RESURRECTION THE SEAL OF APPROVAL

RESURRECTION THE SEAL OF APPROVAL

The ultimate value of the resurrection lies in the fact that it was a Divine act, by which God gave confirmation, to His perfect satisfaction with the work of Christ. It is most important to remember that the deepest question of all for the heart of man is not whether he is satisfied, but whether God is satisfied.

In the contemplation of the matchless beauty of the life of Jesus, the heart of man may have found perfect satis­faction. Standing on the margin of the mystery of His Desire, the deepest consciousness of the life may have been that of the sufficiency of the work wrought for per­sonal redemption. And yet so perpetually has the mind of man been at fault, that not in its own satisfaction can it find its deepest rest. Therefore it is that the question of greatest moment is as to whether God has found in the life and death of His Son, that which has accomplished His purpose, and will issue, in blessing to men and the glory of His name.

The answer to all this questioning is found in the RESUR­RECTION. In the passage which perhaps is the most remarkable of all the utterances of Christ concerning His Passion, He declares "Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father." (John 10:17-18)

This is so strange a statement as to baffle all attempts at explanation. Its correctness, however, is demonstrated by the fact that He did lay down His life, and that He did take it again. Carefully note, He claims His right to do this was received from His Father. Thus the whole work committed to Jesus by the Father was that of laying down through death His perfect life for the making of Atone­ment and right to lay hold again upon that life for its communication to others, as the context shows.

The proof then that the work of the Cross was perfect lies in the fact that He not only laid down His life, but that He took it again, thus carrying out the Divine authority to its utmost limit.

In writing to the Ephesians the apostle in praying for them that they "may know the exceeding great­ness of His power" describes it as the power "which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places." (Eph. 1:18-20)

Thus it is evident that He, Jesus, laid hold upon His own life, taking it again, but He did this by the authority of His Father, and so it is remarkably true, as Paul declares, that His resurrection was by the act of God. There is no contradiction in these two statements, but rather the revelation of that perfect harmony of action between the Father and the Son, which characterized the whole work of Christ.

The RESURRECTION then is the Divine seal upon the work of Jesus, as perfectly meeting the purpose of God. In ex­amining this, notice

1^st - how the resurrection was the culminating act, marking the perfect commendation of God;

2^nd - how the resurrection was the final act, marking God's rejection of man; and

3^rd - how the resurrection was therefore the Divine ratification of the new and living way, by which rejected man could be accepted.