Page 17 - Watchman- What of the Night

Chapter IV: The Resurrection- In the New Testament

Of the numerous references to the resurrection in the New Testament, there are

relatively few that give us any light on the subject of our inquiry, viz. the time-relation
of that great event. However there are a few that are so specific as to leave no room
for doubt.

There is a suggestion in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Luke
14:14. He has been giving them instructions concerning invitations to a feast, and
commanding them to invite the poor to their feasts, rather than the rich, and says:
―And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be
recompensed at the resurrection of the just.‖ Then the passage goes on: ―And when

one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto Him, ‗Blessed is
he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God‘.‖
This portion is only significant to show that to the well-informed Jew, who believed

in a future resurrection, the resurrection was immediately associated with the manifest
establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. So when the Lord spoke of the
―recompense at the resurrection of the Just,‖ one of his auditors broke forth with an
exclamation concerning the blessedness of those who would eat bread in the Kingdom
of God. The two events synchronized exactly in his mind. The coincidence of these

two events in the Old Testament scriptures, we have shown by our examination of
them.
In the Gospel of John, four times in Chapter six, in verses 39, 40, 44, 54 our Savior

asserts that the resurrection will be at the last day. The first one of these verses is a
little diverse from the rest, but makes the fabric of the whole, stronger.
―And this is the Father‘s will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given
me I should lose nothing, but should raise if up again at the last day.‖
In the similarity of this verse and the next, it is easy to fall into the thought that the

two are identical in meaning. But they are not. It is obvious from the English
translation as from the original Greek, that verse 39 is dealing with that which is
impersonal and neuter—the natural creation. At the day of the Lord it will be restored

to its condition before the fall of Adam. This is the day and time of ―restitution of all
things‖ spoken of by the Apostle Peter (Acts 3:21). The word translated ―restitution‖
is a compound of the same root as ―resurrection.‖
―Of all that the Father hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at
the last day.‖

His redemptive and propitiatory work includes the cosmic creation and His work of
restitution and removal of the curse of the earth is at the last day, the very day on

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