If Christ did not rise from the dead, He is not divine (Romans 1:4). If He is not divine, His death did not take away the Old Covenant any more than the death of a mere man would have (Hebrews 10:9–10; Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:13–16). But because He is divine, He took away the Old (2 Corinthians 3:6–18; Romans 7:1–7; Galatians 4:21–31) and ratified the New (Hebrews 8:6–13; 9:11–17).
It was the sixth hour (high noon), and darkness prevailed until the ninth hour (three o’clock in the afternoon). The earth quaked; the veil of the temple was rent; the soldiers near the cross cried, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54). The tombs of the dead split. Amid the darkness of Calvary, the sinless Son of God, dying for the sinful soul of man, bowed His stately head and said, “It is finished”—and died! (John 19:30).
There the grandest drama ever enacted was completed. It began in Eden with the fallen pair and ended in the horrors and tragedies of Calvary. There the remedial system was finished, the scheme of human redemption affected, and the Law, having been fulfilled, ended.
The United States was once under the Articles of Confederation, but now it is under the Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States is not to decide whether a law is authorized by the Articles of Confederation; instead, the Court is to determine whether it is authorized by the Constitution.
Before the cross of Christ, God’s people were under the authority of the Old Covenant, but today they are under the authority of the New Covenant. In this dispensation, they are not to go to the Old Covenant in an attempt to learn what to do to be saved and how to worship God acceptably; they are to go to the New Covenant to learn those things.
If Christ did not rise from the dead, God could not have given “Him to be head over all things to the church.” Please consider the following:
“Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:20–23).
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, neither shall we. He says, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18). He has the key that will unlock every grave.
—Anonymous
