IS there such a thing? Can there truly be such a thing? The Sabbath is a memorial of God’s glorious preparation of this earth for the home of man. The Passover was a memorial to Israel of their deliverance from Egypt. The Fourth of July is a memorial day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. All these were past events. The things designed to be called to mind are in the past, altho their beneficent fruits abide still.
A Baptismal Scene in North Carolina.
But the Resurrection is a living thing. It did not occupy a day like the Sabbath, a night like the Passover. It came in a moment of time, between the night and the day, a life from above. To think of using a heathen feast—put a Christian halo on it as we will—as a memorial of our Lord’s rising again from the dead, is utterly incongruous; nay, more, is it not dishonoring and blasphemous? What is there about the old heathen, Saxon nature goddess Eostre, in name or worship, which calls to remembrance the Risen Christ? What is there about the songs and eggs and flowers and fashions and feastings and gorgings and ornate display which could possibly bring to mind the Risen Saviour? Who would or could conclude, if he knew the story of the Resurrection but did not know the Easter celebrations, that these ostentatious displays were celebrations of that event unless some one told him?
No, Bible memorial of our Lord’s rising again from the dead is not in a day, either of the week or year.
The Bible has given us an ordinance including not only the resurrection of our Saviour, but His death and burial also; namely, Christian baptism. That ordinance means more than a form of words and immersion in water. It includes this, but it is an empty rite unless it means more to the baptized.
Christian, or believer’s, baptism is the beginning act before the world of a new life; it is the divine marriage ceremony which unites before the world the believer to Jesus Christ; it is the outward profession that the believer is henceforth to be one with Jesus even as wife and husband are one. These profoundly important truths are set forth in the following scriptures:
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into HIS death [for sin, Rom. 6:10]? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory [goodness, righteousness, character] of the Father, even so we also should walk in NEWNESS OF LIFE. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man is CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN.” Rom. 6:3-6.
“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be MARRIED TO ANOTHER, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that WE should BRING FORTH FRUIT UNTO GOD.” Rom. 7:7.
“Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST HAVE PUT ON CHRIST.” Gal. 3:26, 27.
“Buried WITH HIM IN BAPTISM, wherein also ye are RISEN WITH HIM through the faith of the operation [working] of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.” Col. 2:12.
Baptism, then, is the marriage ceremony by which we publicly put on Christ, take His name, and are made one with Him in death to sin, in life to righteousness. By faith, in death, in life, He is ours. “He died unto sin.” “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.” “He liveth unto God.” “Even so reckon ye also yourselvesto be . . . alive unto God in Christ Jesus.”
What, then, is the sign to the world that Jesus is risen again?—It is not the celebration of the vernal festival of a heathen goddess, Christian tho we name it. It is not the observation of one day in the week, because He may have used a moment of that day in rising. It is not a mere form of baptism, altho that form be the only scriptural one. It is a new life in Christ Jesus unto God, walking in newness of life, separate from the world, one with Christ.
This is the meaning to the world of the resurrection of Christ. “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The Resurrection should mean Christians walking above the world and sin, “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.”
If this be not the lesson the church of Christ is teaching to the world, if this is not the witness she is bearing of the life of her risen Lord,—power over sin,—her mission is vain. Her elaborate rituals, her ornate trappings, her multitude of songs by paid and unconverted choirs, her aping of heathenism, her appeals to the sensuous, are all the veriest mockery. O that the church of Christ would turn to Him! O that they would, by the power of the living Christ in righteous lives, every day of the year, every day of the week, every hour and moment of every day, proclaim, “The Lord is risen indeed.” Christian friend, the question is vital. Are you a witness to the resurrection of Jesus?
