Outside, in the most public manner, God. also acted; as inside the temple; He had severed in: twain the veil, and the earthquake which took place told of something extraordinary which had conic to pass, for “the rocks rent, and the graves were opened.” “By man came death.” The existence of graves bore witness to his sin, and its temporal consequences—death. “By man came also the resurrection of the dead.” The graves, opened by ‘divine power on that day, illustrated this truth. By divine power were they opened, not by power from within, the inhabitants forcing their way out, for, though the graves were opened by the rending of the rocks and the earthquake, none of the saints arose till after the Lord’s resurrection, an earnest of what will be, when the present resting place of the bodies of God’s saints shall be tenantless, and death be robbed of its prey. Thus, before the descent from the cross and the Lord’s entrance into the grave, by the exercise of divine power, there was seen, what through the sacrifice was effected, viz., entrance for sinners as worshippers into God’s presence, and recovery from the grasp of death. The consequences on earth of man’s sin were not removed; but what he had lost by the fall, he could enjoy in a new way, and what he had incurred by sin, he could see the way out of. Before the fall, Adam could hold direct intercourse with God in the garden. After the death of God’s own Son the sinner could be admitted into the very holiest “Of all. By sin man was brought under the power of death, by the atonement; the way out of death, not return from it, was made plain to all God’s saints.
“Without the intervention of a prophet, without the sound of a voice; God spoke on that day in terms all may understand. Man, by his acts and words, had testified of his deserts, God, by the exercise of power, without the utterance of a syllable, proved what the death of Christ was in His sight, as He thus acted on man’s behalf. Great was the convulsion of nature, yet we learn not of any disaster. No house engulphed its inmates, no tottering wall fell on the passer-by. Power was displayed—all must have felt it; not however, to make man suffer according to his deserts but to display openly, and that immediately, the blessed results for man of the death of God’s only Son.