Who is Jesus - Day 6 - Jesus the Resurrected Lord

It seems as though it was for Thomas alone, for twice did his Lord address him by name. He discovered that the thoughts of his heart were not hidden from Him, and the wounds which he beheld in that incorruptible flesh were to him mute witnesses to the fact that He was the One who had power to lay down His life and take it again. The scales fell from his eyes, his heart lost its faithlessness, the glory of the Only Begotten was no longer veiled from him, and as his soul was drawn out of the winter of his unbelief, he voiced the worship of his brethren in those true and memorable words, "MY LORD AND MY GOD."

Deniers of our Lord's deity have sought to avoid the force of this by treating this as a mere exclamation, addressed to no one in particular, but the record distinctly states that the words were said to the Lord, the form of them in the original being very emphatic, since he used the definite article twice. The risen Jesus was the Lord and the God to him. And what is more significant still, the Lord replied, "Thomas … thou hast believed." Beyond all question then He treated Thomas' joyful exclamation as faith laying hold of FACT. In other words, He accepted the confession as being true. There is no greater sin than for a mere man to accept Divine honours or adulation, as witness the drastic smiting of Herod, recorded in Acts 12. When John fell down before a holy angel as about to worship him, the instant reply was, "See thou do it not" (Rev. 22:9). Instead of rebuking Thomas, Jesus approved of his confession and called it faith.

If the Lord Jesus had not been what Thomas confessed Him to be, but only a good and true man, He would have rebuked him for uttering foolish words, for it would have been an unspeakable wickedness for one man to accept from another man that adoration which only belongs to God; but He did accept it, because it was His right, and He went further and declared the blessedness of all those throughout the ages who should perceive His glory and confess it and render like homage to Him: saying, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, yet have believed." In this great and convincing incident we see how the end of the Gospel answers to the opening word of it.

The Lord is first viewed as "the faithful witness." All other witnesses had more or less failed. He alone had been the faithful witness of God and for God on the earth. But this was at all cost to Himself. But though put to death, it was the defeat of this world's prince, not of Christ; and hence in resurrection He stands "the first-begotten of the dead." He is the first who entered into resurrection-life in this wondrous way which defied corruption to touch it. "Being raised from the dead, he dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him." But much more than this is conveyed. He is the heir and chief of the new estate, according to divine righteousness and counsels, of man beyond death and the grave, Lord not only of the living but of the dead, and this proved and displayed in the power of His resurrection. This He is, as faithful witness He was. So moreover He will prove to be at His coming in glory "the Prince of the kings of the earth," when it is a question of the government of the world. All these things are connected with what He was, is, and will be, as man. It is Jesus viewed in His earthly connections, or at least without speaking of what He is in heaven. His intermediate relation to the church (as its Head, and as the "great High-priest") disappears, as not falling in with the design of the divine government here.

“Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” What wondrous titles! “Faithful witness: ” witness of God for us; yet witness of the wrath of God against all sin: witness of God justifying us, in perfect righteousness: as the risen Son of God He takes His place, and title, “the first begotten from among the dead.”

But He is also the First Begotten of the dead, and it is this that characterizes Him at the present moment. The church is based upon Him as risen from the dead. Indeed, it was not until He was risen and ascended that the Holy Ghost was shed forth so that the church might be formed. Then thirdly, He is the Prince of the kings of the earth. He is this in title at the present moment, but He will not publicly assume that place until His second advent, so that considering Him thus our thoughts travel to the future. How comprehensively then — past, present and future — is He set before us. All this He is, and all this He would be, even if no soul of man had received salvation through Him.

This was apparent defeat. "I have spent My strength for nought, and in vain" seemed to be written across His life and death. But see! — He is "the first begotten of the dead." The mighty power of death had to confess His supremacy; death that had triumphed over every man except just two. Apart from those two death had triumphed over the greatest and the best. One after the other they fell beneath the stroke of death. Death was master. But at last death was mastered. Who mastered death? Jesus Christ, your Saviour and mine. He has triumphed over the grave. He has broken the bands of death, He is the first begotten from the dead. Oh, He is great; great in His power. Death, the greatest power man had Him known, is subdued by Him.

But God's faithful Witness the sinless Sin-Offering, could not be holden by the power of death. The great king of terrors has been made to yield to a greater than he. Death has met its Master; it is now a crownless king, without a sceptre, without a throne. Our Lord has triumphed; He is the First begotten from the dead. He lives! I was delighted recently, in reading somewhere of an answer that a Christian gave to the challenge of a Mohammedan. Said the Mohammedan, "You Christians have no tomb, where is your Jesus? how do you know He ever lived? The tomb of our prophet is with us to this day, we know that he lived, and his tomb is the Mecca of every true Moslem, but you Christians have no tomb." The Christian answered, "We have no tomb because we have no corpse; our Jesus is not a corpse but a Conqueror." Yes, that is it; we do not preserve a tomb, we celebrate a triumph. The faithful Witness is the First-begotten of the dead. O Christians, do we sufficiently appreciate and glory in the triumph of our Saviour? If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. If Christ be not raised, the devil has triumphed and death is supreme. If Christ be not raised, God has lost His Son and we have no Saviour. But now is Christ risen, and death is defeated; the power of the devil is annulled, the grave has been robbed of its victory, and Christ has become the Firstborn from the dead, and His being the Firstborn means that others are to follow and to share in His triumph.

The conscience makes even a saint afraid of God; he finds an evil will in himself, and the devil often gets an advantage over a sincere saint, and keeps him away from God; but the comfort is, Christ met the enemy in all his power, and He is presented to me as the First-begotten from the dead, the One who has put Himself under all the consequences of my sin, and now in His new character I find Him "the faithful Witness" - One who has borne all my sins - not now under them. The Father in righteousness was obliged to raise Him from the dead, and I can say, as a believer in Him, that I have no guilt - He sees all washed away. This is beholding Christ as the First-begotten from the dead. I see One who has blotted out my sins before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and I get true and settled peace - not a cold, hard-hearted way of saying I have peace; but I look to Jesus as my Saviour, and this re-kindles love, and impels me to keep His commandments.

326 In the passage we are considering His ascension is not touched on, but His coming forth from the whole result of Satan's power through sin, through the work which gave Him the place and power of man in the new estate in which the power of God would place Him. He is the first-begotten from the dead, the Man who has made good, in this final and conclusive conflict, the title of God in spite of sin, and against sin; and baffled all Satan's apparent success, so that God is perfectly glorified in respect of that in which man has dishonoured Him, and in which, so to speak, to the creature's view, all that God was, all His moral glory, was brought into question. Christ has taken thus the place divinely prepared for man, the headship of man according to God, the whole question of good and evil having been resolved by His subjugation to the whole power of evil in death (in life He had ever kept it at a distance in the power of the Holy Ghost), and, divine judgment being glorified, made it possible, yea necessary, for God to bring up Him (and, blessed be God! all in Him) into the perfect place of blessing, where divine goodness could have its absolute flow, and that in righteousness - yea as due to Christ, and so to others as redeemed. But here, we take it as the place of power and right, according to God's counsels, in man. The head of every man is Christ, and He will take all men out of the power of death, and Satan's power, though for the wicked it will be for judgment. He is the first-begotten from the dead.