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Resurrected Christ Appears
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We Shall Recognize Our Loved Ones
The countenance of the risen Saviour, His manner, His speech,
were all familiar to His disciples. As Jesus arose from the dead, so
those who sleep in Him are to rise again. We shall know our friends,
as the disciples knew Jesus. In the glorified body their identity will
be perfectly preserved. We shall recognize those we love.
Jesus reminded His disciples of the words He had spoken before
His death. “Then opened He their understanding, that they might
understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and
thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third
day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached
in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are
witnesses of these things.” Christ’s life, His death and resurrection,
the prophecies that pointed to these events, the sacredness of the law
of God, the mysteries of the plan of salvation, the power of Jesus
for the remission of sins—all these they were to make known to the
world.
“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they
are retained.” The more abundant impartation of the Holy Spirit did
not take place until after Christ’s ascension. But Christ breathed His
Spirit upon them to impress them with the fact that without the Holy
Spirit they could not fulfill their official duties in connection with
the church.
The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of
Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only
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those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose
life the Christ-life is manifested, are to minister in behalf of the
church.
“Whose soever sins ye remit,” said Christ, “they are remitted;
... and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Christ here
gives no liberty for any man to pass judgment on others. This is the
prerogative of God. But on the church in its organized capacity He
places a responsibility for the individual members. Toward those
who fall into sin, the church has a duty to warn, to instruct, and
if possible to restore. Deal faithfully with wrongdoing. Call sin