QUOTE:The resurrection is not only a fact; it is a force, and its theology is so important as to call for special attention. Indeed, the prominence given in the New Testament to its teaching, affords a strong confirmation of the fact itself. The doctrine may be briefly summarized: Evidential, evangelistic, redemptive, spiritual, and eschatological. (Principles of Theology, W. H. Griffith Thomas, 1956 AD)
COMMENTARY:
Thomas not only lists the five theological sub points that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus touches upon, but also makes the argument that while these facts are of prime importance, the reason for their importance is the force with which they affect the hearer. The two atom bombs of scripture are the cross and the resurrection, it is they which bring victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil.
When held to it, and asked why I believe Jesus Christ to be Lord and God, it is to the empty tomb I go.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the evidential, historic proofs quoted or refuted, this much I know.
Something happened in that tomb.
What happened in that tomb turned the world upside down.
What happened in that tomb to a man, will happen to humanity as an event.
But.....
What happened in that tomb is ALSO happening within me as a spiritual process that is working itself out in time and space, in my soul, that is, in my psyche. It therefore is correct to call it a psychological process.
Because I am spiritual as well as psychological, and because I am an In-dividual, and am
In-divisible, this process is also mental, intellecutal, physical, and physiological as well.
But, like Jesus taught when he said that the "So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and SLEEP, and the seed should spring and grow up, HE KNOWETH NOT HOW", the process is sometime an Unconscious one.
The task is to make what is unconscious in us, conscious.
"Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ will give you light", is Paul's clarion call for psychological resurrection.
And that is powered by the Risen Saviour, as much as the bodily resurrection will be.