The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus (2) Spurgeon

reflection on 2Tim.2:8

Dear friends, the rising of Christ from the dead proved that this man was innocent of every sin. He could not be holden by the bands of death, for there was no sin to make those bands fast. Corruption could not touch His pure body, for no original sin had defiled the Holy One. Death could not keep Him a continual prisoner, because He had not actually come under sin; and though He took sin of ours, and bore it by imputation, and therefore died, yet He had no fault of His own, and must, therefore, be set free when His imputed load had been removed.

Moreover, Christ's rising from the dead proved His claim to Deity. We are told in another place that He was proved to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. He raised himself by His own power, and though the Father and the Holy Spirit were cooperative with Him, and hence His resurrection is ascribed to them, yet it was because the Father had given Him to have life in himself, that therefore He arose from the dead. Oh, risen Savior, thy rising is the seal of thy work! We can have no doubt about thee now that thou hast left the tomb. Prophet of Nazareth, thou art indeed the Christ of God, for God has loosed the bands of death for thee! Son of David, thou art indeed the elect and precious One, for thou ever livest! Thy resurrection life has set the sign-manual of heaven to all that thou hast said and done, and for this we bless and magnify thy name.

A third bearing of His resurrection is this, and it is a very grand one,—The resurrection of our Lord, according to the Scripture, was the acceptance of His sacrifice. By the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead evidence was given that He had fully endured the penalty which was due to human guilt. "The soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezek. 18:20)—that is the determination of the God of heaven. Jesus stands in the sinner's stead and dies: and when he has done that nothing more can be demanded of him, for he that is dead is free from the law. You take a man who has been guilty of a capital offense: he is condemned to be hanged, he is hanged by the neck till he is dead-what more has the law to do with him? It has done with him, for it has executed its sentence upon him; if he can be brought back to life again he is clear from the law; no writ that runs in Her Majesty's dominions can touch him-he has suffered the penalty. So when our Lord Jesus rose from the dead, after having died, He had fully paid the penalty that was due to justice for the sin of His people, and his new life was a life clear of penalty, free from liability. You and I are clear from the claims of the law because Jesus stood in our stead, and God will not exact payment both from us and from our Substitute: it were contrary to justice to sue both the Surety and those for whom He stood. And now, joy upon joy! the burden of liability which once did he upon the Substitute is removed from Him also; seeing He has by the suffering of death vindicated justice and made satisfaction to the injured law. Now both the sinner and the Surety are free.