# “He is not here” by Horatius Bonar

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/01/05/he-is-not-here-by-horatius-bonar/
- Published: 2009-01-05T18:30:45-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“So does the angel soothe the fear of the trembling women: ‘Fear not ye; He is not
here; He is risen: come, see the place where the Lord lay.’ Let us mark, then, the
glad tidings which the angel brings us regarding Him who died and was buried.

_He is not here._ This is the only place regarding which it could be accounted good
news to say, Christ is not here. Christ is here, was good news at Bethany, at Jericho,
at Nain, at Capernaum, or on the sea of Galilee; but Christ is _not _here, is the
good news from Joseph’s tomb.

A _present _Christ would be accounted the joy and security of other places; it is
an _absent _Christ that is announced as the blessing, the consolation here. He is
not here, is one of the gladdest sounds that ever fell on human ears. Were He still
here, what and where should _we _have been?

And who is it that you are seeking here? The mortal or the immortal? And what place
is this in which you expect to find the Son of God? In a grave? Is this the place
for immortality? Is it likely that there should be life in the dwellings of death?
Why seek ye the living among the dead? No; not here,—not here; not in this place
of death can the Prince of life be found. He was here, indeed; but He is not.

These rock walls and this rock gate cannot hold Him. He _was _in Gethsemane, in 
Pilate’s palace, on the cross; but not now. These He has visited, but in none of
them has He remained. He has left them all behind. With Him it is all life, and 
incorruption, and glory now. He is not here!

If not here, _where_? That we soon discover when we follow Him to Emmaus and to 
Galilee. But even though we knew not, does it matter, save for this, that we may
learn that His disappearance has not been a forsaking of earth, nor a turning His
back upon the children of men? His disappearance from the tomb is only the carrying
out of His love.

_He is risen._ He was laid down upon that rocky floor; but only to rest there for
a day. For that tomb was His first earthly resting-place; all before that was weariness.
Having rested there for a short season, He rises; and with renewed strength, into
which hereafter no element of weariness can enter, He resumes His work He has not
been carried off, either by friend or enemy; He has been raised by the Father, as
the righteous One; the fulfiller of His purpose; the finisher of His work; the destroyer
of death; the conqueror of him who has the power of death; the Father’s beloved 
Son, in whom He is well pleased.

This true temple has been destroyed, only to be rebuilt in greater and more undecaying
magnificence. This true Siloam has only for three days intermitted the flow of its
missioned waters, that it might gush forth in larger fulness. This true Sun has 
only for three days been darkened, that it might be relighted in its incorruptible
glory.

He is risen! Yes; and now we see more fully the meaning of His own words, spoken
at a tomb, and over one whom death had bound, ‘I am the resurrection and the life;’
Himself at once the raiser and the raised, the quickener and the quickened, the 
possessor and the giver of an infinite life,—a higher kind of life than that which
the first Adam knew,—a life which can force its way into the dungeons of death, 
transforming them, by its resistless power, into the dwellings, the palaces, the
temples of immortality and glory.

He is risen! He has tasted death, but He has not seen corruption; for He is the 
Holy One of God, and upon holiness corruption cannot fasten. As the beloved of the
Father, He rises from the dead; for therefore doth the Father love Him, because 
He giveth His life for the sheep.

And in this resurrection we read the Father’s testimony to His Sonship; the Father’s
seal set to His completed propitiation; the Father’s declaration of satisfaction
and delight in the work of Calvary.

–Horatius Bonar,_ The Everlasting Righteousness; or, How Shall a Man be Just with
God? _(Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1874/1993), 131-4.

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