The Resurrection and Sin.
"_Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was . . . declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead_."--Romans i. 3, 4.
Just as one of the great proofs, if not the great proof, of the truth of
Christianity is the vast fact of the world's need for it, so one grand
proof of the Resurrection lies in the fact that no interpretation of
Christ's teaching or Christ's life would be worth a brass farthing--so far
as the actual life of suffering man is concerned--without His Death and
Resurrection. That teaching might be illuminating--convincing--exalting;
yes, even morally perfect; and yet, if He did not die, it would be little
more than a superior book of proverbs or a collection of highly-polished
copy-book maxims. That life--that wonderful life--might be the supremest
example of all that is or could be good and great and lovely in human
experience; and yet, if He did not rise again from the tomb, it would,
after all, be only a dead thing--like a splendid specimen of carved marble
in some grand museum, exquisite to look upon, and of priceless value, but
cold and cheerless, lifeless and dead.
For it is a Living Person men need to be their Friend and Saviour and
Guide. The splendid statue might possibly invite or challenge us to
imitate it, but it could never call a human heart to love its stony
features. Noble and pure as Jesus Christ's example undoubtedly was, it
could of itself never satisfy a human soul or inspire poor, broken, human
hearts with hope and love, or wash away from human consciousness the
stains of sin. These things can only be done by a Living Person. So it is
that we are not told to believe on His teaching or on His Church, but on
_Him_. He did not say "Follow My methods or My disciples," but
"_Follow_ ME." If He be not risen from the dead, and alive for
evermore; if, in short, it be a dead man we are to follow and on whom we
are to believe--then we are, indeed, as Paul says, "of all men the most
miserable."