11. Christ's raising the dead and judging the world, are evidence of his divinity
CHRIST’S RAISING THE DEAD, AND JUDGING THE WORLD, ARE EVIDENCES OF HIS DIVINITY.
“He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man, whom he hath ordained,” Acts 17:31. In every part of Christ’s character; in every office which he sustains; and in every work, which he performs, there is evidence of his divinity. The sacred scriptures afford abundant proof that he will raise the dead. Christ declared his power to raise himself from the dead. Speaking of laying down his life, he said, “/ have power to lay it down; and / have power to take it again,” John 10:10. “Destroy this temple and in three days / will raise it up.” He spake of the temple of his body. It is no more incredible that Christ should raise his own body, than he should raise any other human body. The same power, which could raise one, could raise the other. The resurrection of the body of Christ is attributed to God. The apostle Peter in his sermon to a mixed multitude on the day of Pentecost, preached Christ.
Among other things he said, “This Jesus hath God raised up. Ye killed the Prince of life, wliom God hath raised from the dead. Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly.” The apostle Paul to the Romans makes this article oi” belief essential to salvation. “If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him (i. e. Christ) from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Again he says, ’God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his J 52 EVIDENCES OF CHRIST’s DIVINITY. own power.” Many other passages in the sacred scriptures assert that God raised up Christ. If the self-same work, the resurrection of the body of Jesus, is attributed in the same unquahfied manner, both to Christ and to God, it follows that Christ is God. Upon this ground there is no impropriety in saying that Christ raised himself, and that God raised him from the dead. The scriptures furnish abundant evidence that Christ will raise the dead. Christ himself asserts, “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” Jesus said of himself, “I am the resurrection and the life.” The apostle Paul, contrasting Christ with Adam, says, “For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.” To the Thessalonians he writes thus, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” The general resurrection is no less attributed in the scriptures to God. The apostle Paul, in his plea before Agrippa, inquires, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead.^^” To the Corinthians he declares the same sentiment, ^’â- God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.” As the scriptures attribute the resurrection to Christ as absolutely as to God, it is natural to infer that Christ is God; that there is such an inseparable union between him and God the Father, that the same work may, with propriety, be attributed to each. The resurrection of Christ’s body is attributed to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul, in his salutation, attributes it to the Father. “Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” Christ, upon the subject of his own resurrection, says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days / will raise it up. I have power to lay it
153 (i. e. his life,) down and I have power to take it again.” The same work is attributed to the Holy Spirit.
“Christ also hath once suffered for sin; — being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit^ —
“As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus.” The two last passages, and many others attribute the resurrection indiscriminately to the Father or the Son. As the work of creation is sometimes attributed to God, sometimes to the Father, to the Son, to the Spirit, in like manner is the resurrection attributed to them. The observations of the learned Macknight on this subject, in a note on 1 Peter 3:18, are important. “As Christ was conceived in the womb of his mother, by the Holy Spirit; Luke 1:35, so he was raised from the dead by the same Spirit; on which account he is said, 1 Timothy 3:16, to have been justified by the Spirit; and Hebrews 9:14, to have offered himself without fault to God through the eternal Spirit. it is true the resurrection of Christ, is ascribed to the Father, 1 Corinthians 6:14. 2 Corinthians 4:14.Ephesians 1:20Ephesians 1:20. But that is not inconsistent with Peter’s affirmation in this verse. For the Father may, with the strictest propriety, be said to have done what the Spirit did by his appointment; especially as it was done to shew that God acknowledged Jesus to be his Son: What our Lord said concerning his own resurrection, John 2:19, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up, is to be understood in the same manner. For haying told the Jews, John 10:18, / have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again^ he added, this commandment 1 received of my Father. Christ’s resurrection being an example as well as a proof of our resurrection, he was raised by the agency of the Spirit, perhaps, to shew that we shall be raised by the same power, exerted agt-eeably to the will of God and of Christ; on which account the resurrection of the dead is ascribed sometimes to the Father, Acts 26:8. Acts 26:1-32 : 1 Corinthians 20 154 EVIDENCES OF CHRISt’s DIVINITY.
6:14.Hebrews 11:19Hebrews 11:19; but more frequently to the Son, John 5:28. John 5:6:39, John 5:40 1 Corinthians 1:5:21, &c. 1 Thessalonians 6:16, &c. As the resurrection is attributed indiscriminately to the Father and the Son, it appears there is a union between them, which does not subsist between two distinct natures. As the Son acts insubordination to, and by the appointment of, the Father, what he does may, with propriety, be attributed to the Father. As the Spirit acts in subordination to, and by the appointment of, the Son, what he does may, with propriety, be attributed to the Son. As there is a union of nature subsisting between the Father, the Son and the Spirit; as the two latter act in offices subordinate to that of the former, the same work may be attributed to each individually, or to them all collectively. Upon this ground, the resurrection of Christ’s body, and the general resurrection, may be attributed to the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit, or to God, without these distinctions.
It is impossible to determine how great are the powers of the highest created intelligence, or what he could, or could not do by his native strength. But there are certain works recorded in the Scriptures, which were effected by divine power. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” It appears that it would require no less power, knowledge and wisdom to reorganize and reanimate a human body reduced to dust, than it required originally to form one of dust.
He, who will raise the dead, must have knowledge of all the human bodies deceased from the beginning to the end of the world. He must discriminate between that matter, which composed those bodies and other matter. He must know whether that matter, which was united with the soul at the time of separation, or whether the matter, which was united with it at some other period, or whether all the matter, which had EVIDENCES OF CHRIST’s DIVINITY. 155 ever been attached to it, is to be raised. At different ages the body is composed of different matter. It sometimes occurs that, in consequence of amputation, different parts of the body are laid in places far remote from each other. Many human bodies have been consumed by beasts of prey and by fishes of the sea; and have made additions to their bodies. Souie of the human race have been devoured by their fellow creatures; and one human body has become incorporated with another. What eye can bring into one view all the disorganized human matter which from the first to the last age of the world, lies scattered through the earth? What eye can distinguish between human dust and common dust? What eye can distinguish between human matter and those animal bodies, which have been nourished by it; or can distinguish between human bodies, which have been blended by cannibals? What power can, with one call, collect from the four winds all the slumbering dust of the whole human family? What wisdom can reorganize the inanimate bodies of the human race; and give to each its former proportion, features and likeness; and unite with each its own spirit? What power, knowledge, and wisdom, are competent to the performance of this work? This appears to be as great as the works of God; and it appears that divinity only is equal to its accomplishment.
Christ will not only reorganize human bodies, but he will effect a certain change upon them. The bodies of the righteous, whether in the grave, or alive upon the earth, will be made incorruptible and spiritual.
“We look (says St. Paul) for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” It is probable that the bodies of the wicked will undergo a change by the resurrection, not less than that of the righteous; that they will appear as much more inglorious, as the righteous will appear more glorious than they did in this world, fhe prophet Daniel observes, 156 EVIDENCES OP CHRISt’s DIVINITY.
“Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to eferlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’^’ This relates primarily to Israel; but it undoubtedly alludes to the resurrection at the end of the world. He alone, who formed the natural body, can make it a spiritual and glorious body; or change it for its shame and everlasting contempt.
After Christ has raised the dead he will judge the world. The Scriptures abundantly testify that Christ will be Judge at the last day. “The Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him; and then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them, one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. The Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; and hath given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man,” When Peter preached Christ to Cornelius and to those, who were with him, he said, “He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he, which was ordained of God to be Judge of quick and dead. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.^^ The apostle Paul charged Peter “before the Lord Jesus Christ, who shaW judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.” The judgment of the world is also attributed to God. “He, (i. e. Jehovah) shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” The judgment of God is according to truth. I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things, which were written in the books, according to then- works. He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man {iv uvdi^i) whom he h#th ordained, Acts 17:31. 157 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, (Sia /vjo-oO x^iarov.^ In that passage, in which it is said God will judge the world by that man, the word in the original, translated by, frequently signifies in. Admitting this translation to be correct, the text will stand thus, “He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness in that man, whom he hath ordained.” This is parallel with another passage of scripture, which says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” The original words in both texts are the same. In the other passage, in which it is said, “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” The original word rendered by, (with a genitive) is connected sometimes with the efficient cause; and sometimes it signifies in* Admitting these constructions, and it follows that Christ was God, or that God was in Christ. When it is asserted that the Father judgeth not; but that God judgeth and Christ judgeth, it is a fair inference, that Christ is the God who judgeth.
Christ will pronounce sentence upon the human race, and he will distribute reward and punishment.
“The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works,” Matthew 16:27. To them on his right hand he will say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Matthew 25:34. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” Matthew 13:43.
Christ will inflict punishment on the wicked.
“Then shall he say to them on the left hand, Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. These shall go away into everlasting punishment. The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not • See M acknight on iTw- 158 EVIDENCES OF CHRISt’s DIVINITY.
God; and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. The wrath of God abideth on him.”
He that will judge the world, must know all the secrets of the human heart, and all the actions of human life. He must know the motive, he must know the quality of every act. He must know the different degrees of guilt, of different sins; and he must know the exact proportion of reward, which is promised to the various servants of God. What intelligence possesses this vast extent of knowledge? What intelligence can hold the balance, and weigh with perfect accuracy every thought, word, and action of the human race? What intelligence can hold the balance, and weigh out retribution in just proportion to human characters? What intelligence can hold the scales of justice in one hand, and the scales of mercy in the other; weigh with both, without partiality, and without interference? He, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, who searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins of the children of men; he, whose mercy unites with justice without counteraction; he, who unites in himself divinity and humanity; he alone, is competent to judge between God and man. The awful grandeur, which will attend Christ at the last day, proves his superior nature and dignity.
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” He will come “in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory; and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. Before him shall be gathered all nations.” To add, if possible, to the solemnity and grandeur of this scene, “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the EVIDENCES OF CHRIST’s DIVINITY. 159 elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.” Who is this personage, and Avhat is his nature, who will display all this power and authority; who will receive all the honors, which heaven and earth can bestow, and will sit on the right hand of the Father.’*
It is he, who was in a manger. It is he, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It is he, who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men; who is “the true God;” who is “God over all, blessed for ever.”