58).

When the news was brought to Pilate that Christ had died, it is
said that "Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling
unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while
dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to
Joseph" (Mark 15:44, 45).

The women brought spices to anoint a dead body, not a half-dead
Christ (Mark 16:1).

The soldiers pronounced Him dead: "But when they came to Jesus, and
saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs" (John 19:33).

Jesus Christ Himself, He who is the Truth, testifies to the fact
that He had really died: Rev. 1:18--"I am he that liveth, and was
dead."

2. THE FACT THAT CHRIST'S BODY WAS ACTUALLY RAISED FROM THE DEAD.

The resurrection of Christ is not a spiritual resurrection, nor
were his appearances to the disciples spiritual manifestations.
He appeared to His disciples in a bodily form. The body that was
laid in Joseph's tomb came forth on that first Easter morn twenty
centuries ago.

Some maintain that it is not vital to belief in the resurrection
of Christ that we insist on a literal resurrection of the body
of Jesus; all that we need to insist on is that Christ was ever
afterwards known to be the victor over death, and that He had the