Resurrection
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Jesus was the first-fruits of them that slept. When he came forth
from the tomb he called a multitude from the dead, thus settling forever
the long-dised question of the resurrection. In raising this multitude
of captives from the dead, he gives evidence that there will be a final
resurrection of those who sleep in Jesus. The believers in Christ thus
receive the very light they want in regard to the future life of the pious
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dead.
Satan was bitterly incensed that his angels had fled from the pres-
ence of the heavenly angels, and that Christ had conquered death, and
shown by this act what his future power was to be. All the triumph
that Satan had experienced in witnessing his own power over men,
which had urged them on to insult and murder the Son of God, fled
before this exhibition of the divine power of Christ. He had dared
to hope that Jesus would not take up his life again; but his courage
failed him when the Saviour came forth, having paid the full ransom
of man, and enabled him to overcome Satan in his own behalf in the
name of Christ, the Conqueror. The arch-enemy now knew that he
must eventually die, and that his kingdom would have an end.
In this scene of the resurrection of the Son of God is given a lively
image of the glory that will be revealed at the general resurrection
of the just at the second appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven.
Then the dead that are in their graves shall hear his voice and come
forth to life; and not only the earth, but the heavens themselves, shall
be shaken. A few graves were opened at the resurrection of Christ; but
at his second coming all the precious dead, from righteous Abel to the
last saint that dies, shall awake to glorious, immortal life.
If the soldiers at the sepulcher were so filled with terror at the
appearance of one angel clothed with heavenly light and strength, that
they fell as dead men to the ground, how will his enemies stand before
the Son of God, when he comes in power and great glory, accompanied
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by ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of
angels from the courts of Heaven? Then the earth shall reel to and fro
like a drunkard, and be removed as a cottage. The elements shall be in
flames, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.
At the death of Jesus the soldiers had beheld the earth wrapped
in profound darkness at midday; but at the resurrection they saw the
brightness of the angels illuminate the night, and heard the inhabitants
of Heaven singing with great joy and triumph: Thou hast vanquished