shall be at rest,” Job 3:17. Now “all tears shall be wiped from your eyes,” Rev. 7:17. Death shall be the way to bliss, the gate to eternal life, and the portal to paradise.
It was well said of one, “so far as we tremble at death, so far we lack love.” It is sad, when the contract is made between Christ and a Christian, to see a Christian afraid of the making up the marriage. “Lord,” says Austin, “I will die that I may enjoy you. I desire to die—that I may see Christ; and refuse to live—that I may live with Christ.” Mere marriage engagements and espousals, do not content the true lover—but he longs for the marriage day. It is no credit to your heavenly Father, for you to be averse to go home.
The Turks tell us that surely Christians do not believe heaven to be such a glorious place as they talk of; for if they did, they would not be so unwilling to go there. The world may well think that the child has but cold welcome at his father’s house, that he lingers so much along the way, and that he does not look and long to be at home. Such children bring an ill report upon their father’s house, upon the holy land. But I know you have not so learned Christ, I know you long with Paul, “to depart, and to be with Christ,” Phil. 1:23; and with old Simeon, to cry out, “Lord, let your servant depart in peace,” Luke 2:29. That God whom you have long sought and served, will make your passage into the eternal world safe, sweet, and easy.
Now to the everlasting arms of divine protection, and to the constant guidance and leadings of the Spirit, and to the rich influences of Christ’s sovereign grace, and to the lively hopes of the inheritance of the saints in light, I commend you, who am, dear sister—yours in the strongest bonds, Thomas Brooks, London, 1675
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.—John 5:25
Jesus begins this emphatic, unarguable declaration with the seemingly paradoxical statement “an hour is coming and now is.” The hour of the believers’ resurrection “now is” in the sense that when they “were dead in [their] trespasses and sins … [God] made [them] alive together with Christ, and raised [them] up with Him” (Eph. 2:1, 5–6). Yet the hour is still “coming” in the sense that the resurrection of their physical bodies is yet future (1 Cor. 15:35–54; Phil. 3:20–21).
This “already/not yet” sense of the phrase may be understood in another way. When Christ was present, He offered spiritual life to all who would heed His Word (6:37; Matt. 7:24–27). Yet the full expression of the new era He inaugurated would not come until the day of Pentecost (14:17). Both during Christ’s earthly ministry and in the fullness of the Spirit’s ministry after Pentecost, the spiritually dead who heard “the voice of the Son of God” would live.
Scripture frequently describes unbelievers as spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead is to be insensitive to the things of God and totally unable to respond to Him. Paul vividly described it as living “in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and [being] by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).
Rejoice in the amazing grace of God for making you alive together with Christ.
ASK YOURSELF
Try to define the ways you’re experiencing the first rays of eternal life even while bound in this time and place. How would your life be different if you were still spiritually dead, removed from the grace of God?11 MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 303). Moody Publishers.
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