In Christ Shall All Be Made
Skepticism inust ever be a misfortune or defect: a misfortune if there be no means of arriving at truth; a defect if, while there exists such means, we are unable or unwilling to use them* — Thomas Arnold.
The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was emphasized by Paul and made most conspicuous as being the essence and sum of the gospel. In Athens- — cultured, skeptical, proud Athens — he declares the great fact. It brought a new life and a new and unknown hope to the paganized world: “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? others said, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.”
Mars Hill heard the same before its august
50 tribunal: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and other said, We will hear thee again of this matter.”
Before the Jewish council he declared: “Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.”
Paul’s address before the Roman governor, Felix, was a personal defense, yet made strong by the doctrine of the resurrection which he declared to be his main offense. “But this I confess unto thee,” he declares, “that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”
In the same address he returns to and dwells on this fact of raising the dead: “Let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council, except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.” He asserted before Agrippa that the doctrine of the resurrection was the great promise of God to the fathers, the promise which gave hope to them and hope and fortitude to him; and then startles the Romanized Jewish judge by the question: “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?”
The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was everywhere preached and believed as one of the primary, fundamental, all-inclusive facts of the gospel. It comes in also incidentally as well as doctrinally. It comes to give largeness and power to experience; to give point and force to an exhortation or injunction. “Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?” But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.” Again: “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”
Some members of the Corinthian Church had fallen into error about the resurrection of the dead. The fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians is devoted to the refutation of their errors and the statement of the doctrine. Therein the apostle views it from almost every standpoint and with all colors. The fact of death so universal and deplorable is centered in Adam; the fact of the resurrection, its truth, authority, and glory, centers in Christ: uFor since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, until he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”
He declares: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
The following majestic, luminous, and comforting declarations were made to the Thessalonians: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
What a place the resurrection of the dead had in apostolic preaching! What comfort and solaces it had! How oft repeated to edify, refresh, strengthen I What a rich message it was for the early Church to bear and receive! What a volume full of inspiration and embellished to them! How oft repeated! how well assured were they of its truth! It belonged to the heart of their faith; it burnished with a double radiance their hopes; it made them to endure martyr fires and persecutions fiercer than martyr flames! We need to have these first fundamental facts put into our spiritual being anew like iron put into the blood to make it red and strong and life-giving. These mighty fact-forces have to us lost their energy and their divine magic. Our faith demands to be fed anew by them. They must be to us what they were to the apostles — the summary, subject, and power of our preaching. They must be to us the pabulum of our faith, the food of our souls, the nurser of a giant faith, the inspirer of giant praying.
These facts must be to us what they were to the primitive Christians — creed, experience, service. They must weave our songs, fill our testimony. We must know that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, for we have been raised from the death of sin with him. We must know that our bodies shall be raised from the dead by his Spirit which is in us, which gives an assurance and foretaste of the resurrection day.
O what a blessed hope is ours!
While here on earth we stay,
We more than taste the heavenly powers,
And antedate that day:
We feel the resurrection near,
Our life in Christ concealed,
And with his glorious presence here
Our earthen vessels filled.