The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 26

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26

The Lutheran Pioneer.

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tion proyes in the first place that He is the Son of
God, and was therefore able to perform His unique
and infinite task, the work of redemption. A mere
man could not have overcome grim death, could
not have freed himself from the iron grasp of this
fearful king of terrors who laid hold on the Savior
when He bowed His head and yielded up the ghost.
By rising from His grave on the third day, Jesus
proved most conclusively that He is God, who, be-
cause He willed to do so, could lay down His life,
and take it again (John 10,17). “He.was declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the
Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the
dead” (Rom. 1, 4).

The resurrection of Christ also proves beyond

all doubt that our Christian religion is the truth.
Christ, the Founder of our religion, confessed be-
fore Pilate: “To this end was I born, and for this
cause came I into the world, that I should bear wit-
ness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth
heareth My voice.” Indeed, He was not a false
prophet, but His words, His doctrine, are absolutely
reliable. He plainly foretold time and again that
He would die and arise again on the third day.

It will suffice to quote one of these prophecies uttered °

by Him. He said to the Twelve: “The Son of Man
shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be
mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on;
and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death;
and the third day He shall rise again” (Luke 18,
32. 33). By His resurrection Christ verified this
unheard-of, astonishing assertion that He would
arise from the grave after having fallen a prey to it.
In this way He convinced us most thoroughly that
He is worthy of our implicit and childlike trust,
because the words of His lips are the truth, and
“guile is not found in His mouth.”

But Easter means still more to us. On Good
Friday the Savior had sacrificed Himself on the
cross to His Father in our stead for the reconcilia-
tion of the world. If He would have remained in
the grave, “our faith would be vain, and we would
yet be in our sins” (1 Cor. 15, 17) ; but by raising
His: beloved Son from the grave, the Father pub-
licly declared that He had accepted this perfect sac-
_ rifice, and that, in consequence of. this fact, He is

now reconciled with the whole world of sinners,
whom He now pronounced righteous, “not imputing
their trespasses unto them,” but to Christ, who had
faultlessly endured their punishment. “Christ was

‘delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for
our justification” (Rom. 4, 25).

Finally, also, our precious hope thal the death
of believers is only a peaceful slumber, from which
they will rise unto elernal life is conclusively proved
by Christ’s issuing forth from the grave on the third
day. If He would not have arisen, if His body had
moldered into dust in the grave, then He would
not be able on the last day to descend from heaven

with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and *

with the trump of God; He would not be able to
raise us. The Haster message, however, makes us
certain of the fact that on Judgment Day we, too,
shall arise from our graves; for He who had the
power, after having laid down His life, to take it
again, is also able to raise us; He who made good
His promise of rising on the third day after His cru-
cifixion will also raise us according to His promises =
“Because I live, ye shall Jive also” (John 14, 19),

>and: “I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that.

believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall
never die”? (John 11, 25. 26). How confidently may
we now trust, how joyfully glory, in these words of
eternal life which He has spoken!

Thus Easter, which we shall soon celebrate again,
is a day of triumphant rejoicing for the Church of
Christ, not only in one, but in various respects,
which are of the greatest importance. The resur-
rection of our Lord, celebrated on that day, proves
the divinity of our Lord, the truth of the Christian
religion, particularly, of our justification in God’s
sight, and the certainty of our own future resurrec-
tion and our entrance into eternal life.

So let us keep the festival

With heartfelt exultation.

Christ is Himself -the Joy of all,
The Sun of our salvation.

By His grace He doth impart

Eternal sunshine to the heart;

The night of sin is ended.

Hallelujah! H. Osvreruus.

Our Black Belt Mission.

The people of this section of the Black Belt be-
gin to realize that the coming of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church with the pure Gospel and Chris-
tian education is a Godsend. They regret that they
have been kept in ignorance of this great progres-
sive missionary Church with its sound Biblical doc-

trines and educational principles; but even at this -

late hour they welcome it as Cornelius did the
Apostle Peter (Acts 10): “And thou hast well
done that thou art come.”