The meaning of Christ's resurrection.
The prominent position occupied by the resurrection of our Lord in the apostolic writings and preaching need occasion no surprise; an event in itself so wonderful, and in its consequences so momentous, could not but be constantly in the minds and upon the lips of those to whom it was the supreme revelation of God. It may be well to gather up in a few sentences the import and significance of this central fact of Christianity.
I. AS A FACT, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST HAS A GENERAL AND WORLD-WIDE INTEREST. The historian of humanity, the philosopher reflecting upon the most important factors in human life, is constrained to acknowledge the central and universal interest of our Lord's rising from the dead.
1. It was a fulfilment of predictions, and a realization of hopes sometimes dim and sometimes bright.
2. It was the starting-point of the Christian religion. The existence of the Church of Christ is only to be explained by remembering how firmly the first promulgators of the new faith held the belief that their Lord had risen from the dead.
3. It was, in the view of the Christian community, the pledge of the general resurrection of all men to another life; it gave definiteness and power to the belief in personal immortality.
II. AS A DOCTRINE, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST HAS A SPECIAL CHRISTIAN INTEREST.
1. It is the chief external evidence of the Messiahship and Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. It was in fulfilment of his own express declarations that, after enduring a death of violence, he rose victorious from the grave. His resurrection is in harmony with his claim to a nature and character altogether unique.
2. It is the seal of the efficacy of his mediatorial sufferings. However the humiliation and sacrifice of the Redeemer were related to the forgiveness and justification of men, it is certain that Christ's rising from the dead was the completion of his redemptive undertaking on man's behalf.
III. AS A POWER, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST HAS A PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL INTEREST. This is the aspect of this great fact which is insisted upon most strenuously in this passage, and its practical importance to every individual Christian is manifest. The true believer in Christ shares in his Lord's resurrection.
1. Our sins were crucified in Christ's death upon the cross, and in his resurrection we were delivered from their power.
2. Our past sinful life became dead to us as Christ died; and our newness of life began in his rising from the tomb. We have the sign of this, the apostle teaches us, in baptism, with its teaching regarding renewal and consecration.
3. By our faith in the resurrection of our Saviour, we are raised above trial, doubt, temptation, darkness, and fear. The cross tells us that it may consist with the wisdom and the goodness of God that for a season we should endure trouble, disappointment, and seeming failure. But the empty tomb assures us that for every good man and for every good work there is a resurrection appointed. Death is for a season; God's people cannot be "holden of it." The corn of wheat dies, but it dies to live, and to bring forth much fruit.
4. In Christ's resurrection the Christian is begotten to a living hope of an immortal inheritance, His people are appointed to share his triumph and his glory.