The Present Truth, vol. 14

March 31, 1898

“Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons. The Resurrection of Jesus. Mark xvi. 1-8” The Present Truth 14, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

APRIL 10

The details of the record are of interest, but the central teaching of this lesson is found in the words of the “young man” (an angel, Matt. xxviii 5), who said: “Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here.” Let us study once more the resurrection of Jesus and its meaning to us. It is not sufficient to know of the resurrection as an historical fact, to which we give our assent after weighing the evidence. There is abundant evidence to the truthfulness of the record, but we must know the resurrection in a deeper sense than this. It was as “the Son of man,” “the second Man,” “the last Adam,” that Jesus passed through all His experiences upon the earth, including His death and resurrection. When “the Word was made flesh,” Jesus, took the place of humanity as its representative, being “born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them which were under the law.” Gal. iv. 4, 5, R.V. Our acceptance of His work in our behalf is more than to believe that He passed through certain experiences; it is to enter into those experiences with Him. We do not simply believe that Jesus was crucified, but we believe on the crucified Jesus. We do not simply believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, but we believe on the risen Jesus. And this faith consists in receiving Him as the crucified and risen Jesus, a real union with Him in the experience of death and resurrection. Let us then consider, from this standpoint, something of the fulness of the meaning of the resurrection. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 198.1

THE RESURRECTION THE SOURCE OF ALL HOPE

And first we will note that everything in the way of salvation depends upon the resurrection. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” 1 Cor. xv. 17. He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Rom. iv. 25. These Scriptures make it clear that our hope rests wholly in the resurrection, but a consideration of some other passages may enable us to enter more fully into the meaning, of this teaching. The curse, which was death, was upon man, and in taking his place, Jesus took the curse of death upon Himself. We do not see man in the place of honour, where he was first put, as he has fallen through sin, “but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Heb. ii. 9. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.1

But life for us depends not simply upon the fact that He bore the curse of death for us, but our hope centres in the fact that He was able to do this and still live. “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and of Hades.” Rev. i. 17, 18, R.V. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James i. 15), which is the curse, and so our sins caused the death of Christ, “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” but since He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” He was able to pay the penalty for our sins and pass through the grave. Being without sin, there was no sting in His death, and so God raised Him up, “because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Jesus Himself said: “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.” John x. 17, 18. But this “power” grew out of the fact that He was free from sin, since sin is the only thing which can take life from anyone. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.2

Now our life depends upon His life. “We shall be saved by His life.” “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Therefore if death had conquered Him and the grave had held Him, death would still be a conqueror, and every tomb would be an eternal prison house; but “when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away,” and the young man said unto them, “He is risen; He is not here.” Thus was the stone rolled away from the door of every tomb, and no grave can hold any member of the human family when is heard the voice of Him who has “the keys of death and of Hades.” “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all no made alive.” 1 Cor. xv. 23. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.3

So plain is it that all our hope of life has its foundation in the grand truth that “He is risen; He is not here.” PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.4

CHRIST THE REPRESENTATIVE MAN

Now we come to the representative character of the work of Christ for us, and our personal relation to His experiences. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.5

We have already pointed out that it was as the second head of the human family, taking the place of him who had failed, that He lived and died. Now our acceptance of Him as a personal Saviour from sin involves the acceptance of all His experiences for us, and our union with Him in those experiences. Thus we read in the Scripture: “For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died.” 2 Cor. v. 14, R.V. “I have been crucified with Christ.” Gal. ii. 20, R.V. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Eph. ii. 4-7. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.6

It thus appears that when Christ died, “all died,” because in His representative capacity He was the whole human family, and that when God raised Him from the dead, He “raised us up together,” for the same reason. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.7

But all these benefits are only temporary, unless they are received through faith. It is by the cross, the death and resurrection of Christ, that all men live, whether saints or sinners, and so all are sharing in the benefits of His work now, and all will come forth from their graves because of the resurrection of Christ; but it is only those who receive these benefits by a personal faith in Jesus as the One through whom they come, who will be able to retain them to all eternity, God has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” but we must acknowledge that these blessings are all in Christ and that they are received and retained only as we receive Him, else we shall not be able to keep that which God has given to us. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.8

So it is with the resurrection. The curse, which is death, is upon all, and yet men live, because Christ bore the curse upon the cross, and “being raised from the dead, dieth no more.” But this brief period of life is granted simply as a time of probation, a time in which to accept by personal faith in a risen Redeemer the blessings which have been provided “in Him,” that so His work may avail for us to all eternity. “We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with the likeness of His death, we shall be also with the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once: but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” Rom. vi. 4-11, R.V. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.9

This is simply the experience of receiving Christ as a crucified and risen Saviour. It is a practical statement of what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is to “know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” Phil. iii. 10. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.10

WHAT THE RESURRECTION MEANS TO US

What then does the resurrection mean to us? It means, first of all, our acceptance of the death of Christ for us and our death in Him; and then it means His resurrection and our participation in His resurrection life, as a daily experience. It means that, our interests have been transferred to the heavenly kingdom, and that we have been made to “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And so we are exhorted: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Jesus sitteth on the right hand of God.” Col. iii. 1. It means a victory over the world through our faith in His resurrection life (1 John v. 4), and a final and complete victory over that last enemy which is death. “The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.... Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. xv. 52-57. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 199.11

So let the word be on our tongues, and the experience of the life of it in our hearts, “He is risen!” PTUK March 31, 1898, page 200.1

As in nature, as in art, so in grace; it is rough treatment that gives souls, as well as stones, their lustre. The more the diamond is cut, the brighter it sparkles; and in what seems hard dealing, there God has no end in view but to perfect His people. PTUK March 31, 1898, page 200.2