Ed Mcollum on the Resurrection

Here are some thoughts on the resurrection of Jesus by my mentor in the ministry, Ed McCollum. When I was a teenager, I used to listen to him preach at the First Baptist Church of Littleville, Alabama. He was the first Bible expositor I ever heard. I can still remember how he took at least five years to go through the book of Psalms on Wednesday nights. As a high school student, I heard him in the first part of Psalms. When I came home from college, I heard him in the latter part of Psalms. He combined a love of the Word with a burning desire to see men come to saving faith in Christ. I had never experienced anything like it before. Heat and Light. Word and Spirit. Fire and Rain. I don’t think I ever understood the gospel until he explained it to me. Twenty-five years ago he published a little booklet on the burial of Christ called “And That He Was Buried.” The back cover says it was printed by “Hester Printing and Graphics, Russellville, Alabama.” I thought I had lost it, but I found it in the boxes we brought with us when we moved. This weekend I re-read the little booklet and found that it stands up very well as a treatment of the spiritual meaning of the Christ’s burial, a much-neglected topic.

Let me translate this picture for you in my own way. Jesus was assigned a plot, a rich man’s tomb. He entered that tomb to attend to the business of displaying to the spiritual world all the glories of His Divine person. All the perfections of his being were displayed before all principalities and powers. With the wonder of a completed redemption he defeated the enemies and chained them, like the ancient generals who chained the defeated kings and foes to his chariot, and went out of the battle into the victory of home leading the captives chained to his chariot as the spoils of his victory. So Christ got up from that tomb having accomplished his purpose and defeated Satan. I say, he got up having collected all his facilities, all that was his, and went out of that tomb never to return. Look at the tomb. You will find the linen cloth and a napkin, which were not his. You will not find any of his Deity, Holiness, Perfection, Glory or his humanity in that tomb. He gathered all that was his and went out: He Arose. Hallelujah! Christ arose.