A minute discussion of the problem thus raised would be
unprofitable for our present purpose, but I hope we can take for
granted the broad fact that without a belief in a resurrection of some
kind Christianity could not have made a start at all. It is almost
indisputable that in some way or other the disciples must have become
convinced that they had seen Jesus face to face after the world
believed Him to be dead and buried. The earliest apostolic utterance
on the subject in the New Testament is the familiar passage from 1 Cor.
xv: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that
he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures: And that he was seen by Cephas, then of the twelve: After
that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the
greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
After that he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of
all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." This
statement is clear enough and almost unquestionably authentic. It
places beyond doubt what the apostolic church thought of the
resurrection of Jesus. The little group of disciples must somehow have
become convinced that their Master was not really dead, but alive and
reigning in the world unseen, interested as much as ever in the work
His followers were doing, and spiritually present with them in the
doing of it. This conviction had immediate and important spiritual
results. It gave these simple men a new and greater confidence in
Jesus and in the power of the life He had lived. They saw that this
life was, after all, the strongest thing in the universe. They
realised that in the end nothing could stand against them; evil could
do it no real harm, for God was behind it. Even before the crucifixion
they had looked upon Jesus as the Son of God in a higher and more
spiritual sense than that title had been used before, but now
henceforth they thought of Him as such in a higher way still.
According to Paul He was "declared to be the Son of God with power by
the resurrection from the dead." If we try to put ourselves in the
place of these first Christians, we shall realise better the effect of
the resurrection upon their feelings and behaviour. Let us suppose
that we had known Jesus in the flesh, that we had learned to understand
a little of th