CHRIST IS RISEN! | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 10, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 15.

“CHRIST IS RISEN!”

The Memorial of His Resurrection.

MUCH is said during the early part of April from various pulpits and in various religious newspapers on the resurrection of Christ, more than in all the year beside. Why is this? Does the resurrection pertain to special seasons? Is it more important at one time of the year than another? What is its lesson? What does or should the resurrection of Christ mean to us? How should the great event be celebrated? How should it be remembered before the world? These are important and vital questions to every child of God, nay, more, to all people.

Why a Resurrection?

When Jesus was taken down from the cross, He was dead. That is one of the great facts of the Gospel. In order to live He must have a resurrection. Death comes in consequence of sin. But Jesus Christ did not die because He Himself was a sinner. He kept the Father's commandments, and abode in His love. John 15:10. He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” 1 Peter 2:22. He “gave Himself for our sins.” Gal. 1:4. God “made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21. And so He died, and hence the necessity of His resurrection.

Righteousness and Life.

He died because of our sins, He was raised because of His righteousness, or the righteousness of God in Him. For “in the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Prov. 12:28. He died, “the Just for the unjust,” to bring us to God; He lives, the Prince of righteousness and life. The power which raised Him from the dead was the power of God manifest in a righteous life in sinful flesh. The law in Him was not “the law of sin and death,” but “the law of the Spirit of life.” Rom. 8:2. And “the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Verse 10. And as Christ was absolutely righteous, God “loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Acts 2:24. Death can hold forever only those who are identified with sin. Christ identified Himself with sin, but not for Himself nor in Himself; it was solely for others that He died. He lives because death can not hold the righteous. The resurrection is, therefore, the demonstration of the power of God triumphant over finished sin,—death,—even as it had been triumphant in a flesh of sin in His life.

The Power.

The power by which He was raised is the power of God, the same power that is in the Gospel; “for it [the Gospel] is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. For therein [in the Gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1:16, 17. The power of God in the Gospel is, therefore, the power which enables the child of faith to live the righteousness of God. This is the power of the eternal Spirit by which Christ was enabled to offer Himself without spot, and by which His children fulfil or keep the righteousness of the law. Heb. 9:14; Rom. 8:4. It is the power of the life that Christ lived while on earth, and which He lives in every one who will have faith in Him. Gal. 2:20. It is the power by which we are “born from above,” are made new creatures in Christ Jesus, “created” “unto good works,” “in righteousness and true holiness.” (See John 3:3-5; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 4:24.) This is the power of God, the power of His “endless life,” the power of His “eternal Spirit,” the power manifest in Christ's life over sin, the power triumphant over death.

That Power in Us.

That same power must be in us, and will be in us, unless we receive the grace of God in vain; for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Rom. 8:9. It is this power that the Spirit prays thru the apostles that we may possess—“that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” Eph. 1:18-21.

The Gospel Memorials or Symbols.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ are the three great facts of the Gospel. This the apostle Paul sets forth in 1 Cor. 15:1-4:—

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Certainly, these great events, the death of the eternal Son of God, His burial and resurrection, should be remembered, should be kept before the world, should be proclaimed that others might receive it and be saved, even as did the Corinthians. Has God given us such memorials?—He has. “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come.” 1 Cor. 11:26. The bread and wine of communion are a reminder of the death of Jesus Christ, which is continually and forever effectual—an occasional symbol of a continual spiritual feast of feeding on the Word and life of God. (See 1 Cor. 10:16, 17; 1 John 6:54-56, 63.) It is not on Good Friday alone, or once a year, that Christ's death should be remembered, but “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:10.

The burial and resurrection of Christ is symbolized by baptism. Says the same apostle:—

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory 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.

But the careful reader will observe that it is not in the naked ceremony of baptism that the memorial is revealed. There is the likeness—the going down into the water, the whelming, immersion, burial, and the rising again. All this is of value only as it represents faith in the facts of the Gospel and the power of God. If the faith is genuine, it should mean a funeral and a wedding to all beholders. It says that the old man, the old life of sin, is dead, and we bury him forever; and that the new man is married to Christ, the One also raised from the dead, and whose life is in the believer. (See Rom. 7:4.) The ceremony of baptism itself is, therefore, but a symbol of the new life that is to be. It declares that the believer has forever renounced the world and sin, “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Such a life should bring forth the fruits of righteousness unto the glory and praise of God.

The Value of Such Witness.

The value of Christianity is in its power, its life. If it be only the mere forms, the ceremonies, the ritual, the days, it is no better than paganism. Its reality is in the power of the individual life over sin and in righteousness, of which the simple Christian ceremonies are but symbols. What a witness it is to the power of God to see a sinner, one who loved sin, who bore its varied, corrupting, loathsome fruit, a curse to himself and a disgrace to his family and neighborhood, transformed by the power of God to a righteous man, whose life bears the fruit of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!

But this is no fancy picture. There are many such transformations yet, praise God. There would be many more if His professed people only knew Him and knew His power. If they knew Him, they would not need the recurrence of a spring pagan festival to bring the power of His resurrection to mind. They would not supplant His Sabbath by another pagan festival day in memory of a new event, a day never appointed of God. The power of Christ's resurrection, the witness of that resurrection, is manifest in the righteous life of the believer, not for one day in the week, but every hour of every day.

“Christ is risen!” Christian brother or sister, does your life show it? Are you “risen with Christ”? This is the vital question. What is His resurrection to you? Sinner, Christ desires to live His life in you. From beyond the tomb He sends the glad message to all, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” He has power to save you. He will live the same life in you that He lived while on earth—a life triumphant over sin. Will you let Him do this? If you have His power in your life, the resurrection to life and immortality awaits you.