Page 19 - January 2023 - Truth & Tidings

ogether with the incarnation and come out, those who have done good to
death of Christ, the bodily resur- the resurrection of life, and those who
Trection of Jesus Christ stands as have done evil to the resurrection of judg-
the most significant and transformative ment” (Joh 5:28-29).
event that has ever occurred. To borrow This is no theological trifle. Paul tells us
a well-known phrase, it is the “hinge of that “if the dead are not raised, not even
history,” a trinity of divine actions that Christ has been raised” (1Co 15:16). If
form the unshakable foundation of God’s ordinary men cannot be raised, then the
redeeming purpose. The resurrection is resurrection of God’s perfect man would
“the backbone of the Christian gospel, be impossible too, and we would still be
the keystone of Christian doctrine, and perishing.
the groundwork of Christian conduct.” The Anticipation of Resurrection
1
Christ’s empty tomb asserts the glorious
fullness of our exalted Lord: “I am … the From the earliest time, God’s people
living one. I died, and behold I am alive believed in bodily resurrection. Job, in
forevermore” (Rev 1:17-18). 2 antiquity, confidently asserted that “after
The Definition of Resurrection my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in
my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26). His
To be resurrected is to be bodily raised contemporary, Abraham, held the same
from the dead. The New Testament belief; regarding Isaac, he reckoned “that
teaches us that just as death is universal God was able even to raise him from the
– “death spread to all men because all dead” (Heb 11:17-19). And David, in the
sinned” (Rom 5:12) – so too resurrec- Psalms, spoke with great spiritual confi-
tion will be all-inclusive. The Lord Jesus dence: “As for me, I shall behold your face
pointed to a coming hour “when all who in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be
are in the tombs will hear his voice and satisfied with your likeness” (Psa 17:15).
¹ William Hoste, Studies in Bible Doctrine This anticipation of Christ’s resurrection
(Kilmarnock: John Ritchie Ltd., 1932).
² Bible quotations in this article are from the was foreshadowed in Israel’s Feasts of
ESV. Jehovah (Lev 23). Just as the Passover in-
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