The Divine Seal
apHe supreme value of the resurrection lies in the fact that it was a Divine act, by which God gave attestation to His perfect satisfaction with the work of Christ. It is well to remember that the deepest question of all for the heart of man is not whether he is satisfied, but whether God is‘satisfied.
In the contemplation of the matchless beauty of the life of Jesus, the heart of man may have found perfect satisfaction. Standing on the margin of the mystery of His Passion, the deepest consciousness of the life may have been that of the sufficiency of the work wrought for personal redemption. And yet so perpetually has the mind of man been at fault, that not in its own satisfaction can it find its deepest rest. Therefore it is that the question of greatest moment is as to whether God has found in the life and death of His Son, that which has accomplished His purpose, and will issue in blessing to men, and the glory of His name.
The answer to all this questioning is found in the resurrection. In the passage which perhaps is the most remarkable of all the utterances of Christ concerning His Passion, He declares “Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father.”!
This is so strange a statement as to baffle all attempts at explanation. Its correctness, however, is demonstrated by the fact that He did lay down His life, and that He did take it again. Carefully note, He claims that His right to do this was received from His Father. Thus the whole work committed to Jesus by the Father was that of laying down through death His perfect life for the making of Atonement, and right to lay hold again upon that life for its communication to others, as the context shows.
John Io. 17, 18.
The proof then that the work of the Cross was perfect lies in the fact that He not only laid down His life, but that He took it again, thus carrying out the Divine authority to its utmost limit.
In writing to the Ephesians the apostle in praying for them that they “may know. .. the exceeding greatness of His power” describes it as the’ power “which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places.”1
Thus it is evident that He, Jesus, laid hold upon His own life, taking it again, but He did this by the authority of His Father, and so it is remarkably true, as Paul declares, that His resurrection was by the act of God. There is no contradiction in these two statements, byt rather the revelation of that perfect harmony of action between the Father and the Son, which characterised the whole work of Christ.
The resurrection then is the Divine seal upon the work of Jesus, as perfectly meeting the purpose of God. In examining this, notice first how the resurrection was the culminating act, marking the perfect approbation of God; secondly how the resurrection was the final act, marking God’s rejection of man; and thirdly how the resurrection was therefore the Divine ratification of the new and living way, by which rejected man could be accepted.
I. It has been seen through the whole progress of this study how that again and again in different ways, God bore testimony to the sacred nature of the mission of Christ, and to the satisfaction of the Eternal heart with the outworking of the Divine purpose in history, in the Person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. At His advent when earth gave Him no welcome, and there were no evidences of preparation, remarkable signs were granted to the sons of men, the shining of the star, the singing of the angels, the voices of prophecy, the moving of the underworld of evil, the coming of the wise men from afar. During the days of His public ministry there was the thrice-repeated breaking of the silence of the heavens in the speech of approval, at the baptism, at the transfiguration, and at the coming of the Greeks. Moreover through all those days there - were the miracles by which God approved Him among men. The
*Eph. 1. 18-20.
awful and supernatural manifestations at the crucifixion were of the same nature; the earthquake, the opening of graves, the darken- ing of the sun, the rending of the temple veil.
The resurrection is the central and supreme declaration of this fact. It is well to notice that associated with it was the resurrection of some of the saints. He was the First-fruit, for coming forth He led others with Him. The account of the rending of rocks, and ‘ opening of graves, which were among the supernatural signs attending the crucifixion, very clearly declares that though the graves were opened, the saints did not arise until the day of resurrection. That opening of the tombs was in itself a wonderful. thing, but none could move from them until He had risen.
He must lead the way forth. Yet the very graves seem to feel upon them the touch of the hand of the Master of life, and the earth yawned to yield to Him the conquest He was winning. The Divine seal did not end with the resurrection. His ascension was by the act of God, Who exalted Him. The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was God’s great outpouring of the new force of redemption, and was consequent upon His satisfaction with the work of His Son.
And yet again in the glory of that advent which is to be, the Divine approval will be manifested before all creation.
The value of the resurrection as a Divine act, is threefold. First, it is God’s attestation of the perfection of the life of the Man Jesus. Secondly, it is God’s attestation of the perfection of the mediation of the Saviour Jesus. Thirdly, it is God’s attestation of the perfection of the victory of the King Jesus. Upon all the virtue of His life, and the value of His death, and the victory of His conflict, God set the seal in the sight of heaven and earth and hell, when raising Him from the dead, He fulfilled the confident assertion of the old-time Psalmist concerning Him, that He did not leave His soul unto Hades nor suffer His Holy One to see corruption.
II. All this is a startling and terrible fact in its first application to fallen and degraded humanity. By that solemn act of God in the midst of the history of the race, an act in which He accepted perfect humanity, He rejected all imperfection, and for ever made impossible the hope that any man should find acceptance with Him upon any other ground than that of a perfect realisation of His purpose and His will. The real value of the resurrection will never be appreciated save as this fact is recognised. The risen perfect Man was the condemnation of the imperfect. In the midst of the age, in the sight of all the universe, the Eternal God declares that He cannot and will not be satisfied with anything short of the fullest realisation of His perfect purpose. The resurrection of Jesus is the establishment in thé midst of the human race of a Divine testimony concerning righteousness. In that magnificent moment of the emergence of Jesus from death into life, the Eternal God took hold upon perfection, and setting Him in the front of all the race, declared that Jesus was His standard of human life. He raised Him from the dead, because of His perfect realisation of all the purposes of His will. By that act the doom of imperfection is sounded. If that be the standard of the acceptance of God, then all such as have failed are rejected.
The resurrection is more than God’s acceptance of the perfect Man. It is His acceptance of Him as the Victor over evil, and the recognition of His right to claim the spoils of victory — that is to say, by resurrection God accepts the redemptive method of the Son. The Father declares that by the life laid down, a work has been done which is sufficient for the salvation of men. Yet carefully mark the sequence of this truth. By the resurrection of Jesus, God rejects and refuses all other methods of salvation. He declared in that stupendous act, not only His rejection of imperfect man, but His rejection of every attempt imperfect man may make to save or reinstate himself.
And yet when by resurrection God declared the victory of Jesus, He announced the defeat of all others in their conflict with sin. Standing in the searchlight of the resurrection, man becomes more conscious of his helplessness than when standing in the shadow of the Cross. The risen One is Victor, and Victor in virtue of the perfection of life, of the perfection of mediation. Man in his imperfection of life, and his inability to work out a salvation of his own is declared to be vanquished, and unable himself to become master of the forces which have wrought his ruin.
It is because the resurrection has not been properly appreciated as the message of God, which is the severest condemnation of sinning man, that men have still imagined that apart from the Passion and passing of Jesus of Nazareth, it may be possible for them to be accepted of God..
Gazing into the darkness of the grave which Jesus has left, man should recognise the utter hopelessness. of his condition, and the utter folly of attempting to please God. When the Eternal raised Jesus from the grave, and took Him to Himself, He by that act hurled the whole race to destruction. Think of the resurrection for a single moment, not merely with reference to the truths now considered, but as an illustration of them in the fact of history. No man saw Him rise. The very disciples were denied the vision. It may be urged that the weakness of their faith was the reason of their failure in this respect. And yet in that very fact is evident the act of God. As in the Cross there was manifest the element of lawlessness, crucifying the Son, and the element of Divine counsel and foreknowledge; so also in the resurrection there is manifest man’s failure in his absence, and God’s rejection of man, in that he was not permitted to see the stupendous glory of the acceptance of the perfect One.
The act of God in the resurrection of Jesus, was one characterised by marvellous majesty, and overwhelming power. In describing this, Paul speaks in language which almost seems to be redundant, and yet is surely necessary to give some indication of the stupendous fact. He writes: “That working of the strength of His might.”1 The might of God, the strength of the might of God, the working of the strength of the might of God. Simply to read this is to feel the irresistible throb of omnipotence. In the quietness of that first day of the week, when the first shafts of light were gleaming on the eastern sky, the disciples being absent, and the enemies, as represented by the soldiers, being rendered blind by the glory of the angelic splendour, God raised Him.
Notice what this meant with regard to the powers that had been against Him. The priests had laboured to encompass His death, and had been successful. They had done their worst, and God lifted Him out of the death to which they had condemned Him, and by this act for ever rejected them. The world powers had united in religious hatred, and cultured indifference, and material power to cast Him out; and God placed: Him over the whole of
‘Eph. 1. 19.
them, crowning Him at the centre of all authority, and by that act rejected false religion, imperfect culture, and merely material power. This is no mere dream, though for twenty centuries the priest has fought for his position in the world. He has been defeated again and again, and must ultimately be defeated, and always in the power of the Priesthood of the risen Christ.
So also have false religions, the religions of externalities, striven for the mastery, only to be’superseded by the religion of the Christ.
False culture has repeatedly attempted, with self-satisfied cynicism, to treat with indifference the Christ of God, only to find that He takes hold upon all the domain of true culture, and rules supremely over it.
And moreover, the kingdoms of the earth in their pride have set themselves against the Lord and His Anointed, only to find that the King of kings and the Lord of lords defeats their purpose, spoils their programme, and paralyzes their power. All the forces of the world were placed below Him in resurrection. In the act of the crucifixion of the Christ, man turned his back upon God. In the fact of His resurrection God turned His back upon man. The risen Christ was the One with Whom God entered into covenant, to the exclusion of all others.
The resurrection has no message to men who are attempting in the energy of their own will to please God, save that of declaring that by the fact of His pleasure in the perfect One, He cannot be pleased with imperfection in any degree. The resurrection attests to every successive age that in God’s acceptance of the way of salvation provided by Christ, He for ever refuses to lend a listening ear to any who shall attempt that which is impossible, the working out of a salvation in the energy of a depraved and degraded nature.
III. And yet this is but the dark background to a picture radiant with the colours of hope. God’s rejection of imperfection is the act of Love. His refusal of all human attempts at renewal and reconstruction, is the refusal of a great compassion. If the acceptance of Christ was the rejection of man, it was also the acceptance of a new and living way, through which rejected man might find his way back to God. If in the resurrection God accepted the perfect Man, He also accepted Him in that representative capacity, indicated by the fact of His wounding and His death. He raised in Him, all those who commit to Him their whole life, in a deep sense of its direst need, and full confidence in His power to save. Not in loneliness did He rise, but in the possession of a life to be placed at the disposal of others. On the resurrection side of the grave Jesus stood as the Head of the new race, the second Man, the last Adam. How often is this wording confused in quotation. Men speak of the last Man, and the second Adam. It may be objected that this is a matter of small significance, and yet it is not so. In His perfection He was the second Man. The first man failed, the second Man succeeded. That is the statement of a lonely fact. The first Adam was the head, of a race, and in his failure the race was involved. The last Adam created the force of renewal even for the fallen, and became the Head of the new race, to whom that new force should be communicated. Not merely was He the second Adam, as though there might be a third. He was the last. Beyond Him, and all included in the communication of His life, there is to be no new race.
Thus the resurrection is seen to be the Divine announcement of the evangel. According to the words of Jesus, on the Cross He laid down His life for the sheep, that is, that they might receive it as their own. When God raised Him from the dead, He ratified that intention, and declared it to be an established fact. The life laid down all received in resurrection, and all who receive that life are accepted, received by God. They are accepted in the Beloved. From the resurrection morning until now, God has been, and still is, receiving Christ; and the groundwork of the acceptance of any man with God is that there has been communicated to him the life of Christ. There is no verdict upon fallen man so final in its declaration of his rejection, as is the risen Christ. There is no door of hope so radiant with light for the fallen people as this way into acceptance through the reception of the Christ.
Oh wondrous Shepherd of the sheep. The hireling careth not for the sheep, and fleeth because he is an hireling. The Shepherd came into conflict with the wolf, and by His dying overcame. The scattered frightened sheep, receiving the life liberated through the death of the Shepherd, receive all the values and the virtues which God accepts, and thus in Christ are accepted of God.