Chapter VI
/ am not so ignorant of the temjjcy and tendency of the age in xvhich I live as either to be unpre;pared for the sort of remarks xvhich the literal interpretation of the Evangelist will call, or to attempt an afisxver to them. Visiotiary ravings, obsolete rvhimsies, tran’ scendental trash, and the like I leave to pass.
—Coleridge.
The attitude of Jesus Christ to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is one of familiarity and matter of course. In the sixth chapter of John with what an emphatic, authoritative manner he deals with it as a generally acknowledged, great basic fact! “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”
This resurrection he puts as the declared purpose and will of God, that he should raise them up at the last day. This was Imperative if he accomplishes God’s design.
The capsheaf of God’s purposes for Jesus Christ was that he should raise the dead. Again he returns to this great thought, purpose, and fact: ‘’And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Again he iterates the fact, and declares that he is committed to it. The Father commits it to him. The resurrection power is lodged in Jesus. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” Again Jesus gives utterance to the important statement: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Death and him that had the power of death — that is, the devil — against these, the author of evil and his works, Jesus Christ set himself. He declared himself to be the resurrection and the life, that death in every form, in every way, and at every
The Rcsurrecfion.
place, must yield to him. We stress and iterate the fact that he is life. “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” “I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” ‘’I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Life against death is he. Jesus Christ, the source of all deathless energy, by absolute and eternal fitness, by a matter of course, and by character he is the foe, the destruction of death. He is coequal, coeternal with the Father, and pours the Father’s full tide of life on the world. ‘’For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath commit-TJie Resurrection.
ted all judgment unto the Son: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.”
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurection of judgment.” He had made strong declarations of life, eternal life, and of a spiritual resurrection; seeing their wonderment, he goes on to declare a greater marvel still — the resurrection of the bodv from the grave as the inevitable sequence of the life in his Father and in himself. All shall come forth — death shall yield its hold, and the grave deliver its prisoners long held. All shall come forth — not a body left — not an atom of the grave’s dust but shall have the touch and taste of the resurrection life. Jesus Christ tells his disciples that when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels he will reward every man according to his works. To secure this end, the resurrection is a necessity.
The transfiguration of Jesus is one of the typical facts of the resurrection of the body; not only of the glorious change, but of the renewed life of the body and of the general judgment day. The presence of Moses and Elijah there are the trophies as they appear in glory of the resurrection power of Christ. It is a distinct prophecy and foreshadowing of the coming of the body out of the power and ravages of death. Moses and Elijah appear at this hour as the first fruits of the resurrection glory. It is worthy of remark that it is here as well as in the continuous ministry of Christ that the body, this body of our humiliation, has its sign and pledge of its future glory.
“I will raise him up at the last day.” These iterated words deserve great and grave consideration — there is to be a day, a great day, a tremendous day; the last day, the closing of this world’s history. Time shall be no more. Eternity, changeless eternity, will begin its new history for man. Paul calls it “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;” the day when ‘’the dead, small and great, shall stand before God.” The raised dead — raised from their sleep in proud city cemetery or the silent forsakenness of the unmarked loneliness of the country sleeper; from the ocean depths, shrouded and entombed, for ages in its restless, defiant, fathomless caves; from the dismal abodes of the Hades whose waves and fires were but the voices which told of deeper waves and fiercer fires to come. This is the day when Christ is committed to the raising of his dead ones, when his and man’s last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.
‘’Last day!” Day of God’s glory and power! Day of terror and alarm to the unbelieving and impenitent — their eternal doom! Day of renown and victory to Jesus Christ, of infinite comfort to all his saints. Infinite comfort! Infinite in measure and infinite in length. This last day is one of God’s appointed days — God’s decreed days.