River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-10-24

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the very letter, of all these claims,
Christ bases his right to divine recog-
milton. He claimed that it was his
prerogative to forgive sin; that he was
the only way to God; that outside of
him there was no peace and no way
of access to the Father; that unless
ne was trusted and believed in with
whole heart there was absolutely no
hope of seeing heaven; that he was
the divinely appointed Redeemer of
the world, and that the worlds re-
demption and salvation depended alb
solutely upon him alone; that the
power of life and death was in his
hands; and that all the Old Testament
predictions received their fulfillment
in him. So strong were these claims
that on one occasion the Jews were
cxasperated with him and said, What
sign showest thou us if thou be all
that thou claimest to be-" In answer
to this challenge, Christ referred to
his resurrection and said, IF do not
rise again from the dead, do not be-
lieve my claim" On his resurrection,
therefore, Jesus Christ based the vim
dication of all his claims-as Paul
says, HE was declared to be the Son
of God by his resurrection from the
dead" So long as Christ's resurrec-
ton remains an accredited fact of his
tory, then that Galilean peasant,
Jesus of Nazareth, is indeed and in
truth the Son Of the Most High God.
and the Saviour of the world.
Christ's enemies realized the i'm
portance of Jesus resurrection, and
because of this, bribed the soldiers to
say that the disciples came and stole
away his body
What a comfort the resurrection is
to the believer who has placed his
hope and confidence in the life to
come in Jesus Christ the Savior of the
world! The world may deride, and
mock, and sheer, and ridicule, but the
believer exclaims, 81 know that my
Redeemer liveth," and this is ample
evidence that the believers faith has
not been misplaced.
IL. The resurrection of Christ is a
guarantee of our own resurrection.
Paul's thoughtful and inspired infer
ence from Christ's resurrection is
this: Because he lives, we shall live
also" In the words of Dr. Parker,
the apostle is continually simplifying
Place an acorn in his hand and imme-
diately he feels the weight of a
mighty oak. Give him one little bulb.
and Immediately you have touched the
fountains of his eloquence and he de-
scribes gardens and paradises and
heavens Paul saw the whole in the
part-he saw our resurrection in
Christ. If Christ rose from the dead,
then the graveyard is not a permanent
thing. The apostle will have every
little child brought back. The resur-
rection shall be accompanied by a
shout-does this shout intimate or sig
Nifty the spirits leaving heaven and go
ing to the graveyard claiming their
bodies? Who knows?
Without the resurrection of Christ.
there is no certainty of our own resur-
rection and that of our loved ones. If
CuTlSE D6 uOI I1S0n II1CAA oil WIZ nave
died have persisted eternally. Then
we have no hope of seeing those who
have gone before. But we have a
better hope than that. Because |
live, We shall live also" AS in Adam
all die, so in Christ shall all be made
alive. For if the dead rise not. then
is not Christ raised" We shall rise
again. We shall meet those who have
gone before us and who have fallen
asleep In Christ We shall meet be-
yond the river.
Firm and fast as the grave now
seems to held the bodies of our dear
loved ones, 1t is now doomed as
fruit of Christ's resurrection. and will
be compelled one day to relax its
grasp. and yield them up to us again.
Empty as was Joseph's sepulchre
when the angel stood before 1t, so
shall one day be every grave on earth,
when another angel shall sound his
trumpet and it shall ring through all
the regions of the dead, and still all to
life again.
III. The resurrection of Christ man
ifests his victory over death and the
grave.
Up to this time, deaths claims had
been undisputed. All opposition to
that dead enemy had been without
effect. Sin reigned in the realm and
sovereignty of death, and death reign
ed in sin. The purpose of Christs
coming into the world and assuming
human form was that he might by his
own death abolish death as the Wages
of sin. 1t was when he rose and left
the dead that Satan's empire fell
Christ's victory over death was dra-
matically complete on the day of his
resurrection. We are told that bees
when they sting leave their sting in
the wound which they have caused, and
go away to die. You can hold a bee
that has stung you between your thumb
and finger and let it buzz, but it can
not any longer narm you. So death
left it's sting in Christ on the cross
and 1t no longer has any terror for
the believer. Death has now been
vanquished: the grave has capitulat-
ed. and he that believes In Christ
shall never die.