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THE RESURRECTION
AMIDST all the indignities offered to our blessed Lord by the Jewish nation at large, some friends there were who sympathized with him, and desired to manifest towards him all the respect and love which their circumstances would admit of. He had now been put to death, and was committed to the tomb without any of those distinctions which were customarily attendant on an honourable interment. Some women, therefore, to whom he was dear, brought, very early after the Sabbath, spices, wherewith to embalm his sacred body. They knew not, indeed, how they should be able to execute their intentions; seeing that a great stone had been placed at the door of his sepulchre, to prevent any one from getting access to the body, to remove it. They came, however, to the sepulcher; and, to their great surprise, “saw the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and an angel sitting upon it. The angel’s countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.” At this sight, they were greatly alarmed: but the angel speedily composed their minds; saying, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, but is risen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
Now, believing that you all desire to testify your respect to the Saviour this day [Note: Easter-Day.], I would say to you, Come to the sepulchre, where he was deposited, and from whence he rose; “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Come, I say, and see there,
1. A witness for him—
Behold, that empty tomb witnesses to you, in most decisive terms,
1. The truth of his mission—
[On his resurrection had our blessed Lord rested the whole of his claims to credibility as the appointed Messiah. At the very commencement of his ministry, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again [Note: Joh_2:19.].” This was not understood at the time: but, by his enemies, it was brought against him as a charge at the close of his life; and, after his resurrection, it was recollected by his friends as a prediction of the event which had actually taken place. At another time, when urged by the unbelieving Pharisees to give them some greater sign than they had already seen, he told them, that “no other sign should be given them than that of the Prophet Jonas; for, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so should the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth [Note: Mat_12:38-40.].” On several other occasions, also, he spake of his resurrection as the destined evidence of his Messiahship [Note: Luk_24:6-8.]: and this was the foundation of all the precautions that were used against an imposition which might be practised by his Disciples. It was feared that they might come by night and steal away the corpse, and then say that he was risen from the dead: and, to prevent it, the tomb was sealed with Pilate’s seal, and guarded by a band of soldiers. This was a wise precaution: for, if the third day should pass away, and he be found in the grave, he would be proved an impostor at once; and all his influence would die away. But he rose at the appointed time, and thereby demonstrated that he was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. This is what St. Paul has plainly affirmed: “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by his resurrection from the dead [Note: Rom_1:4.].”
Come then, I say, and inspect the tomb; and learn from that, that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.]
2. The sufficiency of his mediation—
[The Lord Jesus undertook to expiate the guilt of a ruined world, and to redeem them to God by his blood. Under the sins of men he died. But who could be sure that his atonement had prevailed for the end for which it had been offered? He had mediated, it is true: but who could tell that his mediation had been accepted? How could that point be satisfactorily ascertained? His resurrection proved it beyond a doubt. If a man, who has undertaken, as a surety, to pay a debt, be liberated from prison, you conclude, of course, that he has fulfilled his engagement: his discharge is an evidence that the creditor has no further claim upon him. So, when we see him raised from the grave, to which he had been committed for the sins of men, no doubt can remain upon our minds but that he satisfied all the claims of law and justice in our behalf. The two goats which were offered on the day of atonement, and the two birds that were offered at the cleansing of the leper, exhibited this mystery in a striking point of view [Note: Lev_16:15-22; Lev_14:4-7.]. The dying goat represented his death; and the scape-goat, which bore away the sins of all Israel, his resurrection. The living bird, too, that was dipped in the blood of the slain bird, and was let loose into the air, for the perfect cleansing of the leper, suggested the same blessed truth; that “Christ should die for our offences; but that he should rise again for our justification. [Note: Rom_4:25.]” Had he not risen, we had been yet in our sins [Note: 1Co_15:17.];” but, seeing that “he hath both died and risen,” we may defy all our enemies; and say with confidence, “Who is he that shall condemn me [Note: Rom_8:34.]?”]
In this tomb, also, you may see,
II. A pledge to us—
Yes, verily, it is a pledge,
1. Of Christ’s power to raise us to a spiritual life—
[The resurrection of Christ is set forth in the Scriptures as a pattern of that which is to be accomplished in all his followers; and by the very same power too, that effected that. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws the parallel with a minuteness and accuracy that are truly astonishing. He prays for them, that they may know what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places [Note: Eph_1:19-20.].” And then he says, concerning them, “God, who is rich in mercy, of his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus [Note: Eph_2:4-5.].” Here, I say, you see Christ dead, quickened, raised, and seated in glory; and his believing people quickened from their death in sins, and raised with him, and seated too with him in the highest heavens. The same thing is stated also, and the same parallel is drawn in the Epistle to the Romans; where it is said, “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life [Note: Rom_6:4.]. But can this be effected in us? I answer, Behold the tomb! Who raised the Lord Jesus? He himself said, “I have power to lay down my life, and power to take it up again [Note: Joh_10:18.]:” and he has further said, “Because I live, ye shall live also [Note: Joh_12:32.].” We may be assured, therefore, that, “if we bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus shall be made manifest in our body [Note: 2Co_4:10.]:” if “we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: for as, in that he died, he died unto sin once; but, in that he liveth, he liveth unto God; so may we confidently reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord [Note: Rom_6:8-11.].” “Being planted in the likeness of his death, we are perfectly assured, that we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection [Note: Rom_6:5.].”]
2. Of his determination to raise us to eternal life—
[Frequently did our Lord say, respecting his believing people, “I will raise them up at the last day [Note: Joh_6:40; Joh_6:54.].” And, in raising up himself, he has given us a pledge that he will do so. For he did not rise as an individual person merely, but as the Head and Representative of all his people; as it is written, “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and is become the first-fruits of them that slept [Note: 1Co_15:20.].” The first-fruits, you know, sanctified and assured the whole harvest: and precisely so does his resurrection assure ours: for, “if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us [Note: Rom_8:11 and 2Co_10:14.]. Indeed this shall be effected by our Lord Jesus Christ himself: for, whilst he was yet upon earth, he declared, that “all who were in the graves should hear the voice of the Son of God, and should come forth; they that have done good, unto a resurrection of life: and they that have done evil to a resurrection of damnation [Note: Joh_5:28-29].”]
Address—
1. The unbelieving rejecter of the Gospel salvation—
[Thou dost not believe in Jesus, except as a prophet, a man like unto thyself; who died, indeed, as an example, to confirm his word; but never rose to carry on his work; nor is a Saviour to us any more than Moses himself was. Come, then, and inspect the tomb where he was interred: “Come, and see the place where the Lord lay.” Tell me, Who removed him thence? Wilt thou adopt the story which the priests invented, and the soldiers were bribed to circulate, that the Disciples came by night and stole him away? What! were all the soldiers asleep, when the penalty of sleeping at their posts was death? And if they were asleep, how could they tell what was done? And how came it that Jesus, for the space of forty days appeared to various Disciples, and at last ascended to heaven in the presence of five hundred brethren at once? Some of his Disciples, at least, were incredulous enough: Thomas would not believe unless he should put his hand into the print of the nails in his hands and in his feet, and thrust his hand into his side: How came he and all the rest to be persuaded? and how came they to attest the resurrection of Jesus at the peril of their lives, yea, and to lay down their lives in support of that testimony? If thou canst believe that these things were done in support of a direct falsehood, from which they themselves could derive no imaginary benefit, thou believest what is infinitely more incredible than the very fact which thou deniest. Thou mayest condemn credulity in others: but thou thyself art the most credulous of all thy fellows. Inspect the tomb of Jesus, and view it with any measure of candour, and thou canst no more doubt his resurrection than any other fact in the Bible: and, believing that, thou must believe all which either Prophets or Apostles have said concerning him.]
2. The humble seeker of a crucified Saviour—
[To thee I will say, as the angel did to the women, “Fear not thou, for thou seekest Jesus who was crucified.” The Roman soldiers, who guarded the tomb, had ground enough to fear. The earthquake might well appal them: and the bright angel strike them dead with terror. But nothing hast thou to fear: for the Saviour, even that “LORD, who lay” in the grave and is risen, is thy Friend, thy Forerunner, thine Advocate and Intercessor. He is gone “to appear in the presence of God for thee [Note: Heb_9:24.]:” and has thereby given thee an assurance, that “he is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him [Note: Heb_7:25.]” — — —
Moreover, when thou reflectest on the state to which he is risen, thou mayest well have comfort in the prospect of thine own death; for thou thyself shalt rise, like him, and partake of that very glory which he himself possesses. “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him [Note: 1Th_4:14.].” To thee, even the most violent death is but a sleep [Note: Act_7:60.]: and in the morning of the resurrection thou shalt awake, and “be caught up to meet thy Lord in the air: and then shalt thou be ever with the Lord.” Ye drooping saints, who are either lamenting the departure of others, or trembling at the prospect of your own, dry up your tears, and “comfort one another with these words [Note: 1Th_4:13-18.]”—]