Acts 17:31

THE RESURRECTION AND THE JUDGMENT

‘Whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.’

Acts 17:31

On two thoughts—righteousness in God and responsibility in man—the judgment to come may be said to hinge. And it is to these two thoughts that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives the most striking emphasis, and in this way contributes an assurance of a judgment to come.

I. It gives emphasis to the righteousness of God.—There are many arguments and illustrations by which we try to assure ourselves of a life to come. But the one thought which seems more than any other to have laid hold upon the minds of men is the spectacle of the inequalities and injustices of the world as it now is. It is felt that we cannot be looking upon a complete scene. Justice so often miscarries; wrong is so often triumphant; merit is not always rewarded; evil seems to have a premium of success, and Fortune to distribute her emoluments with careless hand and blinded eyes. Yet God has told us in the Resurrection of Christ that our faith in the ultimate victory of holiness is not wrong; that our belief that the innocent and pure would yet be vindicated is no hallucination; that our confidence in the righteous character of our Creator is not misplaced; that the coming age will supply the defects, remedy the faults, rectify the judgments, and avenge the wrongs of the present, that He has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness.

II. The Resurrection of Christ gives emphasis to the responsibility of man.—The second element essential to this idea of a judgment hereafter is to be found in the responsibility of man; without this, the judgment would be but a fiction and a mere mockery of justice. And to this responsibility the Resurrection of Christ gives emphasis. It is the proclamation of the possibility of the spiritual Resurrection which has been the dream of the ages.

Bishop W. Boyd Carpenter.