For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.--Psalm xvi. 9, 10.
These words are not applicable to David, for after he had served
his generation, he fell asleep, and his body, interred in the royal
sepulchre of the kings of Judah, which was in the city of David,
saw corruption. The sentence "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return," has, for many a generation, been accomplished on
Jesse's Royal Son. The remains of this mighty monarch cannot now be
distinguished from those of earth's meanest slave. They are alike
mingled in the dust of death, and must remain hid from the eye of
man until the archangel's trump shall sound, and the command be
given, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment. The hell (in Hebrew,
scheol) here alluded to, cannot be that place of torment, prepared
for the devil and his angels, from which a soul never did or
will escape. When once consigned to that abode of wo, there is a
great gulf fixed, even the unchangeable decree of Omnipotence; a
barrier stronger than walls of brass, and cannot be surmounted, or
destroyed.[106] The word here rendered hell, (in the Greek, hades,)
is the same as the Jews, before the Babylonish captivity, used for
the grave, and is the sense in which it must be here understood.
This verse is prophetic of the resurrection of the Messiah; which
doctrine is taught in many parts of the Old Testament, by type,
figure, and prophecy; in the New, we behold it clearly confirmed
by the resurrection of Jesus. The circumstances attending this
great event are repeatedly described, and the evidence clear and
conclusive. The witnesses to this important fact are not few; both
enemies and friends unite in giving their testimony to his death
and resurrection. The soldiers having taken the dead body of Jesus
from the cross, his friends deposit it in the tomb. We cannot but
stop here, and admire the overruling hand of Providence in the more
minute circumstances connected with the interment of the body of the
Redeemer. The sepulchre was hewn out of the solid rock. No access
could be gained to it but by one opening, on which a ponderous stone
was placed, a seal set thereon, and the entrance strictly guarded
by Roman soldiers. But wherefore all this care and attention over
the dead body of one crucified at Golgotha? It is by order of the
High Priest and Pharisees, who had requested Pilate to allow them to
make the grave sure, as Jesus had declared he would rise again after
three days. They, fully convinced of his death, and disbelieving
his divinity, fear that the disciples should steal the dead body of
their Master, and declare that he had risen; and thus the last error
would be worse than the first. But we have cause to rejoice that
they used so much caution, for it tends to establish the truth, and
confirm the testimony, of the disciples. It fully proves the death
and burial of Jesus, and that the body did not remain in the grave.
On the first day of the week, certain women of the company hasted
early to the sepulchre, to embalm, after the custom of the east,
the body of their beloved Master; but lo, to their astonishment and
grief, it is gone! They indeed see the place where the Lord had
lain; for an angel, by an earthquake, had rolled away the stone; at
whose appearance the keepers became as dead men; but to the women,
filled with sorrow and surprise on not finding the body of their
Lord, this heavenly messenger proclaimed the resurrection of that
Jesus whom they sought. And as they run to tell the disciples, Jesus
himself met them, saying, All hail! and they held him by the feet,
and worshipped him. Some of the watch, also, went into the city,
and told the Chief Priests all that was done; who, having assembled
a council, give large sums of money to the soldiers to say, that
the disciples came by night, and stole him away, whilst they slept.
This report, though commonly believed amongst the Jews until this
day, will not bear examination. The more we consider this tale,
the clearer will the fact of the resurrection of Jesus appear. If
the body was _indeed_ stolen, why are the soldiers allowed to go
unpunished for their neglect, as they say it was stolen whilst they
slept. We should not expect to find a Roman sentinel asleep at his
post of duty, for their military discipline was the most severe in
the world. Even if the soldiers had fallen asleep whilst watching
the entrance of the sepulchre, it appears impossible for a number
of persons to remove so ponderous a stone without considerable
noise and bustle, or to pass among the guards without awaking some
of them. But even allowing the body to have been gone whilst they
slept, how could they possibly know, that it was the disciples who
had taken it? But is it at all probable, that a few timid disciples,
who had fled from their Master on his first apprehension, should now
dare to go, in the face of a guard of Roman soldiers, justly famed
for their courage, and attempt to steal, and much more to carry off,
the body! Let it be observed, that though the disciples had hoped
Jesus "had been he who would have redeemed Israel;" yet, when they
saw him laid in the grave, all their hopes that he was the Messiah
fled, for the minds of the disciples were strongly tainted by the
Jewish prejudice, that the Messiah's would be a temporal kingdom.
Their dreams of earthly splendour now vanished, and they were about
to return to their occupations in common life; in fact, some had
done so. Is it reasonable to imagine that the others would engage
in a plan fraught with danger, for the sake of obtaining the body
of one, in whom they began to imagine themselves deceived? Besides,
what advantage could they hope to gain by such a scheme? What end
was it designed to answer? They could not expect to keep the act
concealed; and if discovered, they were fully convinced it would
bring upon them the severest punishment. But if, as the soldiers
proclaimed, the disciples did steal him away, why are these handful
of fishermen allowed to retain possession? Why did not the Chief
Priest, at the head of the Jewish Sanhedrim, supported by the Roman
authority, instantly compel them to surrender the body? Why are
not these men of Galilee brought to a judicial tribunal, examined,
and openly punished, that the truth of the soldiers' tale may
bear even the _appearance of_ fact? Surely this neglect is most
extraordinary in men who had shown such vigilant care over the body
when in the tomb. The more we examine the conduct of the parties,
the more inconsistent does the Jewish tale appear. It is evident,
the disciples were as ignorant as the rest of the nation, as to what
the resurrection from the dead should mean. Jesus had again and
again preached the doctrine, yet they were at the first as backward
as his enemies to believe the fact, and discovered much unbelief
on the first tidings of the great event. The incredulity of all of
them is a strong presumption, that as they did not expect Jesus to
rise from the grave, so neither did they steal the body, and falsely
proclaim their Master risen. We have a still further confirmation
of the fact from the events that followed. In the interval of forty
days, between his resurrection and ascension, Jesus appeared to
many of his disciples, and showed himself alive by many infallible
proofs; the women who went early to their Lord's sepulchre, were
first honoured with the sight of the risen Redeemer. He afterwards
appeared to the two sorrowing disciples as they walked to Emmaus,
then to the eleven as they sat at meat with the doors closed, and,
eight days after, he again appeared to them, when the incredulous
Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" He also showed himself to
the seven disciples who were fishing at the sea of Tiberius; after
that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; and,
though some had fallen asleep, yet, when the Apostle wrote, the
greater part were then alive, and could testify to the truth of
these things. How "vain the watch, the stone, the seal!" the grave
could not contain the prisoner. Jesus burst the bands of death,
and arose the triumphant victor. It was necessary that he, as the
Head and Representative of his church, should conquer death and the
grave for them. He died "that through death he might destroy him
that had the power of death, that is, the devil." He laid in the
grave that he might subdue the power of the grave. He, as a surety,
became subject unto death as a part of the curse; but, having paid
the full ransom, justice demanded his release. Having satisfied
the demands of the law, it was right that he should be honourably
acquitted. Though "delivered for our offences, he must be raised
again for our justification." The resurrection proves his atonement
was accepted by God as fully adequate to all the requirements of
justice, and declares him to be the Son of God with power. It is
by reason of the incapacity of the damned in hell, to take in the
full measure of God's wrath due to them for their sins, that their
punishment, though it be eternal, yet never satisfies; because they
can never endure all as Christ could, and did; theirs is truly less
than what Christ underwent; and, therefore, his punishment ought
not in justice to be eternal, as theirs, because he could more
fully satisfy God's wrath in a few hours than they could to all
eternity. By his complete satisfaction, the costly, inestimable
price of redemption is paid, and the sinner's surety released from
all the claims of the Law and justice. "Christ is risen from the
dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." Do we not
hear him exclaim, "Thy dead men shall live together; with my dead
body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust."
"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them
from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy
destruction." May we not join in happy chorus, "O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin;
and the strength of sin is the law. But, thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
[106] Luke xvi. 26.