er, and then die
and the body turned back to its component parts--this is a scandal
in construction; as much a scandal as when a house not properly
built falls down; a dead body, whether of man or dog, is the most
shameful blot on the face of the earth, and with the gaping mouth of
the graveyard, justifies the estimate and the declaration of the
living God, that death is an "_enemy_," not a welcome thing like
birth and life--_but an enemy_. Such a scandal is it, indeed, that
when our Lord Jesus Christ came to the grave of Lazarus, he was
himself moved with indignation; for the words, "groaning within
himself," miss the true force. The Greek verb used signifies that he
was inwardly filled with indignation and a sense of outrage at the
sight of the grave and the announcement that the body of Lazarus was
already corrupt. Whatever groaning came from his lips and whatever
tears fell from his eyes as he wept--these were his protests against
death and the grave; for he recognized this dead body not only as
due to the penalty of sin, but as the work of him "who had the power
of death, that is, the devil." (Hebrews 2:14.)

Even though the Christian as to soul and spirit be delivered from
death; even though he does not go down to Hades, but at death is
safely housed and at home with God in heaven--yet the fact that this
body, which was not only the dwelling place of his soul, but the
temple and shrine of the Holy Spirit, should become a banquet for
worms, a thing of repulsive decay, a residuum of forgotten dust, is
a scandal, even to the Christian, and gives emphasis to the shame of
death.

The Son of God came into the world to remove this scandal.

He died and rose again, not only that he might have power and
authority to give a new and spiritual life to men, a character
befitting them for the high things of God, he died and rose again
that he might have power and authority to give an immortal body to
all who would receive from him this new and spiritual life.

He brought this immortality to light when he rose from the dead.

He brought it to light by rising from the dead in the body in which
he had died.

If our Lord Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead in the body in
which he died, then immortality in the New Testament sense of the
word has never been brought to light.

But he did so rise.

He made that clear on the first Sunday night after his resurrection.

The disciples were gathered together in the room.