Christians Are Graced By Jesus’ Resurrected Body

Jesus said to her,

“Do not cling to Me,

for I have not yet

ascended to My Father;

but go to My brethren

and say to them,

‘I am ascending to My Father

and your Father, and

to My God and your God.’”
John 20:17

     How the heretics misuse this verse! They attempt to show this verse as proof that Jesus Christ is a created being and not God; for when He uses the term: “My Father,” and to “My God,” they state that this is proof that Jesus was not God. Others cavil at the mention of Mary wanting to “cling” to Jesus and He would not allow that to happen. Allow me to address the word “cling” in the New King James Version and that the King James Version uses the word “touch.” The Greek work “ἅπτου” has to meaning to touch, or fasten one’s self to something or someone, to cling to that something or someone as would be the case when it is used as the touching as in carnal intercourse with a women or cohabitation as is used: “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch (“ἅπτου”) a woman” (1Corinthians 7:1). Paul in writing to the Colossians says: “therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations––“Do not touch (“ἅπτου”), do not taste, do not handle,”… (Colossians 2:20-21). John adds: “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not (“ἅπτου”) touch him” (1John 5:18). Mary upon seeing that it was Jesus was excited and desired to touch Him: He who died just three days earlier was not alive and speaking to her, oh! How she wanted to cling to Him, but this was not to be for Jesus sent her to the brethren; Jesus was not calling them His disciples, rather He called them brethren, and He told her to tell them that He was ascending to the Father, His God, and their Father and God. Things have changed between them and Him, and by this verse Jesus shows to the relationship that exists between them and Him and the Father. As the Son of God, there was a Father, His Father, and now by relationship the Father was their Father, and as the Son of God, God was His God, and now God was by this new relationship their God. Jesus will not longer walk with them in this world, but they need fear not for He gives to them the command that they were being sent and that they had the power of the Holy Spirit: “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). To Thomas who was a doubter; are you? Have you been? Do not fear for God has revealed His Son to us as He did to Thomas. No, He does not physically show us His hands, and His side, but by His word He reveals that this is true as written by John who was present when Thomas was asked by Jesus to put his fingers in the nail holes, and the spear wound in His side; but Thomas upon seeing the truth could only exclaim: “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28). Thomas did not speak of two separate individuals, rather he in awe looked to Jesus and called Him his Lord and God. All that Jesus performed, all that Jesus had done, and said, the healings, the feeding of the 5,000 men and the scraps that filled the twelve baskets, more, more, things would flush through his mind but now the One who died on the cross was alive, and He talked with Him, and showed him the wounds. How else should we expect Thomas to react? Jesus is alive, and all of the promises in regards to the Messiah, and by Jesus Himself are proven to be true and when He speaks of His coming again that too will be accomplished. The resurrection is all the proof a child of God needs, for it is the foundation for our faith.

            Yes! By the death of Jesus, death was destroyed, Satan is defeated, and the promise that God’s children will be clothed with incorruption, immortality, will occur just as the promise of the Messiah occurred. Jesus Christ is the first–fruit of all of God’s children, and being the first–fruit there is more fruit to come; all of God’s children are the fruit of God and will inherit everlasting life. Only God can save a person from their sins, this saving grace was not and cannot be given to anyone other than to God, for if it was given to an angel, a created being, as some teach, as do the Jehovah Witnesses, then we cannot have assurance that our salvation is sure, in simple words; a done deal! God did not relegate salvation to none other than Himself, and this He did by sending to earth His wisdom, clothed in a human body, to die a death that all humans have in common, but not as a sinful man, One who had inherited the primal transgression of sin by our federal head of all humanity, Adam, and Eve, rather He was the Son of God, and did not have sin and now by His sinless death procured eternal life for all who believe in Him.

            This is what we are about to celebrate, not just Easter, the hunting of colored eggs, or other festivities, rather it is a somber time in which we take the time to reflect on our Savior, to ask God in prayer to forgive our sins of commission, if any, and of omission, if any, therefore we then can come to the Lord’s table and dine with Him by taking, with a clean conscience, a clean heart, the bread that represent His body that was broken for you and me, and of the wine that represents His blood that was poured out and by the blood splashed upon the ground our souls are made white as snow before God for He sees His children by looking at us through His Son who is making intercession for all of God’s children. Think upon this: The Savior, raised to life, His own body now immortal, the very Son of God, having come from God as from a Father, whose Word and Wisdom, and Whose Power He is, has brought salvation to us all, and taught us of the Father, our God and our Savior. It is a time of rejoicing, a time to set things straight if they do need to be set straight, to teach our children the importance of this day for the cross is displayed as th sign, or monument to His victory over death and its corruption.

            Shout Hallelujah, said Amen, He is risen, He as ascended to God, and He makes intercession for you and me!

How much more shall the blood of Christ,

     Who through the eternal Spirit

Offered Himself without spot to God,

    Cleanse your conscience from the

Dead works to serve the living God?

                                          Hebrews 9:14

May God Continue to Bless and to Keep You

Richard L. Crumb