You have often thought about the death of Jesus, how He was nailed to the cross and there died for our sins. Have you thought as much about His resurrection? The word of God says a great deal about His resurrection; and our blessing depends upon it, for if Jesus did not rise from the dead, His death could do us no good. If He were not risen, it would show that He had been defeated by Satan. But if He rose from the dead, it shows that Satan was defeated, and that Jesus also conquered death and the grave.
Satan did not wish Jesus to rise again; and when wicked men who were under the power of Satan crucified Jesus they thought to get rid of Him. His body was laid in a sepulcher cut in the rock, and they rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and sealed, or cemented it to make it fast. And then they also placed some soldiers there to guard it. Thus Satan thought to hold the body of Jesus in that sepulcher of rock, and to hinder God from accomplishing His purposes of blessing for His people.
But all the power of Satan and of wicked men failed to keep Jesus in the sepulcher. He rose from the dead, and the earth quaked, and an angel descended from heaven and rolled back the great stone, so that the disciples could see that the sepulcher was empty.
The countenance of this angel was “like lightning, and his raiment white as snow,” and the guard of soldiers trembled and fled when they saw him. But this angel spoke kindly to the of the men who came to the sepulcher with Jesus, and told them to not fear. He told them also that Jesus was not there that He was risen from the dead, and then asked them to come and see the place where He had lain. The grave clothes were there in the sepulcher, but Jesus was not there. He was risen. Satan was conquered death was conquered and the grave was conquered.
Dear young reader, does not your heart rejoice to think of this great victory won by Jesus? How terrible it would have been if Satan could have held Him under the power of death! But he could not Jesus, by His death, had wrought redemption for poor sinners, and His resurrection was the proof of this, and the completion of His victory. If He had not risen we would all have been in darkness and doubt, just as the disciples when they saw Him die. They were heart-broken over His death, and knew not what to think or do. But oh! what a change when they saw Him alive again. Then they were glad, their hearts rejoiced exceedingly. And why should not we rejoice just as they did? Those who love the Lord Jesus do rejoice, and well they may. For His resurrection is the pledge that they, too, will be raised, if they fall asleep, and will be in the same company with Him.
Then, too, it was the same body that Jesus had before He died. The soldiers had driven nails through his hands and feet when they crucified Him, and one of them had thrust a spear into His side; and after His resurrection the prints of the nails were still in His hands and feet and the mark of the spear in His side, proving that it was the same Jesus, with still the same body.
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was “the first that should rise from the dead;” also that Christ is risen, and become “the first fruits of them that slept,” and that He is “the first born from the dead.” He is the first, and has the first place of all who shall rise from the dead. Others before Him who had died had been brought back to life by the power of God, but only to die again. But Jesus rose from the dead never to die again. His is an eternal victory over death and the grave. And He has obtained that victory for all who believe. If we believe in Jesus, death for us is a conquered foe that we need fear no longer.
It was by sin that death had come into the world, but Christ died to settle the question of sin. He glorified God fully as to the whole matter. And for all who believe, the power of sin is broken, and death becomes a friend instead of an enemy, conducting us out of a scene of misery and wretchedness, into the presence of our risen and glorified Saviour.
ML 10/11/1903