Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
This is the Lord Jesus’ word to His disciples after His resurrection. It strengthened the faith of His disciples to follow Him at that time. It can be seen that the Lord Jesus had triumphed over death and been resurrected, and that the Lord Jesus is God Himself.
We Christians know the Lord Jesus’ resurrection is of the utmost importance to us. But what is the significance of His resurrection and appearance? Maybe most people are not clear about it. God says, “The first thing that the Lord Jesus did after His resurrection was to allow everyone to see Him, to confirm that He exists, and to confirm the fact of His resurrection. In addition, it restored His relationship with the people to the relationship He had with them when He was working in the flesh, and He was the Christ they could see and touch. This way, one outcome is that the people had no doubt that the Lord Jesus had been resurrected from death after being nailed to the cross, and there was no doubt in the Lord Jesus’ work to redeem mankind. And another outcome is that the fact of the Lord Jesus appearing to people after His resurrection and allowing people to see and touch Him firmly secured mankind in the Age of Grace. From this time on, people could not return to the previous age, the Age of Law, because of the Lord Jesus’ ‘disappearance’ or ‘desertion,’ but they would continue forward, following the Lord Jesus’ teachings and the work He had done. Thus, a new phase in the work in the Age of Grace was formally opened up, and the people who had been under the law formally came out from the law from then on, and entered into a new era, with a new beginning. These are the manifold meanings of the Lord Jesus’ appearance to mankind after the resurrection.” From these words we can see that the Lord Jesus’ appearance to people after His resurrection is significant. At that time, facing the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus, the disciples had confusion and felt a distance between the Lord’s spiritual body and them, and some had doubts. The Lord Jesus was clear about their mentality and need. So, after the resurrection, He appeared to people for forty days, strengthened their faith, and convinced them that the Lord Jesus had indeed been resurrected and accomplished the work of redeeming mankind, and that He was exactly God incarnate. In addition, through His resurrection and appearance to people, the Lord Jesus opened up a phase of the work in the Age of Grace, led people to come out from the Age of Law and enter into the Age of Grace. His disciples began to testify about Him and spread the gospel with great faith. Thus, the fact that the Lord Jesus worked to save man was spread throughout the world. God’s work is so significant and so practical.
