Jesus repeatedly promised He would rise from the dead, but His disciples didn't remember Him and didn't believe Him.
In the Old Testament, there were promises of both the death and the resurrection of Messiah. Christ reiterated those promises when He spoke of His death. At the transfiguration, at the Lord's Supper, at His trial, and to His enemies He promised to rise again the third day.
At Calvary, His enemies mocked the very promise that He had given. They misquoted the sign, for it was they who destroyed His body, and it was He who promised to raise it back up again in three days!
The angels had to remind the disciples of the words of Jesus, but His enemies certainly remembered them. They thought His disciples would try to fake His resurrection, so they set a guard on the tomb.
No doubt the disciples failed to remember and believe, because everybody knows that dead men cannot keep their promises. They thought that Christ was powerless in death, and all His promises must perforce fall to the ground.
But Jesus was not powerless, even in His death. In fact, He had the power to take up His body and His life as He chose.
We have no control over our resurrection, waiting for God's power. But Christ had control over His resurrection. He lay in the tomb until the promised time, and then He arose and left it!
Christ has total power over life and death, even His own, praise God! It is that same power by which He will raise up all His people one glorious day! Oh that we would learn to believe every word of our Lord Jesus!
At Calvary, He fulfilled the promise of God's judgment for our sin. That promise was kept by Jesus' death for us, and now we are free! |
