subsequent resurrection. The Christian Church is his monument. All believers are his witnesses.
The importance of Christ's resurrection arises, —
1. From the circumstance that all his claims, and the success of his work, rest on the fact that He rose again from the dead. If He rose, the gospel is true. If He did not rise, it is false. If He rose, He is the Son of God, equal with the Father, God manifest in the flesh ; the Salvator Hbminum ; the Messiah predicted by the prophets ; the prophet, priest, and king of his people ; his sacrifice has been accepted as a satisfaction to divine justice, and his blood as a ransom for many.
2. On his resurrection depended the mission of the Spirit, with- out which Christ's work had been in vain.
3. As Christ died as the head and representative of his people, his resurrection secures and illustrates theirs. As He lives, they shall live also. If He remained under the power of death, there is no source of spiritual life to men ; for He is the vine, we are the branches ; if the vine be dead the branches must be dead also.
4. If Christ did not rise, the whole scheme of redemption is a failure, and all the predictions and anticipations of its glorious results for time and for eternity, for men and for angels of every rank and order, are proved to be chimeras. " Bat now is Christ I'isen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept." Therefore the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of darkness has been overthrown. Satan has fallen like lightning from heaven ; and the triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery, is forever secured.
Nature of Chrisfs Resurrection Body.
1. The identity of the body in which Christ rose with that which expired upon the cross, was proved by indubitable evidence. It retained even the print of the nails which had pierced his hands and his feet. Nevertheless it was changed. To what extent, how- ever, is not clearly made known. The facts recorded in the sa- cred history bearing on the nature of the Lord's body during the period between his resurrection and ascension are, (a.) That it was not at first clearly recognized as the same. Mary Magda- lene mistook Him for the gardener. (John xx. 15.) The two dis- ciples whom He joined on their way to Emmaus, did not recognize Him until He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. (Luke xxiv. 31.) When He appeared to the disciples on the shore
628 PART m. Ch. Xm. — the exaltation of CHRIST.
of the Sea of Tiberias thej did not know who He was, until the miraculous draft of fishes taken at his command revealed Him. (John xxi. 7.) (6.) It appeared suddenly in the midst of his dis- ciples in a room of which the doors were shut. (John xx. 19, and Luke xxiv. 36.) (c.) Nevertheless it was the same material body having " flesh and bones." That the appearance recorded in Luke xxiv. 36 was preternatural may be inferred from the effect which it prodi>ced upon the disciples : " They were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit." Our Lord reassured them saying, " Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." It appears from the transfiguration of Christ that his body while here on earth, was capable of passing from one state to another without losing its identity.
2. Such was the state of our Lord's body during the forty days subsequent to his resurrection. It then passed into its glorified state. What that state is we know only so far as may be learned from what the Apostle teaches from the nature of the bodies with which believers are to be invested after the resurrection. Those bodies, we are told, are to be like Christ's " glorious body." (Phil. iii. 2L) A description of the one is therefore a description of the other. That description is found in the contrast between the present body and that which the believer is to inhabit after the resurrection. The one is a o-co/ia ^v)(ik6v^ and the other a o-S/^a -v^v fxariKov. The one is adapted to the if/vxr'] (principle of animal life) and to the present state of existence ; the other to the TneD/xa (the rational and immortal principle) and to the future statfe of existence. The change which the " natural body " is to un- dergo in becoming a "spiritual body" is thus described. " It is sown in corruption ; it is raised in incorruption : it is soAvn in dis- honour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power : " in one word, " It is sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Cor. xv. 42-44.) It is still a body and there- fore material, retaining all the essential properties of matter. It is extended. It occupies space. It has a definite form, and that a human form. It was seen bj-^ Paul on his way to Damascus and upon other occasions, and by John as recorded in the Apocalypse, as well as by the dying martyr Stephen. Nevertheless it is no lonorer "flesh and blood, " for " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Flesh and blood are from their nature corrup- tible ; and so the apostle adds, " neither doth corruption inherit in- corruption." Hence " this corruptible must put on incorruption,