Chp.106 -- The Resurrection Of Christ Foretold In The Conclusion Of The Psalm

“The remainder of the Psalm makes it manifest that He knew His Father would grant to Him all things which He asked, and would raise Him from the dead; and that He urged all who fear God to praise Him because He had compassion on all races [ethnicities] of believing men, through the mystery of Him who was crucified; and that He stood in the midst of His brethren the apostles (who repented of their flight from Him when He was crucified, after He rose from the dead, and after they were persuaded by Himself that, before His passion He had mentioned to them that He must suffer these things, and that they were announced beforehand by the prophets), and when living with them sang praises to God, as is made evident in the memoirs of the apostles. The words are the following: ‘I will declare Thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye, the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. Let all the seed of Israel fear Him.’

Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 252). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

Justin is setting the stage for Trypho and the Jews to see Christ as “the promised seed of Jacob” who alone has the power to raise them out of their death in sin. For Christ is the only one who kept himself pure from sin in the body of our death, for in taking on the body of death Christ suffered the Eternal Wrath of our sin in his “infinite worth” to satisfy God’s Justice in the body of his death, but Eternal Death [the second death] could not hold him to the slavery of its corruption.

Acts 13:17–41 (NKJV)

17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. 18 Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. 19 And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment. 20 “After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. 21 And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ 23 From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—24 after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’ 26 “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. 27 For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. 28 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. 29 Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But God raised Him from the dead. 31 He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. 32 And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. 33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’ 34 And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’ 35 Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’ 36 “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; 37 but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. 38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 40 Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you: 41 ‘Behold, you despisers, Marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, A work which you will by no means believe, Though one were to declare it to you.’ ”

In Christ’s resurrection the believer and “lover of His appearing” are called to a repentance that is “no more to return to corruption.” Therefore upon believing and receiving the Word of His resurrection the Christian is made of the same power of this resurrection “to keep himself pure” from the sins that defile the soul and enslave a man to the second death.

Psalm 22:28–29 (NKJV)

28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s, And He rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive.

. . . but [conjunctive negation] he who keeps himself shall live. (MAST)

Psalm 21:30 (LES)

30 All the fat of the earth ate and worshiped before him. All the ones who come down into the earth bowed down. And my soul lives for him.

Every knee will bow, but the soul which lives for Him [keeps himself in Him] shall continue to live. This is the heart [of the negation] of those bowed down to Him in death, for if they lived to Him [in the body of death], then they will live to Him in the body of Life Eternal. Those who did not live to Him in the body of death shall abide in Death Eternal having ignored they have been made of the likeness of dust. The “strike-through” the NKJV is because of the conjunction and the negation (which Justin sees in his understanding) (through which I see and now understand) of the Septuagint translation of Hebrew into Greek. I don’t know why, apart from further study, that the Septuagint uses the first person, but the original uses the third; nevertheless, it is regarding the resurrection of Christ himself, for every man has seen corruption in bodily form but Christ, with the exceptions of Enoch and Elijah, and even these men were born by the seed of corruption. Christ, therefore, is the only one born by the seed of the Holy Spirit and is [undefiled] in the likeness of sin’s death.

Hebrews 7:26 (NKJV)

26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

So in the death and resurrection of Christ the believer is made to live in the Eternal Life of Christ considering the nature of his body of death to be put off by the justification of Christ’s resurrection. Therefore in Christ the believer is a new creation, a new man in the image of true Life, Righteousness and Holiness.

And when it is said that He changed the name of one of the apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the memoirs of Him that this so happened, as well as that He changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges, which means sons of thunder; this was an announcement of the fact that it was He by whom Jacob was called Israel, and Oshea called Jesus (Joshua), under whose name the people who survived of those that came from Egypt were conducted into the land promised to the patriarchs. And that He should arise like a star from the seed of Abraham, Moses showed beforehand when he thus said, ‘A star shall arise from Jacob, and a leader from Israel;’5 and another Scripture says, ‘Behold a man; the East is His name.’6 Accordingly, when a star rose in heaven at the time of His birth, as is recorded in the memoirs of His apostles, the Magi from Arabia, recognising the sign by this, came and worshipped Him.

Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 252). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

Now Justin is saying that the purpose of giving Peter, James and John a new name is what signifies this new image given to them in Him. They are given names that illustrate the character and nature of God. And so like the Magi from Arabia, we are to recognize the significance of Christ being the chosen among the descendants of Abram who was indwelt bodily by all the characteristics and holy nature of God, for no child of the flesh is worthy of such worship. There is no name under Heaven given among men that bear the marks or significance of His Eternal Name, for He came from God to save His people from their sins. And not only does this Eternal Man draw from the people of Jacob, but also the from the people of the East in Arabia, giving both Jew and Gentile a new name to signify the new nature of the Holy Spirit, making all men clean through the High Priestly prayer of His sacrifice and the Word of His power to draw all men unto himself in the exaltation of His Name. Therefore in the exclusivity of His Name and the exclusivity of His worship men are made clean from the sin that defiles the soul of man.