Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1916 — Christ’s Death and Resurrection [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Christ’s Death and Resurrection

By REV. JAMES M. GRAY, D.D.

Dean of the Moody Bible Institute V. - of Chtcaao

TEXT-Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our Justification.—Romans 4:25. One is so glad that the Son of God chose the budding springtime for his

sacrifice on our behalf, and his glorious triumph over death. There is a fitness between the time and the event that Impresses you the moment you think about it. Both speak of hope, ahd both breathe gladness in the heart of man. “He was delivered for our offen s e s.” How pregnant is every word of that great

inspired sentence! “He.” It is no mere man of whom this pronoun speaks, but “the mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince ol Peace,” as Isaiah testifies. “Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us,” as Matthew echoes. Oh, wonder of wonders, that the Eternal God, in the person of his Son, should have become incarnate of the Virgin Mary. It will take us all eternity to grasp the thought "Was delivered.” Who "delivered” him? We think of Judas, whe betrayed him, of the Roman soldiers who arrested him, of the Jewish sanhedrin who persecuted him, of Pontius Pilate who illegally tried him, of the cruel executioners who nailed him to the cross. And yet it was the hand and the counsel of his Father that had before determined it should be done, or else these wicked men had had no power. Far back •in the counsels of eternity God so loved us as to freely offer his Son on our behalf. “For our offenses.” We are bom into a state of sin, but that is not all, for the moment we arrive at a point of moral consciousness, we actually transgress the law of God. “In many things we offend all,” as the epistle of James says. “There is none righteous, no, not one,” we are taught in Romans. Men do not like to hear this, They resent it, they hate it. But, Oh, what love, that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for ns ’ The very ones who hate to hear of man's sinfulness, -are those who talk about divine love. But who can sound the depths of that love until he accepts the truth of the cross of Calvary. And it is that truth which this text presents most fully. “And was raised again.” The same one- who died was the one who was raised. This truth must not be minimized. We must hold with all the tenacity of faith to the bodily resurrection of our Lord and Savior. We must do this not because our peace depends upon it, but because the Bible teaches it, and because history proves it, “He showed himself alive after his passion by many Infallible proofs.” Historic Christianity is a testimony to Christ’s resurrection which cannot be accounted for unless he arose from the dead. The change of the day df rest and worship from the seventh to the first is another proof which meets and challenges the skeptic 62 times a year. “For our Justification.” That word, “our,” how we should love it and praise God for It. “Deliver for our offenses,” raised again for our justification.” What kindness to the human race is in that word! How close it brings the heart of God to our hearts. What Interest it should awake on Our part to learn all we can about It from the Holy Scriptures. And “Justification,* what does that mean? Sometimes when Christians thing of salvation, they get no further than the forgiveness of sin; and indeed that were glorious enough even if it stopped there. But one might be forgiven for the past and still be very wretched for the present and the future. Justification therefore is a bigger word, and stands for a greater thing than simply forgiveness. The justified man is one who stands in God’s sight free from the guilt, the penalty of all sin, past, present and to come! The reason of this is that his penalty has been paid, not by himself, but by another, whose resurrection from the dead is the proof of it. That event is God’s testimony, to his acceptance of the atoning sacrifice of his Son. This is what the song calls “The Old, Old Story.” Those who know it best “seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest,” and no apology need be made to them for repeating it, especially at this season of the year. There are others, howerver, who have heard it and whose hearts are hardened against it. One pities them because they have cut away their only hope. Let me lovingly urge them to yield, to step oyer the line today, to make this the acceptable time for their salvation. Oh, that the resurrection of the year might witness the awakening of faith, and hope, and life within them through receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord! - "