The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical / Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine Revelation

by C. A. Row

I will now proceed to examine the evidence which these Epistles afford to the truth of the Resurrection. The references which they contain to this great miracle of Christianity are extremely numerous, occurring in some form or other in almost every page. Shall I not say that their entire contents are written on the supposition of its reality? They are of the most direct as well as of the most incidental character. They make it clear that the belief in it lay at the foundation of the existence of the Church; that it was that which was supposed to communicate its moral power to Christianity, and that it was the source of the new spiritual life of every individual believer. In the following passage [pg 434] St. Paul distinctly pledges the truth of Christianity on the reality of the fact: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not, ... and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Cor. xv. 14, etc.) Whatever opinion may be formed as to the genuineness of the other writings of the New Testament, they give one consistent testimony that the belief in the Resurrection was co-extensive with the Church, and constituted the only ground of its existence. How could it be otherwise? The Church, as a community, was founded on the belief of the personal Messiahship of Christ; a dead Messiah would have been utterly worthless to it. Without a living Messiah to form its centre the whole superstructure must collapse.

The following are some of the most important points which these letters prove as matters of fact respecting the Resurrection.

First: That the belief in it was co-extensive with the entire Church. It was not the belief of any single party in it, but of the whole community.

This they establish on the most indisputable evidence. The existence of various parties in the Church in direct opposition to St. Paul proves beyond the possibility of contradiction that it was the one belief respecting which there was not the smallest diversity of opinion. If these parties had not existed, it might have been urged with some degree of plausibility that the testimony of these letters was inconclusive, because all the members of the Churches received servilely whatever St. Paul chose [pg 435] to dictate. But as we have already seen, a powerful party existed in both the Corinthian and Galatian Churches, who summarily rejected his claim to apostolic authority, maintaining that the twelve were the only genuine Apostles. Nevertheless, the Epistles make it clear that they must have believed in the Resurrection quite as strongly as St. Paul did himself.

Let us suppose for a moment that they doubted it. How is it conceivable that St. Paul should have addressed to them such letters as those to the Corinthians, abounding everywhere with both direct and incidental allusions to it as an acknowledged truth and as the foundation of his reasonings? Would anyone in his senses have thus exposed himself to instant denunciation if he had supposed that there was the smallest doubt respecting its reality in the minds of his opponents? Would they not at once, if they had entertained it, have made short work with the Apostle and his reasonings? But the point is almost too clear to need any argument.

In one of the passages where he is discussing with them the reality of his apostleship he urges as the foundation of his claim to this office: “Have not I seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” This reasoning is evidently founded on the supposition that all the other Apostles professed to have seen Him; and that none could have a valid claim to the office who had not seen Him. But Paul could only have seen Christ after the Resurrection; and it was in virtue of an appointment from the risen Jesus that he claimed to hold the office. If there had been the smallest doubt in the minds of his opponents as to the reality of the Resurrection, or if they had not been persuaded that the Apostles, whose claims they set up against those of St. Paul, affirmed that they had seen Him also, this would at once have settled the controversy [pg 436] and covered the Apostle with confusion before the assembled Church.

But if this reasoning requires any additional confirmation, it is afforded by the Epistle to the Galatians. The opposition leaders in this Church were yet more hostile to St. Paul than those at Corinth. His denunciation of them is very severe. They are described as “false apostles, deceitful workers,” and subverters of the Gospel. Yet in the very opening words of his address to this Church in which he thus sharply denounces his opponents, the Apostle writes: “Paul, an Apostle, not of man nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead.” Is it conceivable, I ask, that St. Paul should have used such language, under such circumstances, in addressing this Church, unless he was absolutely certain that his opponents accepted the Resurrection of Christ as a fact? We shall see hereafter that these assertions and allusions of the Apostle not only prove that the Resurrection was believed in by every section of the Christian community at the time when he wrote these letters, but that they enable us to carry up the date of this belief to the very commencement of Christianity.

Secondly: The Epistle to the Romans sets before us the state of this belief in a Church which St. Paul had not visited. Of the exact date of the foundation of this Church we have no record; but the entire contents of the Epistle prove that it had been in existence for many years before the Apostle addressed to them this letter. The general impression produced by it is that this was one of the most important Christian communities then in existence. We learn from it that among its members were persons attached to the household of Nero. As the intercourse between Rome and Judæa was very considerable, there can be [pg 437] no doubt that the Church originated at an early period, either by Christian Jews visiting the imperial city, or by Roman Jews visiting Judæa and having thus become converted. At any rate its Christianity must have been derived from a source entirely independent of St. Paul. The evidence afforded by this Epistle as to the importance and universal prevalence of the belief in the Resurrection, and to its early origin is conclusive. The allusions to it are more numerous than in any other of St. Paul's Epistles. Most of them are of an entirely incidental character, and their general nature proves beyond the possibility of question that both the writer and those to whom he wrote must have viewed the fact as the fundamental groundwork of Christianity. The reference to a few passages will render this point indubitable.

An allusion of a most incidental character as forming the ground of the writer's apostleship occurs in the very opening words of the Epistle: “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name.” It is inconceivable that St. Paul should have thus addressed a body of strangers, at the very commencement of his letter, unless he had been certain that they accepted this belief as an unquestionable fact.

Besides several references in the intermediate chapters, there are three allusions to it in the sixth chapter of the most incidental character, in which the belief in the Resurrection is directly connected with baptism, and affirmed to lie at the very foundation of Christianity, and to be the divine power exhibited in the renewed Christian life. “Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into [pg 438] his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”