FOURTH QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #7
NOVEMBER 12, 2022
“CHRIST’S VICTORY OVER DEATH”

 

This week’s lesson examines the historical evidence of the literal resurrection of Jesus as documented by eyewitnesses to the event. Of course, the New Testament text is where this evidence is primarily found. And since these were actual eyewitnesses there is no better historical evidence. There were later non-biblical and non-eyewitness historical texts which also verify the eyewitness accounts, but these are not as weighty in their veracity due to when and by whom they were written. There was, however, one contemporary historian, Josephus, that also makes mention of the resurrection:

 

“At this time there was a wise man Who was called Jesus. And His conduct was good, and He was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became His disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become His disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them after His crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning Whom the prophets have recounted wonders.” — Testimonius; Josephus, English Translation of Arabic Version.

 

The quarterly covered the historical points quite well and you are encouraged to spend time studying those. I will only make one additional historical point and that is that the apostles spoke of the resurrection of Jesus as something that did not need to be proven. They spoke of it as something of which everyone was well aware. For example, Peter in his sermon at Pentecost spoke thus:

 

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know — Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him:

 

‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 1:22-32, NKJV).

 

Notice that Peter spends no time proving the facts of the resurrection but spends all his time showing how the event was foretold in scripture — on scriptural evidence.

 

When Paul went before King Agrippa, he spoke plainly about the resurrection of Jesus. And though Agrippa tried to make light of the matter Paul says:

 

“But he said, ‘I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe’” (Acts 26:25-27).

 

Paul confronts Agrippa with the well-known reports of the witnessed accounts of the resurrection that could not possibly have escaped his notice “since this thing was not done in a corner.” To this point Agrippa has no rebuttal because it was in fact something of which he was well aware.

 

In addition, the resurrection of Jesus was as central to the testimony of the apostles as was the cross. The quarterly has even made the statement that the cross “really does us no good apart from His resurrection.” While this may seem true, I personally am uncomfortable saying that the cross alone “would do us no good.” But I believe the reality that is trying to be expressed might better be said like this:  The cross and the resurrection go hand in hand and are inseparable.

 

The title for this week’s lesson is Christ’s Victory Over Death. If we answer the question, “what gave Christ victory over death?” we will see why the cross and resurrection are inseparable.

 

One place to find the answer to this question is Philippians chapter 2:

 

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians. 2:5-9).

 

The complete self-emptying love of Jesus manifest in His incarnation, life, and ultimately His death on the cross was the victory —the cross was the victory— and it was this victory over sin and the world that brought about what happened next — resurrection and exaltation.

 

Resurrection: If the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) then the wages of self-emptying love is the opposite of death, that is, life. Selfishness and living for yourself cannot escape the grave, but a life of selfless love can never be held by it. And that life is the gift of God given to us in the person of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23). It is His life and His resurrection that He has given to each one, for He has given us Jesus and He is “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

 

Exaltation: Exaltation? Yes, but not in the sense you might initially think. It was not as if once Jesus passed the selfless test that He was now put in authority to operate from a different set of principles. He was not exalted so that He now could control and exercise power over everyone. Not in the least. He definitely was lifted to a place of authority and given a name exalted above all other. But that which gives the authority and that which gives the exalted name is the selfless love that is central to His life and death. That self-sacrificing love is that quality and characteristic that is the authority and most exalted position available in the universe, and that position Jesus was given by virtue of His victorious love for you.

 

Paul, who was a champion of the cross, speaks of the importance of the resurrection in this way. He said:

 

“For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:16–18).

 

Speaking to skeptics of the reality of resurrection, Paul tells them of the utter hopelessness of their position. First, Jesus would still be in the grave — He was not victorious if He has not risen. If He is not risen (not victorious over sin and the world) then we are still in our sins. We would not gain the forgiveness of our sin nor experience the power of the resurrection in our life. Furthermore, all those in the grave are left there for they would not have those things either.

 

The resurrection of Jesus is everything to us! Waggoner put it this way:

 

“Notice that in the discourse of Paul concerning the resurrection he says not only that if CHRIST be not risen those who have fallen asleep in Him are perished, but that ‘ye are yet in your sins.’ The resurrection of JESUS assures the resurrection of men from the dead, only because it brings the forgiveness of sins. The hope of the resurrection is simply the hope that comes from righteousness received through faith in CHRIST, ‘Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.’ Romans 4:25. The Apostle Peter connects the ‘lively hope’ to which GOD has begotten us by the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST from the dead, with the fact that we are ‘kept by the power of GOD through faith unto salvation.’”— E.J. Waggoner; BEST July 15, 1893, par. 6, emphases supplied here and onward.

 

And Waggoner, in a companion article two weeks later, also brings out the importance of the resurrection as being much more than an historical event that happened 2000 years ago. He shows us that it is a present event and that the power of the resurrection is something we all must know and experience today.

 

   “The power of CHRIST is the power of the resurrection. Paul declares that the Gospel of GOD is ‘concerning His Son, JESUS CHRIST, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the SON of GOD with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’ Romans 1:3, 4. It was by the Spirit that CHRIST was quickened or made alive (1 Peter 3:18); and the Spirit has the power of giving life, because it is the Spirit of holiness. See Romans 8:10. Life and righteousness are identical, as we learn from Romans 8:6: ‘To be spiritually minded is life and peace;’ and also from Galatians 3:21, which tells us that if there had been a law given which could have given life, righteousness would have come by it. The Spirit of GOD, therefore, gives life to the dead because it gives righteousness to sinners.

 

   In order to see that this is what is to be learned from the resurrection of CHRIST, read again the quotation from the first chapter of Ephesians, and then follow on with the second chapter: ‘And you hath He quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins; ...but GOD, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with CHRIST (by grace are ye saved), and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in CHRIST JESUS.’ Ephesians 2:1-6. Therefore, we know the power of the resurrection of CHRIST only by experiencing the same power in the forgiveness of sins, and in overcoming sin. Thus, we share even now in the resurrection of CHRIST, and that is the assurance of the future resurrection at his coming.

 

   Read also the same thing in the Epistle to the Colossians: ‘Ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power; in Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of CHRIST; buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the working [operation] of GOD, Who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.’ Colossians 2:10-13.

 

   All tell the same thing: the forgiveness of sins comes by the resurrection of CHRIST, not as a historical event that took place eighteen hundred years ago, but as a present thing, which we are to experience day by day with Him. Thus, we may see how the resurrection of CHRIST is to be the one theme of Christian preaching now as well as in the days of the apostles. We are to be reminded of it, not by the formal observance of a day once a year, which has never been commanded, but by going through the process daily.” —E.J. Waggoner; BEST August 1, 1893.

 

“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:17).

 

And it is this present resurrection power of which we can be present witnesses rather than simply repeating what others witnessed 2000 years ago. A witness is one who can give a firsthand account. The question is, can we give a firsthand account of the resurrection of Jesus? According to scripture we can, and we must. Listen to Jones on this topic, speaking to the General Conference attendees in 1895 — also notice how he connects the cross to the resurrection:

 

   “‘That ye may know ... what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.’ Now says Paul, ‘That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.’ That is, not His power alone in raising Paul from the dead after he had died and gone into the grave. That is not it. But it is to know the power of His resurrection now while we live; that is, the power which is brought to us by Him, by which we are crucified with Him, and are dead with Him and buried with Him, and then made alive with Him and then raised with Him and seated with Him at the right hand of God in heaven. That is the power which He referred to.

 

   ‘That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead’ [or out from among the dead].

 

   He wants to know the power of Christ’s resurrection in order to attain for himself unto the resurrection out from among the dead. The man who in this life never knows the power of Christ’s resurrection will never know it in the other life. True, He will be raised from the dead, but He will not know the power that raised from the dead, so that whoever does not get acquainted with the power of Christ’s resurrection before He dies will never know the power of Christ’s resurrection from that death.” — A.T. Jones. GCB/GCDB 1895, page 433.

 

And four years later in the Review, Jones put it this way:

 

   “Thus the power that was manifested in raising Christ from the dead, and setting Him at the right hand of God far above all,—this is precisely the measure of the power that is freely given to every soul in the world, and that will be manifested in and upon everyone who believes; in other words, it is power nothing short of resurrection power that is freely given to all, and that is to be manifested in and upon everyone who believes.

 

   This, and this alone, is ‘the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe:’ as it is written, ‘That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.’  Philippians 3:10, 11.” — A.T. Jones; ARSH June 27, 1899.

 

I have to ask myself this. Do I truly believe in the resurrection of Jesus? Do I truly appreciate all that He has done to bring this to me? If so, why would I settle for a half living zombie resurrection? It is my prayer that I may see my great need and come to know the power of His resurrection today. Will you join me in that prayer? Praying that we may bear witness to the present reality of His resurrection manifested in all that we say and do. May we yield ourselves to not speaking or acting in the tone, manner or methods of the world, but rather that the living Christ will truly bring new life to us and that our hearts and understanding will be informed by the self-sacrificing love of Christ.

 

"Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (Revelation 12:10-12).

 

~ Kelly Kinsley

 

 

Thought questions:  According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:16-18, does the resurrection of Jesus have anything to do with the resurrection of those who have experienced the first death? Of those who experience the first death, how many are resurrected? (see Acts 24:15, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:5). I believe everyone can see that the death and resurrection of Jesus has everything to do with the resurrection of the just. Does the resurrection of the Jesus have anything to do with the resurrection of the unjust? Why or why not? Does our answer to the last question tell us anything about God? Can Romans 5:18 help us with this question?