ACTS ii. 24. “Whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible
that He should be holden of it.”
THIS is the language of the first Christian Apostle, in
the first sermon that ever was preached in the Church of
Christ. In it St. Peter argues that Jesus had really
ascended into heaven, because He had first really risen
from His grave. Listen to what the Apostle says about
a subject upon which his opportunities, to say nothing of
higher credentials, qualified him to speak.
I. St. Peter states the fact of Christ’s resurrection.
“Whom God hath raised up.” Remember He was preach-
ing in Jerusalem, and to some who had taken part in the
crucifixion. It was then to persons keenly interested in
the subject, and who could test the exact truth of what
He said, that Peter states thus unhesitatingly the fact of
the resurrection.
II. The reason he gives for the resurrection. “Because
it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” And
his grounds for saying that it was a Divine impossibility
are—
1. Jewish prophecy forbade the Christ to remain in the
grave. “For David speaketh concerning Him.” The Jews
believed in the reality and in the compulsive force of
prophecy, and so as to the principle of the argument, there
would have been no controversy.
2. The character of Jesus. The leading feature of our
Saviour’s character was its simple truthfulness, and He had
again and again said that after dying, He would rise.
Sometimes He used a metaphor to express the meaning,
and sometimes He alluded to ancient Hebrew history, for
instance Jonah, as a parallel, and to His disciples He thrice
says plainly that He shall rise again.
3. He was the “Prince of life.” How could the very
Lord and source of life be subdued by death. If for
reasons of wisdom and mercy He subjected the nature
which He had made His own, to the king of terrors, it
was not in the course of nature that He should be held in
the grave when His object was achieved.
III. This necessity points to kindred necessities which
affect His servants and His Church.
1. The necessity of Christians rising again. As He is so
are we.
2. Here is the principle of the many resurrections in
the Church of Christ.
3. A real resurrection with Christ must leave some
mark on the life. “Like as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life.”
Henry Parry Liddon, D.C.L.