PAUL PREACHED THE RESURRECTION, AND WAS PERSECUTED FOR IT—IT WAS AN UNPOPULAR DOCTRINE THEN, AND IT IS SUCH STILL—THE SCRIPTURES TEACH THAT THE DEAD ARE DEPENDENT ON IT FOR ETERNAL LIFE
By T. E. BOWEN
PAUL suffered persecution in his time because he would preach the truth regarding the resurrection of the dead. Men seemed glad to listen to him until he touched upon this subject. Then their ears, so to speak, they would close.
Why was it, reader, that Paul emphasized this subject that was so unpopular in his day? Do you think he enjoyed going about with chains fastened to his hands, watched by Roman soldiers? He might have avoided this unpleasantness had he ceased preaching the resurrection of the dead through the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached it all over the world then, because there was salvation in it. And no minister of the gospel can preach salvation to the sinner to-day and fail to preach the truth regarding the resurrection of the dead.
LIFE IN HIS MIGHTY RESURRECTION
Eternal life comes to us not so much by the death of Jesus on the cross as by His mighty resurrection to life as He came out of Joseph's new tomb. The two events go hand in hand. Satan hoped to keep the Prince of Life locked up, cold in death, a prisoner of his. The Almighty above willed otherwise. He sent down an angel to waken His Son; and as that powerful messenger sped toward the earth before daylight that first-day morning, a track of blazing glory was left behind him, and his approach to earth caused its very foundations to tremble with a mighty earthquake. And as this angel from the throne called to Jesus, saying, "Thy Father calls Thee," the Son of God came forth from Satan's prison-house with the noble tread of a glorious conqueror.
A SUPREME MOMENT FOR A LOST WORLD
That was a supreme moment for a lost world. That was Heaven's answer to Satan's cruel hate and his supreme wicked plot in destroying the Son of God. Jesus died mute, branded as an impostor. His life-work would have been lost, the salvation of man would have been a complete failure, had the Father left His Son a prisoner in the tomb. Satan would have triumphed, with all his hellish hate, over the Son of God.
Listen to the apostle's powerful argument as he drives home the necessity and essentiality of the resurrection of the dead through the Lord Jesus: "Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not." 1 Cor. 15: 12-15.
If Paul's preaching was vain unless the dead rise, and if the faith of the believers back there was also vain unless the dead rise, then, friends, the preaching of any one down here nineteen hundred years this side of Joseph's broken tomb, and the faith of believers to-day as they hope for salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, are vain also if there be no resurrection. All are yet in their sins, with no hope of ever having them forgiven, if Jesus rose not. And just as surely as Jesus rose, just so surely will those who have died in the faith of the imputed righteousness of Jesus' life and resurrection also come forth from their graves.
Instead of death's being the gateway to heaven, this gateway is the rent sepulcher. Death is the devil's locking up process in his own prison-house. The resurrection is God's everlasting release from Satan's prison. Did you ever hear of Satan's releasing one of his death prisoners? Salvation was made sure for every believer that morning when Jesus came forth glorified from Joseph's new tomb.
DO NOT GO WITHOUT BODIES
No one will go to heaven without a body. This is very certain. Jesus did not. And if He did not, surely we can not. And the bodies of those who die are here, and remain here until the voice of the Son of God calls them forth from their graves. This we all know. Otherwise, why did the devil cause Jesus' tomb to be sealed so fast with the Roman seal, and guarded by a band of soldiers? He was sure he had the Son of God locked up where he wanted Him to remain, cold in death. Or why did he contend with Michael the Archangel (Christ), and dispute "about the body of Moses," if the resurrection of the body is of little matter? See Jude 9.
Ah, reader, be not deceived! Jesus came forth from the grave the first-fruit of all those who sleep. Because He lives, we shall live also. Satan hates this truth. It places him in a very unfavorable light. He has invented all sorts of religious schemes for getting people to heaven without a resurrection. But every one is a downright falsehood. The man who preaches the truth of God, with Paul, will preach what the Word says regarding the resurrection of the dead. While it is not to-day popular, it still is the truth. No one who has died gets to heaven without a resurrection. And no voice other than the voice of the Son of God can pierce the tomb to bring out the captive. "I am the resurrection, and the life," is His comforting promise.
ALL GO HOME TOGETHER
And all will go home together, thank the Lord. "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them [who have come forth from their graves] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." And it is a blessed, comforting hope, all hinging on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead.
