F.E. Marsh :: 78. Christ's Resurrection

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No one can over-estimate the importance of the truth of Christ’s resurrection. If this be overthrown, Christianity is a farce, Christ is a liar, the apostles were deluded, the martyrs were deceived, the believer is in the darkness of despair, God is unknown, and our loved ones are for ever lost. As Dr. Kennedy says:― “Blot the resurrection out of the story of Christ, and you may as well blot out Christ Himself. Blot out Christ, and you may as well blot out God. For all our true conceptions of Him, and all our true affections towards Him, grow out of the filial relation to Him, to which Christ lovingly restores us. And ’God added to, or deducted from the sum of existence,’ makes existence an altogether different thing from what it would otherwise be. Save us, by any means, from the conclusion of the sceptic, who could only see an ’empty heaven looking down upon a soul-less earth.’”

What light is to the earth, Christ’s resurrection is to the believer.

1. The risen Christ is Christ’s attestation to the reality of His claims. Again and again He said that He would rise again from the dead. After His transfiguration He told His disciples that He would die and rise again, but they did not understand Him, and we find them questioning among themselves as to what this rising from among the dead could mean (Matt. 17:9; Mark 9:9-10). As Christ is journeying towards Jerusalem, He takes them apart, and seeks to impress upon them the same truth (Matt. 20:19). And at the sepulchre the angels reminded the women of what He had told them (Luke 24:7).
2. The risen Christ is the Clue to the understanding of the Scripture. When Mary Magdalene told Peter and John that the tomb of Christ was empty, they did not believe her, so they ran to the tomb to see for themselves. The Divine comment upon this is, “For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead” (John 20:9). See John 2:22; Acts 2:24-32; Acts 13:32, 35.
3. The risen Christ is the fulfilment of His own word as to the necessity of His resurrection to complete His atoning work. After Peter’s confession of faith as to the Person of Christ, at Caesarea Philippi, we read. that Christ began “to shew unto His disciples He must go unto Jerusalem,” &c. (Matt. 16:21; Acts 3:18).
4. The risen Christ is the Channel of blessing (Acts 5:30-31; 10:40; 13:37-38).
5. The risen Christ is the Object of our faith (Rom. 10:9; 1 Peter 1:21).
6. The risen Christ is the Assurance of our justification (Romans 4:25).
7. The risen Christ is our Answer to every accusation (Romans 8:34).
8. The risen Christ is put to the believer’s account (Rom. 6:5; Col. 2:12).
9. The risen Christ is the Model, Aim, and End of the believer’s life (2 Cor. 5:15).
10. The risen Christ is the ground of Christ’s claim to the believer, and His protection of him (Rom. 14:8-9).
11. The risen Christ is the Pledge of our inheritance (1 Peter 1:3).
12. The risen Christ is the Earnest of our being glorified with Christ (Romans 8:11).
13. The risen Christ is the guarantee that our loved ones, who have fallen asleep, shall be raised (1 Cor. 15:20).
14. The risen Christ is God’s bond that we shall see our loved ones again (1 Thess. 4:14).
15. The risen Christ is the exhibition of God’s power (Eph. 1:20).
16. The risen Christ is the worker’s theme in testimony (Acts 3:15-16; 4:10).
17. The risen Christ is our Commissioner for service (Gal. 1:1).
18. The risen Christ is the positive proof that God will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31).
19. The risen Christ should be the desire of all our life (Phil. 3:10).