THE NECESSITY OF A RESURRECTION.
By J. O. Corliss
THERE is nothing so precious as life. To say nothing of what one may be called to endure,—how much pain, sorrow, or inconvenience,—the privilege of continued, conscious existence is a boon more desired than anything else. Hold out to men wealth, honor, and distinction, but with the understanding that these are shortly to pass away, leaving their former possessor without conscious being, and how few would accept them in place of life to be indefinitely continued! All these are of no value in the face of approaching dissolution. None of them are thought too valuable to give for even a temporary relief. The reason for this is obvious. Life is the foundation of consciousness, by which thought exists, and the value of surrounding objects are weighed. Take away life, and all the things contingent on it cease to be. So, then, life being at the head of all things, it is the thing to be sought; and to obtain it no sacrifice is too dear. When life ceases to operate on the brain to produce thought, then consciousness has ceased, because thought is simply the expression of consciousness. So inveterate an enemy to man's welfare is death that it never gives up its advantage until the very last, and then only because it is destroyed by the power of God through the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15: 21-26. The resurrection being the medium through which the power of God operates to destroy the power of death, it follows that, until the resurrection does its designated work, death still reigns over its subjects, and so holds them in unconsciousness, because death is the absence of life, and life is the foundation of thought, which is the expression of consciousness. This is plainly set forth by the apostle when reasoning with some of the Corinthian brethren about their unbelief in a future resurrection, while maintaining their faith in Christ as the Saviour of the world. He asks the pertinent question, "If Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?" 1 Cor. 15: 12. Sure enough, if it was necessary to raise Christ bodily from the dead in order to demonstrate the power of God's life over death, and to prove that Christ was really the Son of God (Rom. 1: 4), why should it not follow that those for whom Christ died, who have fallen under death, should also gain the victory over death in the same way as did their Master? No wonder, then, that the great apostle should affirm that "if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen." He carries the matter still further; he says positively that if Christ is not risen, then our faith in Him is of no avail, and our preaching of life to the condemned sinner through faith in Christ is all false. More than that, he contends that in case there is no resurrection of the dead, then all who have "fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15: 13-18. To sum up the apostle's statements: Just as surely as Christ had failed to rise from the dead, so surely would He have failed to break the power of death that held Him in the grave and all others who fall under its power; consequently every subject of death would now be perished—held forever in its eternal embrace. Faith in a Saviour who had not risen from the dead would indeed be vain, since salvation from the power of death is the scope of God's promises to the sinner. Therefore, faith in Christ, to be available, must embrace the power of God to raise Christ from the dead, because that manner of returning to Him the life He had yielded on the cross, is the only evidence God has given men that they, too, may be restored to life, after having fallen under the power of death. It was for this reason that Christ came to earth to live and die in the flesh. By this He was to spread before the universe a knowledge of the power of God to redeem those whom death should overtake. Had Christ not been raised from death's embrace, the evidence to the world would have been that God's power of life was inadequate to cope with the blighting power of death introduced by Satan. Because He was raised, we are to believe that we also shall be raised, and so be freed from the embrace of death, the symbol of Satan's power. Until then death reigns, and so holds under its control the groaning creation of God, which is ordained to life through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Rom. 8: 23, 24; Heb. 2: 14, 15. Christ, therefore, in passing through a fleshly sojourn, and yielding up His life for man, whose every step is in the direction of death, did so to show that the power of God is able to rescue from that condition which sin has enjoined on the race, namely, the sleep of death. Since death came by man's yielding to sin, the recovery must be accomplished by man being raised from the dead. It was therefore necessary for Christ, as a man, to give Himself up to death, in faith that the power of God's life would cause Him to triumph over death, which was possible only by a resurrection, or standing up from the dead. In this He became the first-fruits, or the beginning of the resurrection from the dead. 1 Cor. 15: 19, 20. It is true that some in Old Testament history were raised from death, as Moses (Rom. 5: 14; Jude 9), and the widow's son (1 Kings 17: 17-22); but these manifestations were in anticipation of, and dependent on, the word of Jehovah, that had from the beginning decreed that Christ should die for the sins of the world, and which also implied His resurrection from the dead (Rev. 13: 8; John 2: 19-22). The special resurrection of Lazarus and others recorded in the New Testament was after the same order. But the fact that Christ considered it necessary to raise these bodily from the dead in order to win a triumph over death, is evidence that in this way alone God intends to restore to man the power of life, which has been forfeited through allegiance to Satan and sin. Then to go down to death without faith in Christ's victory over Satan's power is but to look into profound darkness, with nothing whatever to brighten any part of the future. But when one can look into the tomb, and see that He who went in there in man's behalf, has triumphed over its power, he sees his own triumph in the power of Christ's life given for him, and which he received as a gift from God, through faith in the first-fruits of triumph manifested through the Son of God. In reviewing the brevity of man's life, the afflicted patriarch raised the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" Job 14: 14. That was the one point for him to settle, before resting satisfied. He knew well enough that when death came, it would take the place occupied before by life. Its advent would mean to him a time of darkness and silence. Job 3: 11-18; 17: 13-16. The question of a possible recovery from that condition was therefore the burden of his mind. Then, suddenly, as tho there were no other alternative but to await God's resurrection power, he exclaimed: "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou shalt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Thus the resurrection is appointed to be the avenue through which God will wrest from the power of death the work of His own hands. He will, through this, bring man back to the condition in which he was first formed, and thus restore in him the image of his Maker. This is very forcefully presented by the apostle in his letter to the church at Thessalonica: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so [in this manner] shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17. This accomplished, the power of death over man is forever broken. Till then, man is held under its power, "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. 8: 23. But the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven brings that glad day of eternal redemption from the grasp of death. Then let the day of that coming be hailed with joy; let its divinely-glorious and infinitely-splendid ceremonies be hastened, that the inroads of death in family circles may be closed up, and happiness and peace quickly take the place of sorrow and sighing. "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." J. O. CORLISS.