Resurrection and Faith

KEY VERSE: “Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou host seen me, thou host believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” —John 20:29

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: John 20:18-31

WHILE JESUS DID appear to his disciples on a number of occasions before his ascension, he did not attempt to give them any detailed instructions concerning the Father’s plan. As with Thomas, these appearances were more for the purpose of verifying the fact of his resurrection, and to give the disciples a renewed hope in him until the Day of Pentecost would come. His visits were brief, and had a sense of mystery associated with them which left the disciples each time more or less at a loss to understand the strangely new and different relationship they bore toward him. The last time he manifested himself to them he said they would receive power through the Holy Spirit, and that they were to be his witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth, but he gave them no further information.

His first appearance was to the two Mary’s who, early in the morning, had visited his tomb. But by then the great Creator of the universe had exercised his mighty power to raise Jesus from the dead and exalt him to the divine nature. He was now “born of the Spirit,” and could move from one place to another in an instant. He could have manifested himself to his disciples wherever they were much more quickly than Mary Magdalene and the other Mary could reach them and tell them he had been raised from the dead. But he chose not to do it that way. He preferred to have human messengers convey the good news, so the commission was given, “Go quickly, and tell.”

This has been the Lord’s method throughout the entire age. The responsibility to “go quickly, and tell” has been placed upon all to whom the Lord through the truth, has revealed himself. The Lord’s messengers have not all been furnished with the full outline of the divine plan, but they have been given the responsibility of making known whatever of truth the Lord has revealed to them. The glad tidings given to Mary Magdalen, and the other Mary, was simply that Jesus was no longer dead, that death no longer had dominion over him.

Some days had elapsed, and while waiting and praying in the upper room in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit came. Jesus had gone to the Father, and now fulfilled his promise to send the Comforter. Suddenly the many strange things he had said to them, especially the night before he was crucified, all became clear. They could see Jesus as they had never seen him before.

But again, there was no time to tarry, for they now understood clearly the full intent of the commission given to them to be witnesses of Jesus in “Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Now the enlightening, inspiring powers of the Holy Spirit impelled them to quickly proclaim the glorious Gospel of the kingdom far and wide. The Book of Acts is a revealing testimony to the zeal of those first disciples upon whom the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost.

On Sunday, April 15th, this year, countless millions of people will again commemorate the greatest event of all time, even the resurrection from the dead of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Among these there is a wide variety of ideas as to who Jesus was, and what his death and resurrection mean to a distraught and suffering world today. Many, indeed, who join in the celebration of this greatest of all miracles actually doubt that it ever really occurred. Others believe that Jesus was God, hence did not really die.

But these misconceptions of such a vital and glorious truth of the Word of God need not take away from its luster in the minds and hearts of those of us who have been permitted to know this and other “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 13:11) To us the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the inspiration of our hope and the proof that his death-sacrifice as an atonement for sins was acceptable, well-pleasing to the Father, and that now Christ lives to make intercession for us at the antitypical Mercy Seat.

While the unbelieving world is unaware of what Jesus’ resurrection will yet mean to them, we can rejoice that the exercise of divine power nearly two thousand years ago to raise him from the dead is an assurance that eventually all will be given an opportunity to learn righteousness, obey and live.

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