Jan 13
19
The Burial of Christ -MacDuff
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4
It was absolutely necessary, that our Savior should not merely die — but also be buried, as appears from several considerations. It was necessary, in the first place, for the fulfillment of prophecy. “And He made his grave with the wicked,” says Isaiah, “and with the rich in his death:” or, according to the version of Lowth, “His grave was appointed with the wicked — but with the rich was his tomb.” It was the intention of his enemies that he should be interred with the malefactors, as he had been executed with them; but their purpose was defeated by the interposition of Joseph of Arimathea, who went and begged the body, that it might be placed in his own sepulcher, wherein never man was yet laid. He was thus buried according to the Scriptures — those Scriptures which cannot be broken, as this remarkable accomplishment of them clearly shows.
It was also necessary for Jesus to be buried, that there might be no doubt as to the reality of his death. That we should be furnished with the most satisfactory evidence of this great truth, is of the highest importance, as all our hopes depend upon it. It is proved by the fact that the officers did not break his legs, as they did those of the two thieves; by the water and the blood which flowed from his side when pierced with the soldier’s spear — but it is especially proved by his burial. Had he been restored to life in a short time after he died, his enemies would be likely to have contended that there had been merely a temporary suspension of animation; but his having lain in the grave for a portion of three days, rendered such a surmise altogether groundless.
Another reason winch rendered it necessary for him to be buried, was in order to complete his humiliation. As there were successive steps in his exaltation, one rising above the other; so in his previous career we find a similar degradation. It was an astonishing stoop for him to assume our nature at all; it was a greater for him to take it in its lowest form; it was still more amazing for him to suffer in our nature; then for him to die, even the ignominious death of the cross! And, as the climax of all, for him to become a tenant of the tomb, and be confined in its gloomy dwellings. Then the words of the 22nd Psalm, the commencement of which he quoted when forsaken by his Father, were literally verified: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and you have brought me into the dust of death!” Lower than this he could not go.
But he who died for our sins and was buried — rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. The grave was exchanged for a throne, on which he is now seated as Lord of all. If we go, therefore, in the exercise of devout meditation, to see the sepulcher, it must not be to weep there; on the contrary, we have to shout with sacred transport —
He is not here — but he is risen!
Gone beyond the world’s control;
Upward from the body’s prison,
To the regions of the soul.
Time nor chance can longer bind,
Jesus, monarch of mankind!”
And he will again appear on the clouds of Heaven, with power and great glory, according to the Scriptures. It will be to gather his saints together, and take his ransomed home. But while he will then acknowledge them as his own before assembled worlds, he will recompense tribulation to those who know not God, and who have despised the gracious overtures of the gospel. Reader! are you likely to meet him with joy, and not with grief?
Consider Jesus– in the Power of His Resurrection
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.” –Phil. 3:10
Is there not some danger of lingering too exclusively at the cross, to the exclusion of the grave of Jesus? In other words, do we give the subject of Christ’s RESURRECTION that place in our faith and meditation which we give to His Death, and which God gives it in the great scheme of our salvation? Essential and precious as the atoning Death of Jesus is, it had availed us nothing apart from His Resurrection. We needed more than death–we needed life! We needed more than the bond presented by Divine justice, and paid–we needed the seal of its acceptance on the part of God. This was given when God raised up Jesus from the dead, “who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Christ’s Resurrection from the grave by the power of God was the Father’s attestation to the completeness of the Son’s work, and His public acknowledgment of its acceptance. Thus the Resurrection of Christ is to us what a legal acknowledgment is at the hands of a creditor whose claim has been met, whose bond is cancelled. The believing soul sees in the emptied tomb of Jesus the evidence and the acknowledgment of his full discharge from all the demands of Law and all the threatenings of justice. Now, it is the power of this truth in our souls that more immediately concerns us. The Resurrection of Jesus is an accomplished fact–what we want to experience is, His Resurrection-life in our heart. This was Paul’s prayer–“That I may know Christ, and the POWER of His Resurrection.”
We first feel this when we realize our mystical union with Jesus. There can be no experience of the power of anything apart from a personal contact with it. Let us first settle the question, “Am I one with Christ?” Have I a vital and spiritual union with the Savior? If so, then I am risen with Him, as the apostle says–“If you be risen with Christ.” O my soul, consider into what an exalted and blessed state your union with Christ places you, making you, through free and sovereign grace, a partaker of all that He was, of all that He now is, and of all that He will be when He comes with all His saints in majesty and glory.
By the power of Christ’s Resurrection, we enter into a new, or resurrection-life–“Quickened together with Him.” Our blessed Lord, when He rose from the dead, rose with a new-born life. Leaving in the tomb the grave-clothes–the napkin and the shroud–He came back clad with His resurrection robes–a new and wondrous life! Of this resurrection-life all are partakers who know the POWER of His Resurrection.
O my soul, fear not, then, that anything shall ever separate you from Christ. This cannot be, since your spiritual life is bound up and hidden with the Resurrection-life of Jesus.
The power of Jesus’ Resurrection is experienced by us when by it we rise above earth, and “seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.” Has Jesus risen? Then we, also, must rise. As He left death and earth behind Him, so we, if we be risen with Him, “through faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead,” must rise superior to the deadly pomps and vanities of this poor world, and walk with God in “newness of life.” Oh to feel the “power of His Resurrection,” in a life dead to sin and the world, but living to holiness and God!
We wait to know yet more of the “power of Christ’s Resurrection,” when the trumpet of the Archangel shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. The slumber of the grave gently broken, the glorified spirit returns to its awakened dust–then both ascends into the air to meet the descending Lord. O blessed, glorious consummation of the power of Christ’s Resurrection!-Winslow.
Our Best is Worthy of Death
(1 Samuel 15:15) “And Saul said, … the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed … (1 Samuel 15:33) And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.”
The only sacrifice which the Lord God will accept, is that which He provides. The best that sinful man can offer in any shape, form or fashion is detestable in God’s sight and will not be accepted by Him. Sinful man can only offer that which is just as he is; sinful and unworthy of the infinite and holy God.
Saul in brazen disobedience attempted to offer to God that which God had refused and condemned to death. The inevitable consequence of his irreverent and blasphemous act was death. The best of our storehouse of offerings acquired by our own doings is rotten and vile – “… We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa 64:6).
Our best compared to Christ our Lord and His sacrifice is repugnant and a stench in the nostrils of God. However, the sacrifice of Christ is a sweet smelling savor unto God – “ … as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). Those that offer the works of their own hands unto God for acceptance will be hewn to pieces by God Almighty in His anger and wrath and suffer eternal damnation for their effort.
Those who come to God by His efficacious grace pleading the blood and righteousness of Christ alone for acceptance will eternally live in His presence enjoying the Light of His love and countenance, being fully and completely accepted before God in Him.
Remember, the best Abraham had to offer was Isaac his only son. This was not good enough … “Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb …” (Genesis 22:8). This he said before they ever arrived at the appointed place of sacrifice. The object of Abraham’s God given faith was THE LAMB OF GOD’S PROMISE, not his own offering!-Tommy Robbins
THE BODY OF CHRIST
Tom Harding
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular (1Cor. 12:27).
All of God’s elect make up the body of Christ, His church (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:3-6). All who Christ Jesus redeemed with His precious blood, make up the body of Christ (Acts 20:28; 1Peter 1:18; Rev. 5:9-12). All who are regenerated by God the Holy Spirit, make up the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:1-4; 1Peter 1:23). All who are made to believe the true gospel, make up the body of Christ (John 5:24; Gal. 3:26).
Therefore, any earthly organization or religious cult that sets itself as the “body of christ” proclaiming they have authority to put sinners into Christ or remove them at their own discretion and power to wash away sin, is truly an abomination to Almighty God, a discredit to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and totally contrary to the whole testimony of God. Salvation, as it is taught from Genesis to Revelation is of the Lord; from election, to justification, to sanctification, to reconciliation, to regeneration and to glorification (Rom. 8:28-30; 1Cor. 1:30-31; 2Tim. 1:9: Titus 3:5-7).
“For I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified.”␣Matt. xxviii. 5.
Is it indeed known unto my Lord that I seek him? Doth Jesus know that I desire him more than my necessary food? Ye angels of light that watched over his sepulchre, do ye witness for me that he is more precious to me than gold, yea, than the golden wedge of Ophir. And can I, do I, humbly appeal to him that readeth the heart, and knoweth all things, and say, “Thou knowest, Lord, that I love thee!” Be comforted, then, my soul: he whom thou seekest will soon be found of thee. He is near at hand. He hath never been a wilderness to his people; neither hath he ever said to the praying seed of Jacob, “Seek ye my face in vain.” While thou art seeking him, he is looking on thee. And the very desire in thine heart of seeking him, it is Jesus hath kindled. And nothing can be more sure than that he who kindled them in thine heart, did not kindle them in vain. Sweet thought; I bless thee for it, thou gracious Lord.
Robert Hawker
“Come, see the place where the Lord lay.“␣Matt. xxviii. 6.
Lord, I would desire grace to accept the call, for it is always profitable to have faith in lively exercise: I would pray that my meditation might frequently take wing, and view the memorable sepulchre of my Lord. Did Jesus once lay in the grave? Surely death never had such a prisoner before! But did Jesus lay so low for me? Am I shortly to lay there? Sweet consoling thought! The grave is now softened, and the chambers of death are perfumed with the fragrancy contracted from his holy incorruptible body. But is there not another place where the Lord lay? And doth not the angel invite his people to see him there also? Yes, Jesus lay in the bosom of the Father from all eternity. And doth he not lay there now, and will he not through all eternity? But can I see him there? Yes;␣for if by faith I behold Jesus as the Christ, the Sent, the Sealed of the Father; in seeing him, I see the Father also. He saith this himself, John xiv. 9. And again, John xiv. 20. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Blessed assurance! Jesus is one with the Father, and all his people one with him. And as he is in the bosom of the Father, so are they in his, and there shall dwell for ever and ever. Hallelujah. Amen. Robert Hawker