Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1912 — The Resurrection of Christ —Its Results [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Resurrection of Christ —Its Results

By REV. WILLIAM EVANS, D. D,

Director at Bible Comae of the Moody BiUc While. Cbicaso

TEXT: I Cor. IS. 1. The resurrection of Christ was the seal of God’s approval upon the

truthfulness of tha claims of Jesus. —The claims of Christ imply either divinity or blasphemy. Jesus Christ, In view of! his claims, was either God or tha most colos sa l fraud, or the greatest Impostor that ever lived. His claims stand unequaled in the history of the human race, and on the absolute fulfillment, even to

UiUUCUL, C Y CU WJ the very letter, of all these claims, Christ bases his right to divine recognition. He claimed that it was his prerogative to forgive sin; that he was the only way to God; that outside of him there was no peace and no way of access tq the Father; that unless he was trusted and believed In with a whole heart there was absolutely no hope of seeing heaven; that he was the divinely appointed Redeemer of the world, and that the world’s redemption and salvation depended absolutely upon him alone; that the power of life and death was in his hands; and that all the Old Testament predictions received their fulfillment In him. So strong were these claims that on one occasion the Jews were exasperated with him and said, “What sign showest thou us if thou be all that thou clalmest to be?” In answer to this challenge, Christ referred to his resurrection and said, “If I do not rise again from the dead, do not believe my claim.” On his resurrection, therefore, Jesus Christ based the vindication of all his claims —as Paul says, “He was declared to be the Son of God. by his resurrection from the dead.” So long as Christ’s resurreotion remains an accredited fact of history, then that Galilean peasant, Jesus of Nazareth, is indeed and In truth the Son of the Most High God, and the Saviour of the world. Christ’s enemies realized the importance of Jesus’ resurrection, and because of this, bribed the soldiers to say that, the disciples came and stole away his body. What a comfort the resurrection is to the believer, who has placed hla hope and confidence in the life to come in Jesus Christ the Savior of the world! The world may deride, and mock, and sneer, and ridicule, but the believer exclaims, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” and this Is ample evidence that the believer’s faith has not been misplaced. 11. The resurrection of Christ is a guarantee of our own resurrection. Paul’s thoughtful and inspired Inference from Christ’s resurrection Is this: “Because he lives, we shall live also.” In the words of Dr. Parker, the apostle lq. continually amplifying. Place an acorn In his hand and Immediately he feels the weight of a mighty oak. Give him one little bulb, and Immediately you have touched the fountains of his eloquence and he describes gardens and paradises and heavens. Paul saw (he whole in the part —he saw our resurrection in Christ. If Christ rose from the dead, then the graveyard is not a permanent thing. The apostle will have every little child brought back. The resurrection shall be accompanied by a shout —does this shout intimate or signify the spirits leaving heaven and gating to the graveyard claiming thelf bodies? W’ho knows? Without the resurrection of Christ, there is no certainty of our own resurrection and that of our loved ones. If Christ be not risen then all who have died have perished eternally. Then we have' no hope of seeing those who have gone before. But we have a better hope than that. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. “For if the dead rise Ijot, then is not Christ raised.” Firm and fastas Ifie grave now seems to held the bodieß of our dear loved oneß, it Is now doomed as a fruit of Christ’s resurrection, and will be compelled one dav to relax its grasp, and yield them ap to us again. Empty as was Joseph’s sepulchre when the angel stood before it, so shall one day be every grave on earth, when. another angel shall Bound his trumpet and it shall ring through all the regions of the dead, and still all to life again, in. The resurrection of Christ manifests his victory over death and the grave. Up to this time, death's claims had been undisputed. All opposition to that dead enemy had been without effect. Sin reigned in the realm and (sovereignty of death, and death reigned In sin. The purpose of Christ’s coming into the world and assuming human form was that he might by his own death jibolish death as the wages of sin. It was when he rose and left the dead that Satan’s empire fell Christ’s victory over death was dr*matically complete on the day of hla resurrection.