085. JESUS' ARGUMENT FOR THE RESURRECTION 1

JESUS’ ARGUMENT FOR THE RESURRECTION¹

Here is our Lord’s argument for the resurrection. To many Christians it has been a mere puzzle. It has challenged their attention, but they have gotten no meaning out of it. To many skeptics it has been a target for ridicule. They have denied the conclusiveness of the proof; they have called it a mere argumentum ad hominem. In both cases the fault lies, not in Jesus’ words, but in the ignorance of his interpreters. The argument is certainly put in such form that it can be treated cavalierly by those who are so disposed. But the earnest and thoughtful will find it better than a mine of gold. Let us give to Christ’s utterance a reverent and sympathetic study. Be sure that it will convince the intellect and comfort the heart.

Jesus’ argument is, that God’s saying in the Old Testament that he is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, of itself proves that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will rise again. At first sight one does not perceive the necessary connection between the premises and the conclusion. But the difficulty

¹ A sermon preached in the First Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y., Sunday morning, January 15, 1899, on the text, Matthew 22:31-32 : "But, as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."