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resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God:
angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him" (I Pet. 3: 18-22). The
second epistle of Peter is largely occupied with the Second Coming, and while it may not
actually speak of the resurrection, necessarily pre-supposes it.
The Witness of John's Epistles.
Before any testimony that may be given in John's epistle to the resurrection, there can
be no doubt but that he would know whether it was the Lord Himself that had appeared to
the little gathering as recorded in the Gospel. Of this appearance he wrote:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have HEARD, which we have SEEN
with our eyes, which we have LOOKED UPON, and our hands have HANDLED, of the
Word of life" (I John 1: 1).
This same One is declared by John to be our "Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous" (I John 2: 1).
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall SEE Him as
HE IS" (I John 3: 2).
In I John 4: 2 the Antichrist does not confess that Jesus Christ IS COME in the flesh
(Moffatt "incarnate" I John 4: 2, 3). In II John 7, the reference is to the Second Coming.
In the first reference, the verb is in the perfect participle "has come", whereas in the
second reference, the verb is the present participle "is coming". This naturally implies
the resurrection. The fullest testimony to the resurrection however, whether as to the
historic fact of the resurrection, or to the doctrines associated with it, is found in the
epistles of Paul.
We will not debate here, the question of the authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews,
this we have done in the Alphabetical Analysis, Part two, pages 102-105, and the validity
of its testimony to the resurrection does not depend upon its human authorship. Again,
the order in which the epistles of Paul appeared has a great bearing upon the matter of
callings and other dispensational differences, but the testimony to the resurrection is just
as valid whether it be in Galatians, a pre-prison epistle, or Ephesians, a testimony of the
Lord's prisoner. We shall see when examining II Timothy that while the Lord is "of the
seed of David", His resurrection can have separate consequences, as the Apostle suggests
saying:
"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my Gospel" (II Tim. 2: 8).
The testimony of Galatians.
Elsewhere we have given our reason for believing that Galatians is the first of Paul's
epistles, and with this epistle we propose to open our examination of Paul's epistolary
testimony to the resurrection. We meet it in the very first verse: