EXTRACTS
Before I come to Peter in the last scripture, I want to speak about Psalm 16 as referring to our Lord Jesus in the grave. Perhaps we have not touched on it much in this connection; but it is most touching and affecting that the Lord Himself refers to His being the Holy One of God as actually in the grave. That our Lord Jesus Christ lay for three days and three nights in the grave is most solemn. He says Himself—“thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”, Matthew 12: 40. How thoroughly He became acquainted with the earth! Man had been taken out of it. The penalty
was, according to Genesis 3—“For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return”. That was the penalty on man for having sinned. Every burial reminds us of that; the cemetery reminds us of it, if we are capable of being reminded. People put it far away from them, but still these things remind us of this solemn fact, that man through sin incurred death and burial; that he shall return to dust.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ took on manhood, but He did not return to dust. His death and His condition in His burial were as unique as His condition in His life here below. His condition as a Man here, born into this world was unique; there has been no other Man like Him before or since. “Who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth”, Acts 8: 33.
The condition which He took in flesh, and blood never existed in any other man, and never will do so; nor will it again exist in Him. It was holy and absolutely unique, the condition of Christ in humanity here below. He will never be in that condition again; but still, it is treasured up before God, as the manna was treasured up in the ark. The “hidden manna”, Christ as here below, is to be fed upon. Then His death was unique—not as an ordinary man’s death. When Pilate sent the messengers to inquire as to His death, He was dead already. Pilate did not expect that. They broke the legs of the two thieves, but not of Jesus:
“Not a bone of him shall be broken”, John 19: 36. He was unique in dying; there was no death like His; He died of Himself. John would give you to understand it was an act of power, for no one took His life from Him; He laid it down of Himself, John 10: 18. He cried with a loud voice, which denoted strength. His dying was unique, no other man has died as He died; in every way He has the pre-eminence. And so in His burial—it is said, “And men appointed his grave with the wicked”, Isaiah 53: 9; they had no other thought than that He should be put into the common grave of the criminal. Could these men do as they wished? No, they could not. He was with the rich in His death. How was that? God
took care of that. He was not with the wicked; although He was crucified with the wicked. He died before the two thieves. He says to the converted thief—“Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”, Luke 23: 43, but He went into paradise before the thief. He did not say, Today shalt thou go with Me to paradise, for the thief came in after the Lord. I am speaking of the fact that in His death He was the Holy One of God, and did not see corruption. All these things point to the uniqueness of Christ, whether in life or in death.
And so, too, in resurrection—I do not believe any other person risen would be like Christ in His resurrection. The facts relative to His resurrection are different from those of all others.
He came out of the grave without moving the linen cloths in which He was bound, except the napkin that was about His head; somebody folded that and put it aside by itself; otherwise all was as it had been on His blessed body. This, I believe, is what John’s account conveys.
These remarks bear on this psalm in which the Lord says to God, “For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy holy One to see corruption”.
J. Taylor (Vol.50, pp.139–141)
... Of course, in a day of small things we sometimes have to wait for things. We go along and we have to be humbled about them and suffer with them, and suffer because of them, but God comes in in time. We can count on God to come in if there is an attack of any kind against the truth. If we give Him time and be patient, he will come in.
J. Taylor (Vol.63, p.229)
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