DEDICATION
To all those who co-operatively and constructively
labor for the extension and building of Christ’s
Gospel Kingdom and who lovingly long
for Christ’s Return
FOREWORD
THIS book is not a polemic, nor an apologetic, nor a controversy. It is a devotional study of a pliant believer in God’s Word, as it gives to us the marvelous and glorious period in the earthly life of Jesus Christ. To my mind there is not a shadow of a doubt about Christ’s supernatural birth, perfect human life, atoning death, bodily resurrection and expected visible return.
- My confession is that I am a sinner saved by grace, a preacher called by His will and Spirit;
- My profession is that I am a humble believer in Him as my Savior and Lord;
- My creed is that the Bible is God’s revealed will to men, inspired by His Spirit, that Christ is God’s Son, virgin born, sinless, who lived, died, was buried and arose again, according to the Scriptures, for man’s sins as their substitute and Redeemer, and is now in heaven, interceding for us and is building an eternal home for His people.
He wants us to carry out His gospel will, present Him to lost men everywhere, and enthrone Him in the hearts and lives of all His people. We are to wait for His return, which will be on some glad day at God’s appointed time.
This volume is a reverent study of Christ’s immortal forty days between His resurrection and ascension; His appearances, words, deeds, teachings, His glorified body, as we find them set out in the Gospels, Acts and Epistles. It is not a speculation. I do not raise any of the difficulties about any seeming contradictions in testimonies nor about His appearances.
The infallible proofs of the major fact of His resurrection are so great and many that my soul tests in these satisfactory truths. His tomb is empty and He is risen from the dead and is alive forevermore and must and will reign until all His enemies are saved by His blood or are adjudged to their rightful place in His eternity. My hope is that these gathered and analyzed Bible facts about His now glorified body will bring as much joy and strength to all who read this volume as they have to me in this devotional study.
This same Jesus will return, and we shall see Him as He is and be like Him—glorious prospect!
The discussions in the last five chapters do not come directly out of the glorious forty days of our Savior’s ministry, but they are so vitally related to things before and after the forty days that the author deems them an important part of the discussion of the theme of this volume.
These chapters are necessary to perfect the picture of our present Savior. It must be remembered that the picture of these forty days cannot be complete if we have in mind only the physical body of the Savior or what He has now in the place of His physical body, the resurrection body. We must, to complete the picture, look at His spiritual personality, His spirit, what He was thinking and what were His plans to do; and a discussion of His whole being would include what He was doing before and is doing after His resurrection and ascension, and this is the justification, I think, for giving these other chapters outside the boundary of the forty days.