The Call of Christ: His Offer of Life Beyond the Grave

[Resource Manager]

 

THE CALL OF CHRIST:

HIS OFFER OF LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVE

 

John Carter

 

If you are troubled and perplexed by the problems that beset men and women and nations today; if you wonder whether there is any purpose of God in human life; if you are uncertain whether there is a life beyond death, or if you think that there might be, yet are in doubt about how it can be attained—then this pamphlet is for you. We believe there is an answer for the world’s problems in Jesus Christ who is still calling men and women to hear his words as when he spoke them in Palestine 1,900 years ago. But it is impossible in a short pamphlet to deal in detail with all problems: nevertheless, what we find in the message of Jesus on the subject of a future life touches so many other aspects of life’s problems that a careful look at that one phase will put us on the way to meeting other difficulties.

 

 

We must admit that the preaching of the gospel by his followers in the first century led to a revolution in men’s way of thinking and living. What was the reason for such mighty changes? The only adequate explanation is what is contained in the gospel records about his work and mission and also the fact that the message preached by him and by the apostles after him met a very real human need. Jesus Christ has been the most influential life lived on this planet. Men and women have the same needs today and the message of Jesus can satisfy them now as in the first century. There are the same questionings on essential things today as there were nineteen hundred years ago; for men and women remain as they have always been. You may know next to nothing about Jesus Christ—to many he is only a name. We must therefore consider why we turn to him for answers to the questions we are asking today. We must find out what there was about him that drew men and women to him when he moved about among them; what was the reason for the authority with which he spoke; what he claimed for himself; and then we must examine more specifically his teaching on life beyond the grave.

[Resource Manager]

THE APPEAL OF JESUS

 

The records that we have of the life of Jesus are almost entirely devoted to his ministry with emphasis on the closing days which led to his crucifixion. Most of his ministry was spent in journeying from place to place preaching and healing. Both his message and his miracles created tremendous enthusiasm; the whole province of Galilee rang with excited talk about the new preacher. Crowds followed him from place to place, pressing around the houses where he stayed, and sometimes leaving him little time for rest or food. Numbers were once so great that he entered a boat and used it as a platform from which to address the crowds on the shore. The “fame of him spread everywhere”, and Mark describes how the whole country was moved: “A great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude, hearing all that he did, came to him.”

 

What is the reason for this widespread interest in him? Without doubt his miracles played a great part; so many were healed throughout the land that we can understand how eagerly those who were sick would seek him out. We cannot here examine the importance and significance of the miracles beyond saying that they were closely related in their object with the message that he gave; they attested his claims that God was with him and also illustrated that his work was to bring healing to men and women in even deeper senses than bodily needs. But besides his works there was a great attractiveness in the man himself. He showed a spirit of kindliness and helpfulness to all; he was moved with compassion on the crowd. He cared for men and women and they were drawn to him. He was not a Rabbi aloof and unapproachable; women brought their children to him and he blessed them. In his presence sinners felt their sinfulness and sought to reform; when in sorrow people sought him for solace and help

 

Men “wondered”, says Luke, “at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth” (Luke 4:22). “Grace was poured into his lips”, in the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 45:2); and the grace and attractiveness of Jesus has been an abiding and sweetening thing in human life. As we read his words we can feel their charm. In the synagogue at Nazareth, he read words from the prophet Isaiah. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me”, he said, “because he has anointed me to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to them that are blind, to set at liberty those that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” There were many poor, broken-hearted, and bruised; many blind and deaf. But more are blind to discern life’s meaning, than there are who need help at the road crossings. More are deaf to divine instruction than to human calls. More are captive in the bondage of sin and of evil than are captives in war. Jesus declared he had a healing work to do; and one of the most engaging of his claims is that he is the physician to men. But the need for his aid must be felt. The self-righteous and self-sufficient found fault with him that he gave the ordinary man and women his message of cheer, and with a delicate but searching irony he said, “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”. Sin is like sickness, and his healing of bodily ills pointed to his aim to be a healer of the deeper affliction of sin. He never minced his words in his teaching concerning sin and righteousness; he spoke plainly yet with appeal. What can surpass the grace of his words when he rejoiced that while men who are wise and prudent in their own eyes did not respond to his call, yet those with simple and honest hearts and childlike faith heard him gladly? “Coma unto me”, he said, “all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and burden is light.” He invites men to be his yoke fellows by learning from him, so enabling him to share their burdens, and to give comfort to hearts and shoulders that carry with him the load of life’s cares.

 

The same spirit breathes through many of his sayings. He spoke of himself as the Shepherd seeking out the lost, and as the sower casting the good news of God’s kingdom into men’s hearts. When his friends were in peril he counselled, “Be not afraid”; and in the most critical time in the experiences of himself and his followers he could say, “Be of good cheer”. His attitude to men might be summed up in the words, “When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).

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HIS AUTHORITY

 

We should make a mistake if we thought he was simply a sentimental philanthropist. His kindness arose out of strength. There was a decisiveness in his tones and words when he was teaching that revealed both power and authority. This feature was noted by his hearers. “The people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matt. 8:18, 29). It is necessary that we consider this aspect, for if his claims are well founded we can accept his teaching with confidence.

 

His was not so much an authority that belongs to a teacher who has gained a mastery of his subject; the authority of Jesus was essentially a personal one; an authority that was his because of who he was. This feature comes out clearly in what is called the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), an address which contrary to what many think concerning it, is full of dogmatic teaching, not just about how men should live, but also about God’s purpose with men. As we review his words in the sermon we shall note the astonishing claims he implicitly makes for himself, and also that he makes definite pronouncements concerning future things as they affect his hearers.

 

When he begins by saying who are “blessed” people we observe a note of finality; there is no argument, but a simple statement of fact that the poor in spirit, the meek, the seekers after righteousness, the merciful and the poor in heart are blessed. He tells us why: he says these qualities of life an: good not just because they are so in themselves, but because those who possess them have qualities that belong to a future life. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven (that is, God’s kingdom, as the parallels in the other gospels show); and they shall see God. An ordinary teacher cannot make such statements; it is as much beyond human power to say what qualifies for future good as it is to declare that there will be a life beyond the present one. Such matters touch divine purposes. Yet Jesus always speaks with the assurance of one with full knowledge on the subject. The same knowledge of God’s purpose is seen in his saying that the Father knows the needs of his children, and that those who seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness will have other things added. Some of his sayings in the Sermon specifically refer to the conditions upon which men can enter a future life. He indicates that the conditions would not be easy and would not evoke a popular response. "Enter in at the straight gate”, he said, “for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13, 14).

 

We cannot escape from his meaning. He knows about the future life into which men may enter; but he says that the way to that life will not be popular, the demands made are too severe for those who follow what they deem for themselves to be right or desirable.

 

But the most astonishing of his claims concern his own relationship to men’s destiny. “Not everyone that says unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.’“ He will not have profession without practice; to claim Discipleship will not avail apart from obedience. But while it is God’s (his Father’s) will that must be done, he is also personally involved: how otherwise can he refer to the formal recognition in the day of judgment of his own lordship as a factor in the issue? He is involved directly as the channel of God’s decisions about men, for he adds of unfaithful disciples that “in that day”, some future day of judgment, he will say, “Depart from, me, I never knew you”.

 

Of one piece with this are the words which follow given in the form of pictures of two builders. “Whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them”, he said, “is like a man who has built a house on a rock, and when the storm comes the house stands.” But the man who hears his sayings and does them not, is like a man who built on sand only to see his building fall in ruins when the storm discovered the insecure foundations. The claims are stupendous: his words, he declares, are the basis upon which men’s future will be determined: and “in that day” he will be there as judge. As men listened to one whom they thought to be but the carpenter of a village in Galilee, and heard such words, they might have decided he was mad. The fact that they did not, shows the essential sanity of the man; but the alternative is the decision which they reached; he spoke with authority. We see how this authority permeates his every word; but we also have learned how closely his teaching has interwoven in it as basic to his thought that he is concerned with men knowing God, and seeking God, and sharing in a future life provided by God. Before we look at a few specific statements concerning that future life, let us ask, what was the source of that authority which is present in every word of his recorded in the Gospels? We shall find the answer intimately connected with his teaching on everlasting life.

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THE SOURCE OF HIS AUTHORITY?

 

He tells us himself—he was the Son of God, sent by God with a message to give and a work to do. Both the message and the work are inseparably linked with the fact that in him God has approached men with an offer of life. Take a selection of statements from John’s gospel—the one of the four records that has most to say concerning his teaching on this subject: “He whom God has sent speaks the words of God: for God gives not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. He that believes in the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:34-36). He was sent by God, the Son the Father loved, the channel through whom men can have eternal life.

 

Again he said: “When you have lifted up the Son of man (a reference to his crucifixion) then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things” (8:28). The tremendous importance that attaches to such a message is firmly asserted and the effect of its rejection declared: “He that rejects me and receives not my words has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (12:48).

 

His claim is nothing less than that a twofold authority attaches to his message: (1) since it has been given to him by God it has the authority that belongs to a pronouncement from the Almighty Himself; and (2) as the Son of God his words have the importance that attaches to one so great.

 

His language always reveals a consciousness of his unique relationship to God as His Son; he speaks as one who is doing a work for men’s salvation of which his message was an authoritative declaration. Such claims are great—rash and foolish if without a basis in fact; but of outstanding value and importance if they are true.

 

They are substantiated as true in many ways, and cannot be brushed aside.

[Resource Manager]

HIS WORK

 

He was “sent of God”; the Son of God who spoke the Father’s words. He was sent for a purpose; he declares he came to make a future life possible. This purpose filled his thought throughout his ministry from the very commencement when John the Baptist pointed to him as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. What this involved may be learned in part as we briefly look at some of his sayings.

 

Towards the end of his ministry it was noted that “his lace was steadfastly set to go to Jerusalem”. He was going to Jerusalem fully aware that he would die there after he had been scorned and crucified. But the same steadfastness marks his whole life and ministry and shows that from the start he had that end in view. He recognized that he was born to that end. Such language as he used would be folly from anyone else’s lips, but belongs to him distinctively as a part of the man he was. He showed his disciples “how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matt. 16:31). He said that he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and “to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This is the key to his work. He came to lay-down his life for men’s ransom from death. He expressed it in various ways.

 

In a verse which reveals our need and the provision for it in his death on the cross, he looks back to an incident in the early days of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness, when a plague of serpents was sent to punish their transgression. God told Moses to put a brazen serpent on a pole and healing would follow the faith that led a bitten man to look at it. Jesus, whose belief in the Old Testament as God’s word shines out in all he said, turns to this as a parable of what he had to do for men who were suffering from sin and its effects—death. He traced a parallel between the serpent lifted up on a pole that serpent-bitten Israelites might find deliverance from that death by serpent bite, and his own crucifixion that men might find everlasting life. “So must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It is this saying that shaped the next words in the gospel: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:14-17).

 

These words have been laid hold of by followers of Jesus as being the very heart of the gospel: God’s love and human need; the given Son who died, that men who are dying might not perish but have everlasting life. We must mark the contrast between perishing and having everlasting life. The one describes our present estate; we now have only a short life and then we cease to be; and apart from God’s love and the gift of His son, that would be the whole story. But a sequel is now possible—for eternal life is attainable by faith: “whosoever believeth”.

 

God loved the world and gave His Son; and this work of Father and Son is the subject of many sayings of Jesus, showing that in him God was providing for us to share the divine life.

 

Jesus declared that he was like the manna in the wilderness necessary for Israel’s life; he was the bread from heaven that men might partake of him and have life. “As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57). He also said the bread was his flesh which he would give for the life of the world, indicating that life would become possible for men through his own offering.

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Of the many statements which show that he would go forward to death for men’s sake, perhaps none is more clear than when he compared himself to the shepherd who cared for the sheep. ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep ... Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:11, 17).

 

Beyond his death he saw a new life. Death on the cross and burial was not to be the end; he would be raised from death by the power of the Father. He claimed to be “the Resurrection and the Life”, and at the tomb of Lazarus he demonstrated what he meant by the word resurrection by restoring to life a man who had been buried four days. But he himself was both Resurrection and Life because in him, whom God raised from death, to whom God gave endless life, is established the power to raise the dead and give them everlasting life.

 

The language of Jesus indicates that he laid claim to a special mission, which would culminate in his death. The four gospels devote much space to the circumstances that surrounded his trial and death. The evening before his death he partook of the Jewish Passover meal by which the Jews celebrated the deliverance from Egypt under Moses; and he declared that part of the meal, the bread and wine, would henceforth have a new significance for them. They would partake of the bread and wine henceforth as a means of keeping him in memory. And throughout the Christian Ages believers have kept that ordinance. But why should he make such an appointment? No one else has ever done such a thing. The reason is to be found only in the fact which he gave as the reason for and meaning of the rite. Of the wine, he said, “This is the blood of the new covenant, shed for many for the remission of sins”. That was the reason for his death—to provide the means for sins to be forgiven. That expresses the high purpose which charged his life in all his days. That purpose explains the strange self-possession and fortitude throughout trials which were a disgrace to both Jewish and Roman jurisprudence, in that every rule to safeguard a fair trial was cast aside. False witness, hatred, intimidation, all played a part with one or other of his judges—while the man accused met the ordeal with a fortitude and a courage which dismayed his opponents and showed his determination to endure it all.

 

His reply to Pilate shows his confidence that his death was not the end. “Art thou a king?” asked the Roman judge. Jesus assented to the fact: “You say that I am a king”, and he added, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37). They are calm words to be spoken in such circumstances: but they show an invincible faith that his work would go on. His voice was not to be silenced and men of truth would hear it through the ages. Nineteen hundred years have proved the truth of his claim. His work was not finished with his death.

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HIS RESURRECTION

 

All four gospels tell of the sequel. On the third day the followers of Jesus visited an empty tomb and were told that Jesus was risen from the dead. The positive proof was given them in personal interviews in which they ate with him, spoke with him, handled him; and forty days later the apostles saw him taken into heaven and were told by angels that “this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven”. From that day until now men and women who have believed this message have looked for the return of Jesus to the earth.

 

The resurrection of Jesus differed from any other restoration to life. He himself had given life to the dead: to the widow’s son at Nain; to the daughter of Jairus; to Lazarus at Bethany. All these miracles recorded in the four gospels were attestations of the truth of the message he delivered. But the resurrection of Jesus is consistently declared to be the work of God. It was an inevitable consequence of the sinless life that he had lived. He had pleased the Father in everything; he was obedient in all his acts even to the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8), and God restored him to life. “Him has God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, for it was not possible that he should be held by it”, said Peter, ten days after Jesus had ascended.

 

The resurrection of Jesus differed from other recorded resurrections in that they were but temporary restorations to life. His was to a life unending: in the words of Paul, “Death has no more dominion over him”. He is made after the power of an endless life. He can say: “I am he that was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and the grave.” By God’s arrangement he is in himself conqueror of death and there is vested in him the power to give life to others by using those keys of death to raise up to life whomsoever he will.

 

In Jesus we see illustrated the method by which death is overcome. This is obscured by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul—the teaching that men already have a life which survives death in a non-bodily form of existence in some other world. We search in vain the teaching of Jesus and of all the books of the Bible for any evidence in support of this idea; it is not there. Candid students have admitted that the Bible doctrine of eternal life is not that of a continued life unbroken by death but only changed in form: the Bible teaching is that a future life can only be obtained by a restoration of bodily existence by resurrection from the dead. We look at Jesus who declared, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”, and we see the pattern by which death is overcome. His resurrection was confidently expected by himself and was foretold on many occasions although not comprehended at the time by his hearers. His words took on the missed significance after they had had irrefragable evidence that he was alive again.

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THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON RESURRECTION

 

We have already quoted sayings of Jesus that a future life was dependent upon keeping his commandments. We have seen his claims that he had come that men might have eternal life. “I am the Bread of life.” “You will not come to me that you might have life.” “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

 

Did he say how that life would be given? The answer is as clear as one could wish. He said he would raise from death men who believed on him and give them everlasting life.

 

“The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves (who have heard his word, verse 24) shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28, 29).

 

“This is the Father’s will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:29). In three other verses in this chapter (John 6), Jesus spoke of that resurrection at the last day:

 

“This is the will of him that sent me, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (verse 40).

 

“No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto me” (verses- 44, 45).

 

“Whoso eats my flesh (that is, receives his teaching concerning his offering as a sacrifice) ... has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (verse 54).

 

On another occasion he connected the resurrection with the last day. To a bereaved sister of Lazarus he said: “Thy brother shall rise again”. “I know”, replied Martha, “that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus confirmed her belief by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever lives and believes (that is, at his coming again) in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 

Martha’s answer was comprehensive: “Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God which should come into the world.” It was a wonderful faith that then recognized that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah and the Son of God whose coming had been foretold. There was also a strict connection between the Messiahship of Jesus and the last day.

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THE JUDGE OF MEN

 

Inseparably connected with the claims of Jesus to be the Resurrection is the assertion that he is the appointed Judge of men. This is evident from a number of the scriptures already quoted. Men will be turned away by him in a future-day, or accepted by him. Some will be raised to everlasting life, and some to shame; and Jesus himself will determine their destiny, for the Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). The Father “has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man” (John 5:27). During his life on earth he was holy in all his ways while sharing in our human weakness, and is uniquely qualified to be the judge of men. His judgment will be by divine standards, for he is Son of God. His judgment will be righteous, for he has laid down his life to save sinners, and the rejected by him will have rejected his help to save them from sin.

 

The assertion that he will be judge involves that he is able to estimate the deeds of men with unerring faithfulness to truth. Who can judge one’s fellow man, assessing aright the complexities of motives in conduct? It belongs to divine power and discernment to know men aright and to determine their destiny with justice. What Jesus has done in the past is the foundation for the future work to be accomplished. The sinless man who died for us is alone fitted to judge us.

 

THE LAST DAY

 

The reference to the last day was not to a time which was vague and indefinite. Neither did it convey to the hearers of Jesus the idea of an end of all things. The phrase had a meaning which was based on Old Testament promises, and we must now briefly refer to them to understand the teaching of Jesus.

 

The Old Testament prophets foretold that Israel would be re-gathered from a long dispersion to their own land when their Messiah would appear to rule over them. The devout Jew still looks for the Messiah. The Bible Christian believes that Jesus is he and that at the second coming of Jesus he will fulfil those prophecies which tell of Israel’s restoration and of the establishment of one government for all the world with the Messiah as King. The prophets described the time for these changes as “the last day”, and the phrase passed into current use as a description of the day of the appearing of Israel’s king. When, then, Jesus spoke of raising the dead at the last day, he was saying that he would raise the dead when he returned to be king. He connected the resurrection with his second advent: that is the time when he comes to judge those who have known God’s will, and give eternal life to those who have followed him. “I am come”, he said, “a light into the world that whosoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself: but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak” (John 12:46-50).

 

In these words Jesus unites his claims to have divine authority for his message, that he was the light of the world, that the rejection of his words related men to a judgment when he comes again, and that the commandment given him concerned everlasting life.

[Resource Manager]

JESUS THE FUTURE KING OF THE WORLD

 

The words “the last day” refer to the day when Jesus as Israel’s Messiah reigns on earth. This thought gives definite-ness to the conditions of the future life following the resurrection when Jesus returns. We recall Pilate’s question to Jesus, “Art thou a King?” and the affirmative answer of Jesus, “As you say”. We remember that Jesus demands that men seek first the Kingdom of God. Jesus is to be king when that “kingdom comes”. His promise to the apostles concerned this same kingdom. “You who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28).

 

We cannot miss the connection that is here established between his throne and the twelve tribes of Israel which are to be “regenerated” as a nation. Neither can we avoid the conclusion that for the promise to be fulfilled Jesus must return and the apostles be raised from death. But the next words in the answer of Jesus link also the teaching that at that time everlasting life will be given to all who have made Jesus their Lord and Saviour: “And every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

 

On another occasion he said, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto me: that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29, 30).

 

This teaching of Jesus is in harmony with the angel’s message to his mother before his birth. “He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). The throne of David was in Jerusalem: that city will still be the centre of all government, when “in the last days” men will say, “Come, and let us go ... to the house of the God of Jacob ... he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:3, 4). The house of Jacob, the nation of Israel, once the Kingdom established by God in Palestine, then scattered and the kingdom overturned, will yet people the old lands; then the Kingdom restored will extend to take in all nations when all nations are blessed in the Messiah “and all nations shall call him blessed”.

[Resource Manager]

HOW CAN WE SHARE?

 

We have seen that the teaching of Jesus promises life from the dead by resurrection; that he will raise the dead at his coming; that he will be the judge of men, and will give eternal life to those who have listened to his teaching. They will be made equal to the angels to die no more. We have seen that no better security for faith in these things could be given to men than God has provided. He has intervened m human life by raising up a Son whose faithful and perfect obedience has ensured his own resurrection. God has also raised him from death, endowed him with an endless life and with power to raise from death whom he will, and to give them a perfect and endless life. We are not left uncertain when this will be, nor where that life will be lived. For Jesus will come again to rule the world in righteousness, put down all that is evil and abolish death and all that is in opposition to God’s will. His message is clear; it is practical; it is sure. Nothing could ever have established Christianity except his resurrection, for Christian promises are all based upon the fact that he rose. The evidence cannot be gainsaid if candidly examined.

 

We have confined our examination to the teaching of Jesus himself; but all the teaching of the apostles in their addresses in Acts and in the Epistles in the New Testament, are in perfect harmony with what we have found.

 

What must we do to share in the future life God has provided in His Son? The answer is in two words—Believe; obey. On the one hand we have his words, “Unless you believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins”. On the other hand, the life of those who believe is assured: “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him” (John 17:2, 3).

 

“Go you into all the world”, he commanded the apostles, “and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15, 16). Can less than our obedience be expected when God has done so much and His Son has given his life? “You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.”

 

 

JOHN CARTER

 

TheCallOfChrist.pdf