III. There is a final consideration connected with these words, which
I must deal with very briefly--the importance of the fact which is
thus borne witness to.

I have already pointed out that the Resurrection of Christ is viewed
in Scripture in three aspects: in its bearing upon His nature and
work, as a pattern for our future, and as a symbol of our present
newness of life. The importance to which I refer now applies only to
that first aspect.

With the Resurrection of Jesus Christ stands or falls the Divinity of
Christ. As Paul said, in that letter to which I have referred,
'Declared to be the Son of God, with power by the resurrection from
the dead.' As Peter said in the sermon that follows this one of our
text, 'God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both
Lord and Christ.' As Paul said, on Mars Hill, 'He will judge the
world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He
hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from
the dead.'

The case is this. Jesus lived as we know, and in the course of that
life claimed to be the Son of God. He made such broad and strange
assertions as these--'I and My Father are One.' 'I am the Way, and
the Truth, and the Life.' 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.' 'He
that believeth on Me shall never die.' 'The Son of Man must suffer
many things, and the third day He shall rise again.' Thus speaking He
dies, and rises again and passes into the heavens. That is the last
mightiest utterance of the same testimony, which spake from heaven at
His baptism, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!' If
He be risen from the dead, then His loftiest claims are confirmed