THE
RESURRECTION
By J.
C. Philpot
Chapter
Eight from the book Meditations on the Sacred Humanity of Our Blessed Redeemer
But we pass on to the resurrection of the
blessed Lord from the dead; and here we shall have to establish the doctrine
before we enter into its experimental fruits.
1. The first thing that we notice is, what
we may call the grand fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On this the whole verity of the Christian faith may be said to be suspended. If
Jesus did not rise from the dead, he was not what he declared he was, "the
Son of the living God." But if he rose from the dead, it was God’s own
attestation that he was his only begotten Son, for all will admit that nothing
short of the power of God can raise the dead. For this reason we find in the
Acts of the Apostles the resurrection of the Lord Jesus made a leading feature
in every sermon and every address. Whether Peter preached to the inquiring
Jews, #Ac 2:23,24 3:15 to the opposing Sanhedrim, #Ac 4:10 5:30,31 or to Cornelius and his friends; #Ac 10:39,40 or whether Paul addressed the synagogue of Antioch, #Ac 13:30 the Athenian Areopagus #Ac 17:31 or
king Agrippa and the most noble Festus, it might be said of them what the Holy
Ghost declares of all the rest; "And with great power gave the apostles
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." #Ac 4:33
Look for a few moments at this remarkable circumstance,
that these blessed men of God made the resurrection of Jesus, as it were, the
very foundation of all their sermons and addresses; for we may be sure that the
Holy Ghost inspired the apostles thus to preach. And see the reason why they
bore this firm testimony in the very forefront of the battle which they waged
in the name of God against the kingdom of darkness and death. The Lord of life
and glory had been condemned to death by the Jewish council on a charge of
blasphemy, first, because he had said that "he would destroy the temple
made with hands, and within three days build another made without hands;" #Mr 14:58 and, secondly, that he had declared, in the very presence
of the council, that he was the Christ, the Son of God. #Mr 14:61-64 He therefore died under the charge of blasphemy, in pain
and ignominy, crucified openly for that alleged crime in the face of the
assembled thousands who had come from all parts to Jerusalem to celebrate the
Passover. Now, had Jesus not risen from the dead that charge would have been
substantiated, and he would have been justly convicted by the voices of many
thousands as having been put righteously to death. It was necessary, then, not
only for the whole economy of redemption, but for the very veracity of Jesus
himself, and for the whole truth of the gospel, that he should be raised from
the dead by the power of God as the seal of his mission, as the standing,
undeniable, irrefragable truth that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, as he
claimed to be.
We see, then, the force and meaning of the
apostle’s words, where he says that the Lord Jesus was "declared to be the
Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead." #Ro 1:4 It was God’s attesting witness to his divine Sonship, the
visible, ratifying seal to his heavenly mission. And not only so, but God’s own
assurance to the church that his atoning sacrifice had been accepted, that the
debt due to law and justice was fully discharged, and her justification
complete, for he "was delivered for our offences and raised again for our
justification;" #Ro 4:25 that is, he, as the head and
representative of the church, was raised by God from the dead as justified from
all law charges, and the church was thus visibly and authoritatively declared
to be justified in him. This was the attesting witness from heaven that her
justification was complete, and that Jesus lives at God’s right hand to reveal
that justification to her heart, put her into experimental possession of its
unspeakable blessedness, and seal it effectually by the Holy Ghost upon her
breast.
2. The next thing that we notice is that each Person of the sacred Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, was engaged
in the blessed work of raising Jesus from the dead. Though the Persons of the Trinity
are essentially distinct, and their acts in the great economy of redemption
separate, yet as one God they participate in the putting forth of every act of
divine power. Thus God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, as we learn from
almost innumerable passages; but see the following, which we need not quote at
length, but simply refer to; #Ac
2:24 3:15 4:10 5:30 10:40 13:37 17:31 Eph 1:20 Col 2:12. But the Son of God raised himself from
the dead, according to his own words of grace and truth, "Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again." #Joh 10:17,18 He is "the resurrection;" #Joh 11:25 and as he raised Lazarus from the tomb, and will at the
last day raise up the sleeping dust of all that the Father gave unto him, #Joh 6:39,40 so, by the exercise of the same divine power, did he raise
his own incorruptible body from the grave. The Holy Ghost also had a blessed
participation in the same divine act. We therefore read that the Lord Jesus was
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, #1Pe 3:18 - the same Holy and Blessed Spirit who will also quicken
the mortal bodies of the saints at the great resurrection. #Ro 8:11
3. The next thing that we notice is, the identity of the Lord’s risen body. It is a cardinal, fundamental article of
our most holy faith that the same actual, identical body was raised from the
grave which was deposited in it. If erroneous men had not indulged their vain
speculations about the risen body of the Lord Jesus, we might well wonder at
their daring attempts to pull up the landmarks which the Holy Ghost has so
plainly set up in the word of truth. The Lord never had, never could have, two
different bodies, one before, another after the resurrection. We might as well
talk of his having two different souls - one soul for earth, and another soul
for heaven. The identity of his body is as indispensable to his still being
Jesus, "the same yesterday, today, and for ever," as the identity of
his soul, no less certain, no less necessary, and no less precious. But
because, after the resurrection, the Lord came miraculously into the place
where the disciples were assembled, the doors being shut, and vanished out of
the sight of the disciples at Emmaus, and because they cannot conceive how he
can wear a human body in heaven, such as he had upon earth, men who would be
wise above what is written have assumed that a change took place in that body,
and that it no longer consisted of flesh, and bones, and blood, as before, but
was, as it were, transmuted into some aerial, celestial substance, they know
not what, but such as they imagine would be more fitting to inhabit the courts
of heaven.
Now, nothing can be more plain, if we are
willing to follow the footsteps of the Holy Ghost, than that it was the same
identical body which hung on the cross that rose from the dead. It would seem,
as if to stop all cavil, and crush in the very bud all such erroneous
speculations as we have alluded to, the Lord himself gave again and again the
most incontrovertible proofs after his resurrection that he was the same Jesus
as before, and not another, and that he wore the same body in all respects
without change or alteration. He did not appear for a few moments only, as if
"showing himself through the lattice," and then hastily withdrawing,
but conversed with them most familiarly, and ate with his disciples after the
resurrection; #Lu 24:42,43 Ac
10:41 and for this very
purpose, that they might be standing and undeniable eye and ear witnesses that
it was indeed the very same Jesus with whom they had consorted before his
crucifixion. Now we all know what a marked change a little alteration makes in
a person’s form and features, so that a severe illness, or the lapse of a few
years, makes him scarcely recognisable as the same person by even his most
intimate friends. If, then, any visible change had taken place in the body of
the Lord Jesus, it would not only have destroyed its identity but its
identification. The whole chain of evidence that it was indeed the same Jesus
who had been crucified that was risen from the dead would have been broken to
pieces unless it was clearly and undeniably the same form, the same features,
the same feet and hands, the same voice - in a word, the very same Jesus whom
they knew so well and loved so dearly. Did not Mary Magdalene know his form and
features well? Could she have been deceived? Was not John, who leaned on his
breast at the last supper, well acquainted with his voice, gestures, and
countenance? Could he have been deceived? So with Peter and James, not to name
the other disciples who had attended him daily from the baptism of John. #Ac 1:22 One witness might be deceived, but not so many.
But besides this, there were several
special seasons on which the Lord did not only appear for a short time to his
disciples, but was with them some space. Look at the instance of Thomas. What
can exceed the clearness of the testimony mercifully produced by his very
unbelief? So firmly fixed was he in his disbelief of the resurrection that he
would not believe that the disciples had seen the Lord as risen from the dead;
and declared that except he should see in his hands the print of the nails;
and, lest his eyes should deceive him, unless he put his fingers into the print
of the nails; and even lest he should be deceived then, except he should thrust
his hand into the very side which had been pierced by the Roman spear, he would
not believe. But how condescendingly to him, and how graciously for the saints
in all ages, did the blessed Lord, eight days after this unbelieving
declaration, appear again gently to reprove him for his unbelief, but at the
same time to afford to the church through him the memorable testimony that he
wore still the same body; that the hands were the very same hands, still
bearing the print of the nails which had fastened them to the cross, and that
it was the very same side which still wore the thrust-mark of the Roman spear.
If this were not a proof of actual
identity where shall we find one? If this evidence be rejected, what remains
but to reject the whole mystery of the resurrection as an idle tale? Learned
men have, by comparing scripture with scripture, ascertained that the blessed
Lord appeared ten times to eye-witnesses after his resurrection {1} and that at some of these appearances, as
that memorable one recorded #John
21, he conversed with his
disciples as closely and as intimately as before his resurrection. And that his
human body in which he ate and talked with them was not a shadowy appearance,
which had neither flesh nor bones, he spake to them those ever-memorable words,
"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for
a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." #Lu 24:39 "Behold," said he, "my hands and my
feet" - they are real hands, they are real feet; "that it is I
myself," the same, the very same Jesus, having the same body which you saw
him wear before; "handle me, and see," feel, if you will, whether it
be real flesh or an aerial body, "for a spirit," such as you take me
to be, a disembodied soul, or an airy, unreal phantasm, "hath not flesh
and bones, as ye see me have."
Can anything be stronger than this the
Lord’s own testimony to the actual identity of his body before and after his
resurrection? And if it be objected that, whatever the body of the Lord was
then, it is now so exceedingly glorified that it has lost in that glory all the
distinctive features of its former humanity, we reply. How was it with that
same body before the resurrection, on the holy mount, when it was transfigured
before the three disciples, so that "his face did shine as the sun, and
his very raiment," as borrowing lustre from his glorious humanity,
"was white as the light?" #Mt 17:1,2 There
we see that the brightest glory no more altered the identity or changed the
substance of the Lord’s body than the glory of the face of Moses altered his.
When we come to the ascension of our blessed Lord, we shall see this perhaps
more clearly and distinctly still, or at least view more at length the
blessings and benefits connected with it.
{1} The Lord’s first
appearance was to Mary Magdalene;- #Mr 16:9-11; John
20:14-18; his second to the disciples
journeying to Emmaus: #Mr 16:12 Lu 24:13-32
his third to Simon Peter; #Lu 24:33,34 1Co 15:5; his fourth
to the eleven disciples in the absence of Thomas; #Lu
24:36-43 Joh 20:19-25 his fifth to the
eleven again, when Thomas was present; #Mr 16:14 Joh
20:27-29 his sixth to the women who had
at first visited the sepulchre; #Mt 28:9,10
his seventh to the apostles and five hundred
brethren at once in Galilee; #Matt 28:16-20 1Co 15:6
his eighth to the disciples when fishing on
the lake of Galilee; #Joh 21:1-24; his ninth to James the Lord’s brother; #1Co 15:7 and his tenth
and last to all the apostles assembled at Jerusalem just before his ascension. #Lu 24:44-49 Ac 1:4-8 1Co 15:7. These are the
"many infallible proofs" of which the Holy Ghost speaks #Ac 1:3 that he was really and truly risen from the
dead.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.