The resurrection and Paul's argument: a study of First Corinthians, fifteenth chapter

Preface

Or perennial concern is the question of a life after death. Christianity gives the final answer. The revelation through Christ is supreme. This conviction possessed the great soul of St. Paul. The Church can never sufficiently thank God that this spiritual genius set himself the task of interpreting for humanity the resurrection of Christ. His majestic argument must not be overlooked. No voice throughout the ages equals that of Paul. The present-day world, seeking for light through philosophy and science and _ psychology, will do well to ponder the message of the great apostle.

In the preparation of this volume many authors have been consulted. No bibliography is offered. The writer wishes to acknowledge his obligation particularly to — Dr. W. Milligan, Frederick Robertson, and Dr. G. A. Gordon, for certain rich suggestions.

Puiuie L. Frick.

Westfield, Mass.

Iif.

IV.

Contents

Tue GOSPEL OF THE RISEN CHRIST...

Tue Fact or THE RESURRECTION AND THE PROOF FROM EYE-WITNESSES. .

THE CORINTHIAN DOUBTERS AND THE DENIAL OF A RESURRECTION......

Chapter I The Gospel Of The Risen Christ

In Paul’s epistles the resurrection is set forth as a specifically Christian doctrine. The thought of a resurrection had existed elsewhere only imperfectly and in certain forms. So far as it had a place at all in ethnic religions it was a vague, inconsistent conception, associated with crude and puerile ideas or with beliefs that gave terror to existence.—Salmond.

Every other human biography ends with death.

Christ’s real, living presence, and not the mere remembrance of Him, takes hold of men’s souls. —Lotze.

Belief in a future life, in immortality, is closely connected with belief in God. The soul that communes with Him finds in this very relation—in the sense of its own worth implied in this relation— the assurance that it is not to perish with its material organs. It is conscious of belonging to a different order of things.—F'sher.

The empire of the world belongs to God. This is the first step in the sublime idealism of the Hebrew prophets.—Ewald.

I believe in the immortality of the soul, not in the sense in which I believe in the demonstrable truths of science, but as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God’s work.—VFiske. .

Human life is a colossal enigma without immortality.—Hillis.

CHAPTER I THe GOSPEL OF THE RISEN CHRIST

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures:—1 CoRINTHIANS 15: verses 1-4.

WHEN this spiritual giant, Paul, proclaimed his profoundest religious conclusions concerning God’s purposes toward man, what did he herald? When he interpreted with keenest insight the personality of Christ, what impressed him as the most exalted achievement of the Divine Son? When Paul’s “‘Gospel”’ is unfolded to its sublimest truth, what climax revelation is made? ll

When he grasps most comprehensively the majestic possibilities of the human spirit, and interprets most sympathetically the needs of mankind, what final message of cheer and comfort and inspiration does he speak? When he victoriously itinerated among the dying nations of his day, what new dynamic of life did he offer? When he wooed men from sin to holiness, to what mighty faith did he convincingly appeal? When he revolutionized the religious life of humanity, upon what cornerstone did he build his new, all-conquering Christianity? When he would establish Christ’s world- Church, upon what foundation-fact must it be constructed?

The resurrection of Christ—this was the climax teaching in Paul’s “good news.” It was this mighty truth with its significant implications that aroused the Jews, and startled the Greeks, and stirred the Romans. It is this that still thrills the world. It is this revelation around which all others must cluster, as stars around one central sun. It was a unique message. Never had the despairing, bewildered world, surfeited with commonplaces, and trying to feed its hunger upon the husks of surmises and doubts, heard so bold a doctrine. It was a powerful message—turning the world upside down, and inaugurating the new age. It was a victorious message. Old faiths, gloomy and unsatisfactory, disappeared with its coming. By it, as under the spell of . sweetest music, humanity ceased its weary weeping, and began to chant a song of deliverance. It was a transfiguring message. Sin lost its mask; its real hideousness appeared, and its power was broken, as men listened to the story of their infinite value to God. Beholding itself in the white light of eternity, mankind began with an unprecedented zeal to turn from evil and to seek after holiness. What a majestic spectacle is this exalted Paul, preaching to a despairing world a new hope through the risen Christ!

And it is this basic faith in the resurrection of Christ that Paul, with all the greatness of his unique character, heralds and defends as central in the new religion established by Christ. To him it has a strategic significance. All other truths concerning the Divine Son need this to complete them. All other conceptions concerning the meaning of Christ’s ministry are partial without this. Without Christ’s resurrection, all other events in His mighty existence are incoherent.e The perfect flower and fruit of the earthly career of Christ was in His deliverance from the grave. Disprove His power over death, and the convincing significance of every other fact of His ministry and nature is invalidated. Remove this strong cornerstone from His career, and the stately temple of His vast achievements falls into chaotic ruin. Every other belief concerning Christ requires this to support it and to make it compelling. It is not accidental to the Christian system of belief. It is essentially fundamental to the sacred revelations that the holy Christ made by His entrance into human relationships.

There is no “good news”’ to humankind without the message of eternal life. There is no hope for sin-cursed humanity if the sinless Christ does not live now to aid His own. Hollow mockeries are all beliefs in God that stop short of revealing Him as the Giver of eternal life. The grieving, grovel- . ing race will listen to no message that does not contain this hope of an endless dawn after life’s stormy night. Deny this and men are baffled by inscrutable mysteries. Gloomy doubts, shadowy misgivings, take the place of cheerful confidences, inspiring trusts. The weeping multitudes will not hearken long to any word purporting to be from God until exultant declaration is made of His power over death. Hearing this they will gladly come to obey and serve and love Him. Useless for Paul to try to win the Jewish or Gentile world to a faith in Christ, unless he can herald His indisputable supremacy over the forces of destruction. Without the resurrection, Christianity would have been still-born, and the Church an impossibility. Prove this hope as to Christ, and the nations will crown Him their spiritual King.

Paul identifies the new system of Christianity with the faith in the risen, exalted Christ. This is the Church’s foundation.

Consequently in the midst of his on-rushing letter to the Corinthians, he must pause to write his eloquent, convincing defense of the precious belief in a future life with Christ. Nowhere else does he devote equal space to the elucidation of any one of the Christian doctrines. Nor is this by chance. He was constrained thus to do by his recognition of the climax value to humanity of this belief in the resurrection of his Lord. Always in his preaching does he lay great stress upon this, knowing that emphasis here strengthens every other Christian tenet.

Paul gloried in the cross of Christ. Through it did he understand the heart of God, the loyal obedience of the Son, the priceless value of man. Paul could never forget that the only begotten One of God emptied Himself to become man’s Savior. With what marvelous work did Paul interpret the incarnation of the Divine Son! To declare God’s love did He come into the ranks of fallen humanity. In love did He live the flawless life, that He might become man’s Exemplar and Savior. In love did

He climb Calvary’s rough sides. In love did He give Himself to die upon the cross. He loved His own until the last. His self-sacrificing love made Him willing to carry any burden, to endure any hardship, to suffer any ignominy, to submit to any experience, if only at last He could win man back in love to God.

Paul knew that Christ had lived more than a loving, sinless, self-sacrificing, obedient life. He had lived a conquering life over all of mankind’s foes. He had mastered the grave. He had demonstrated the new law of life. He revealed what was God’s eternal purpose for the race. God had raised Him from the dead and declared Him to be the Son with power. By this supreme act did God display what was the measure of His loving plans for His own.

Christ brought life and immortality to light. Christ’s existence we must endeavor

to evaluate, not merely from the standpoint

of the cross, but also of the empty tomb.

It is not enough to know that Christ was

incarnated. The world must know also

that He is the Exalted, Victorious One. 2 17 vA =

The cross needs the empty tomb to make it the true spiritual dynamic. The suffering Christ must also be the triumphant Christ. By some special act of power on God’s part, His Son must be shown to be victorious — over everything human and earthly. As Professor Bowne writes: “The resurrection is just what was needed to make clear what the great revealing meant that culminated in the life of Christ. It was also what the disciples and the Church needed to complete their faith in their Lord.”’ This constitutes also the highest revelation of God’s love. As Doctor Gordon states: “If love does not die, it is not sovereign. If it is not buried, it is not absolute in sympathy. If it is not revived, it is not victorious.” This fundamental faith in Christ’s resurrection Paul consequently “declared”? with joyful reiteration. What a welcome truth to Corinth and to the world! Like a “motif” in a great symphony, Paul spoke it with ever-increasing confidence to the rejoicing Gentile world. This message his Corinthian converts received, because it gripped the reason, and swayed the emotions 18 and inspired the life. Fitting so royally into all the needs of their nature, they could not but give it gladdest welcome. Paul did not force the doctrine upon them. They willingly accepted it, because it ministered so profoundly to the joy and holiness of their lives. Paul could boldly declare that it was in this comprehensive Gospel that included the glorious truth of the resurrection. “‘ Wherein ye stand.”’ Their entire religious life was based upon this belief. Their spirituality was the outgrowth of their confidence in the resurrected Christ. Their religious fixedness, their mental restfulness, their complacent outlook upon the future, their buoyant hopefulness, their freedom from corroding fears—all rested upon Paul’s full-orbed Gospel that contained the belief in Christ’s exaltation through the power of God, His Father.

Vastly more than they realized was their religious life in its entirety based upon this conception of a glorified Christ. Remove this foundation, and their whole spiritual existence shatters like a temple

3 19 shaken by the earthquake. By just this richest of all messages were they also *““saved.”’ Conversion and redemption resulted when the sublime truth was believed. It stirred the conscience. It motived the will in its struggles against sin and toward holiness. It furnished the mightiest protest against earthliness, by holding out the promise of an immortal existence. It emphasized the glorification of personality, by declaring the eternal permanence of character. To the soul aspiring for the good it held out the incentive of God’s unfailing assistance until finally the exalted spiritual goal was attained. It pointed out the eternal consequences of good and evil, and motived men to strive heroically for all that was acceptable to God, knowing that upon them would rest His eternal goodpleasure. The hope transfigured their lives.

That “He rose according to the Scriptures,” is Paul’s primary contention. His resurrection was in perfect accord with all former divine revelations concerning the value and destiny of man. Everything previous prepared for this final revelation.

This was no contradictory interpolation, running counter to what was already known of God’s will toward mankind. The Jewish nation particularly, should have seen at once the complete normalness of this highest truth which God knew mankind needed for its perfect redemption. What were the Holy Writings designed to do for Israel and for all the world, if not to give such broad conceptions as to God’s nature, His far-reaching plans, His mysterious power, His loving sovereignty over all forces affecting the life of man, that the race could not doubt God’s power to raise into life again that well-beloved Son whom He was to send for humanity’s salvation? For this majestic purpose did all the law-givers and prophets and psalmists of the old dispensation write, that they might prepare the human heart for the sublime message of the immortal life. All Scripture was therefore initial to the belief in a Messiah,—not merely One who would love and sacrifice and suffer and die, but also One who would live and reign forever. In the Scriptures were the hints, the foregleams, the prophecies of life 21 triumphant over death. Through all the sacred writers the spirit of man had been voicing its deepest longings, its holiest convictions, its infallible instincts, its soaring hopes, its clearest reasonings, its purest aspirations. And when the highest moods were upon man was he surest of his infinite worth to God. Consequently the Psalmist could sing, ““Thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Because of the overshadowings of the Almighty would eternal security be for the Messiah. Having sent Him into the earthly life, God will let Him taste the bitterness of death; but He will comfort Him with eternal bliss. The all-loving Father will let His Son feel the chill of death’s touch; but He will surely call Him into a more glorious after-life. The All-wise God will permit Him, for a little while, to be stripped of power and to endure humiliation, and to become subject to every tragic law of human existence; but this same God will also highly exalt Him into exceeding great glory. He will let the savage storms of earthly disaster smite Him unto the death; but God will not de- 22 sert Him. For His loved One there will be provided the way of escape. He will let human sin, grown hideous and awful, nail Him in wild rebellion against God’s will, to a cross; but the compassionate Father will rescue Him into ageless exaltation. He will not permit death to have tyrant’s sovereignty over the sinless One.

No devout Jew, thoughtfully on ae the Scriptures, ought ever to have doubted Christ’s resurrection. No human being anywhere, understanding even in slightest degree the nature of God and His omnipotence over man, should have hesitated to accept the belief in the after-life as the one final supreme gift of God to His own. This was Revelation’s focus-point. For this faith all the Old Testament was a preliminary. Paul could not doubt the God in whom he believed. The God that hung the stars in the heavens, and laid the foundations for the snow-shrouded hills, He has power over all of earth’s forces to compel them to do His holy will. He that gives life can also give eternal life. The second is not more inconceivable than the first. Such a faith is not a preposterous assumption. “‘Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?”’ said Paul to his Jewish enemies. Paul had a great theology because he had a great God. And the resurrection of Christ was but the demonstration of God’s power over the force of annihilation. This is God’s world. All forces are His instruments. Everything must be amenable to His will. They must be servants of His high plans. To deny is to doubt God. The denial of the resurrection casts discredit upon Him, as if a part of the universe had escaped from His control, and He was no longer Ruler, but subject.

This is the message for our day. The sacred word holds true for our time more than ever before. God is Master. The forces of nature belong to Him. They are not beyond His unfailing control. They must so interact as to cause everything to work for good. This high optimism must fill all hearts as they think upon God. He is sovereign! Against Him there can be no mutiny in the nature that is the expression of His will. Our spiritualized philosophy is but repeating the verdict of the Hebrew theology. Indeed, philosophy is but theol-* ogy under another name. In its loftiest moods it meditates upon God. It tries to solve.the old riddles: “Who is God?” “What is man?” ‘What is the world?” “For what purpose is our known universe created?”? Philosophy and theology are hand-maidens, looking into the face of God and endeavoring to interpret His ways toward men. Both of them minister in the courts of God. Both of them speak the same truth. Both of them, trusting in God, herald the life everlasting. Well does Bushnell claim that a belief in God settles the philosophic question as to the resurrection. If God exists, He must exist as the Lord of all physical things, not their helpless servant. On the assumption that God lives and reigns, a resurrection is possible. The denial of an after-life becomes increasingly difficult and preposterous, as men begin to grasp the unmeasured immensity of God’s cosmos and to understand by what amazing ties mankind is related to God’s orderly world, and by what in- 25 comprehensible providences God sustains the life of His children. To set limits to God’s dealings with man is wildest intellectual insanity. Who shall be reckless enough to declare what the Omnipatent One can do for those whom He loves!

Because God is supreme must death do His holy bidding. It is absolutely under His rigid control as is the growth of flowers, and the swelling of the tides and the wandering of the planets, and the cycling pageant of the seasons. He can do with death what He purposes. It exists because He ordains it to be His obedient servant. It is present as a human phenomenon because somehow the _ loving Father sees it to be necessary in His divine economy over His household. If He allows it to exist to fulfill His purpose, He can banish it when His will has been accomplished. He can “abolish death”? when He desires. The God that bids sunrise to follow sunset, He can make life the holy sequel to death.

Our high faith in the future life of man through Christ is in sublimest accord with all that we know about God. Our knowledge of His perfect mastery over creation leads us to the calm trust that death can have no permanent supremacy over Christ, nor over God’s faithful children. Humanity’s burning hopes, its lofty aspirations, its mystic longings, its unfathomable instincts are not meaningless. All these are holy, unmistakable prophecies. The historian has argued correctly that by the very universality of this mysterious language of the Spirit has humanity justly accredited the belief in a life to come. “He has written immortality in our souls.”’ It is a very part of our nature. This is our sixth sense. To believe in this is one of our basic needs. Therefore did the holy men of old walking with God, and the saints of all times enjoying blessed communion with Him, reason that God would withhold no good gift from them that love Him. Was this life good? Then He will give the other life also which vastly transcends this earthly existence. He that “only hath immortality,’ He will Q7 exalt His faithful children into eternal, sublime existence with Himself. By the resurrection of Christ, for which all Scripture had been preparing, God gives us a vision into His purpose toward mankind.

Chapter II The Fact Of The Resurrection And The Proof From Eye- Witnesses

One fact verified, indisputable, and understood, to the Anglo-Saxon mind at least, is worth a whole world of ingenious speculation.—Gordon.

In order to the perpetuation of the religion of Christ, the resurrection must be a fact. For were it not capable of establishment beyond all reasonable doubt as a fact, men would cease to believe in the divine origin of our religion. The only way by which we can retain our faith is to include the supernatural in the facts pertaining to the resurrection.—Rishell.

That which is the foundation of all our hopes and all our fears—all our hopes and fears which are of any consideration—I mean a Future Life. —Butler.

It is wasted effort trying to explain the resurrection on purely subjective or psychological or pathological grounds. Only as a truly objective supernatural event does it take its place in the historical and psychological conditions of the time. —Beyschlag.

CHAPTER II

Tue Fact oF tHE RESURRECTION AND THE PRooF FROM Eyr- WITNESSES

And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believe.—Verses 5-11.

To SOME persons no evidence is conclusive

that does not base itself upon the testimony

of the senses. Not soul but matter speaks

the final word. The mighty conclusion of 31 reason and heart are worthless in the presence of some trivial physical mystery. The argument ‘‘according to the Scriptures,”’ seems utterly irrelevant. The significant demands of the intellect, the irrefutable logic of the soul’s hungers, the sublime deductions from the nature of God, the mystic intuitions as to the value of man—these are entirely meaningless and may be completely discarded. Such persons clamor for science and disparage theology. They reject philosophy and demand demonstration. The laboratory only can furnish a positive answer for them to all problems in the human realm. One clear look of the eye is worth a thousand conclusions of the mind. Mental deductions may be but fine-spun hallucinations and clever self-deceptions. Philosophy, these assert, frequently grasps at shadows, and theology mistakes ghosts for realities. Accurate knowledge must establish its claims in the highest court of the senses. Facts are to be proven otherwise than through theorizings. The truthful must verify itself in actual experience open to all under any circumstances. The factual will always 32 demonstrate its real existence by unmistakable signs. Only that will be accepted as a “fact’’ which can demonstrate its reality even to the most skeptical, by sensuous evidence that is consistent with irrefutable natural laws. It will need no further defense by reason. Nor can anything consistently be admitted as “‘real”’ that does not satisfactorily meet this test. | Among the Christians at Corinth this class of persons demanding outward proof for all the creed declared by Paul, must have had large representation. He makes it his task to answer their objections. He will meet their denial by appeal to experience. He will furnish satisfactory proof for the doctrine he declares. The resurrection of Christ was to Paul an incontrovertible fact. Nothing could be more clearly demonstrated. Nothing was more firmly established by proof. There was so much of absolute actuality about it, that every question was forever settled, every doubt completely silenced, every skepticism hushed. Its reality was so irrefutably dem- 3 33 onstrated that the whole Christian system could be made to rest upon it.

Nor did Paul’s assurance concerning Christ’s resurrection rest merely upon his conclusions from “Scriptures.”” He has other supports for the Church’s faith. He will meet the skeptics on their own ground and produce evidence which can not be denied. He is too careful a master-builder of the faith of Christianity to put a defective cornerstone into the structure. He will leave no possible room for unfriendly criticism. He must forever silence the unbeliever, and demonstrate to all the world the sure foundation of the Christian faith. In order to convince every one of the reality of Christ’s resurrection, Paul makes his appeal to the senses also. He.turns scientist. As much as Hume or Bacon or Spencer or Huxley, does Paul believe in the “laboratory method.” His creed has no room for guesses. His tenets are not synonymous with theories. He does not care to preach “old wives’ fables.” Is Christ’s resurrection a fact? Then it must be able to furnish evidences of its reality.

Did Christ arise from the dead? Then there must be those who saw Him. Produce the witnesses, and the case is closed. Furnish the evidence, and the question of His survival after death is forever settled.

This Paul proceeds to do. He summons the eye-witnesses. To substantiate the belief in the resurrection of the crucified Lord, he submits the testimony of the many eye-witnesses that have beheld Him alive who once was dead. These saw Him led away to Calvary. Standing near the cross, they watched through the long hours of His crucifixion His awful death-struggles until they saw the thrust of the Roman sword, and knew that the end had come for their loved Lord. They saw Him taken from the cross of shame and laid in Joseph’s tomb, while the soldiers: kept guard by order of the revengeful Scribes and Pharisees. But they beheld Him again after the brief entombment. He walked in their midst. They consorted with Him in beloved Galilee. Their wonder-struck ears listened again to the soft cadences of His loving voice. Their trembling fingers touched His hands again.

He shared with some of them the frugal meal, at early dawn by the lake side, after the night of toil. They knew this was their Lord. He that was dead was alive again! Every physical, bodily sense proved that their crucified, dead Master had risen into a new existence by some power beyond their comprehension. His life was a fact—real, indisputable. He had arisen. The grave could not hold Him. He had transcended the usual methods of nature. Death could not lay in permanent victory its heavy hands upon their Messiah. He appeared to them in such a physical form that their physical senses could grasp His identity. By the same evidence through which they knew that He lived before His death did they know that He lived now. They had seen Him and handled Him and spent the glad seasons of communion with Him. To the individual and the little group at the tomb did He appear. By the seaside- to the frightened disciples; to the two despondent followers journeying to Emmaus; to the bewildered yet rejoicing companies worshiping behind closed doors; to the 36 larger congregations bound together by love for Him; to the many that honored and worshiped Him,—did the Risen Lord appear.

Upon their united evidence does Paul base his faith. And such testimony is conclusive. If such evidence does not convince, then nothing can. It stands out, real as mountain peaks. The senses have testified to His survival, as well as the reason. The resurrection is a demonstrated, historical fact. It is proven as is any other human event, by appeal to human witnesses. Hear the evidence from trustworthy human lips, and the reality of any phenomenon, however wonderful and inexplicable, is authenticated. This proves the case. This demonstrates its validity. No appeal from this verdict! Skepticism — now means unreason. Doubt now is akin to sin.

There is nothing more final than human evidence that corroborates itself. Having ascertained the trustworthiness of the witnesses upon sufficient testimony, history will record their statement as impregnable

Ot fact, however unusual or remarkable or miraculous the phenomenon to which they bear testimony. To doubt, then, is sheerest intellectual blindness. It is skepticism gone mad. Were such testimony discredited, then advance in knowledge of any kind would be impossible. The past would shackle the future. The trust in science would be a hollow mockery. Consequently Hume brands himself as an _ intellectual bigot when endeavoring, according to his petty ideas, to define miracles, he speaks of them as “violations of the laws of nature and, as a firm and _ unalterable experience, has established these laws, the proof against a miracle is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined, no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.” But Hume’s wild dogmatism disgusts equally the astute philosopher and the open-minded scientist. Nature’s uniformity does not preclude the possibility of later higher manifestations of 38 power by Him who is the Master of nature’s laws. To dispute this is to put the laws above the Law-giver. No scientist dare say what is possible or impossible. Humility befits the scientist and the philosopher, as does mercy a monarch. A miracle is not a violation of Nature’s laws. It may be but a new method according to which God operates in order to bring to expression some loftier purposes of His own. The hypothesis of “uniformity” is merely a generalization from past experiences. In no sense can it determine what future experiences will be. These are in the keeping of God. He can at any time alter the natural, in order to reveal some necessary spiritual truth. What these departures from the usual method are, remains to be proven by sufficient testimony. Whether such things as transcend our usual knowledge have actually happened, can be learned only by authoritative evidence.