August 23
The Continual Burnt Offering" T hen the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed."
Neither John nor Peter knew that Jesus was to rise from the dead. Although He had told His disciples very definitely that He would be brought back to life on the third day, their minds were unable to grasp it. But the evidence of the grave-cloths (not “clothes,” as in the kjv) was too convincing to be doubted. They lay in that crypt not folded up, as many have thought, but “folded together,” just as they had enswathed His body, but like a cocoon from which the butterfly had emerged. The disciples knew that no power on earth could have removed that body and left the grave-cloths undisturbed. It was the resurrection power of God which alone had wrought this stupendous miracle. They had no choice but to believe.
O joyful day! O glorious hour!
When Jesus, by almighty power,
Revived and left the grave;
In all His works behold Him great,—
Before, almighty to create, Almighty now to save.
The first-begotten from the dead,
He’s risen now, His people’s Head,
And thus their life’s secure:
And if, like Him, they yield their breath,
Like Him they’ll burst the bonds of death,
Their resurrection sure.
—T. Kelly