The words of Jesus are only words. These precious words, spoken to
that one weeping sister in a little Jewish village, and which have
brought hope to millions ever since, are as baseless as all the other
dreams and longings of the heart, unless Jesus confirms them by fact.
If He did not rise from the dead, they are but another of the noble,
exalted, but futile delusions of which the world has many others. If
Christ be not risen, His words of consolation are swelling words of
emptiness; His whole claims are ended, and the age-old question which
Job asked is unanswered still, and will always remain unanswered. If
Christ be not risen, the hopeless colloquy between Jehovah and the
prophet sums up all that can be said of the future life: 'Son of man,
can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, Thou knowest!'
But Christ's resurrection is a fact which, taken in connection with
His words while on earth, endorses these and establishes His claims to
be the Declarer of the name of God, the Saviour of the world. It gives
us demonstration of the continuity of life through and after death.
Taken along with His ascension, which is but, so to speak, the
prolongation of the point into a line, it declares that a glorified
body and an abode in a heavenly home are waiting for all who by faith
become here partakers in Jesus and are quickened by sharing in His
life.
So in despite of sense and doubt and fear, notwithstanding teachers
who, like the supercilious philosophers on Mars Hill, mock when they
hear of a resurrection from the dead, we should rejoice in the great
light which has shined into the region of the shadow of death, we
should clasp His divine and most faithful answer to that old,
despairing question, as the anchor of our souls, and lift up our
hearts in thanksgiving in the triumphant challenge, 'O death! where is
thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?'