He Arose

Man, in his preoccupation with the things of the world, is inclined to forget his greatest enemies: Satan, sin, and death. This terrific array of might he is unable to cope with. Hence the purpose of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world—to defeat these invincibles that rightly terrorize man. Our blessed Lord defeated Satan in the wilderness, conquered sin by His sinless life and death, and vanquished death, "the king of terrors," by His triumphant resurrection.

The Greatest Miracle

The Bible gives more space and attaches more importance to the literal, bodily resurrection of Christ than to any other miracle. Obviously, if this miracle can be substantiated we will have no difficulty with the rest of the Bible. Therefore, God has seen to it that the resurrection is one of the most demonstrable facts of history. Every conceivable objection that the fertile mind of man can raise against Christ's resurrection has been answered by the soundest reasoning and ablest Christian scholarship. Most certainly "We have not followed cunningly devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16).

Taking Sides

Paul said, Christ was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). His crucifiers declared Him to be criminal and unfit to live (John 18:30,31). God on the other hand ran entirely contrary to man's opinion and raised Him from the dead and exalted Jesus to His own right hand.

So those in the world today must take their sides. To reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour is to join those who crucified Him. To believe on Him with a faith coupled with repentance means siding with God and enthroning Christ in the individual heart. Reader, have you done this very thing? "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9).

Sin Question Settled

The resurrection proves that God has removed the believer's sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Jesus, because of who He is, did what only He could do—be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). The death of the Lord Jesus settles the sin debt of every believer, and His resurrection is like a receipt to the bill. "[He] was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Romans 4:25). On the cross He made Himself responsible for our sins, and in His resurrection God demonstrated that He is satisfied with the work of the cross.

The Believer's Resurrection

The resurrection of Christ assures the Christian of the kind of resurrection that he will enjoy. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49). In this world we all bear the image of fallen Adam—a prey to sin, sickness, and death. So in the resurrection we shall be like Christ—sinless, deathless, a child of God adopted to sonship and a joint heir with Christ. We who have this blessed hope are exhorted to be purifying ourselves, and by occupation with Christ to be daily becoming more like Him. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

—Edwin Fesche