Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, January 1st, 1871 by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Because I live, ye shall live also."–John 14:19.
THIS world saw our Lord Jesus for a very little time, but now it seeth
him no more. It only saw him with the outward eye and after a carnal
sort, so that when the clouds received him and concealed him from
bodily vision, this spiritually blind world lost sight of him
altogether. Here and there, however, among the crowds of the sightless
there were a few chosen men who had received spiritual sight; Christ
had been light to them, he had opened their blind eyes, and they had
seen him as the world had not seen him. In a high and full sense they
could say, "We have seen the Lord," for they had in some degree
perceived his Godhead, discerned his mission, and learned his spiritual
presence of its object, those persons who had seen Jesus spiritually,
saw him after he had gone out of the world unto the Father. We who have
the same sight still see him. Read carefully the words of the verse
before us: "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye
see me." It is a distinguishing mark of a true follower of Jesus that
he sees his Lord and Master when he is not to be seen by the bodily
eye; he sees him intelligently and spiritually; he knows his Lord,
discerns his character, apprehends him by faith, gazes upon him with
admiration as our first sight of Christ brought us into spiritual life,
for we looked unto him and were saved, so it is by the continuance of
this spiritual sight of Christ that our spiritual life is consciously
maintained. We lived by looking, we live still by looking. Faith is
still the medium by which life comes to us from the life-giving Lord.
It is not only upon the first day of the Christian's life that he must
needs look to Jesus only, but every day of that life, even until the
last, his motto must be, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith." The world sees him no more, for it never saw him aright;
but ye have seen him and lived, and now, through continuing still to
see him, you remain in life. Let us ever remember the intimate
connection between faith and spiritual life. Faith is the life-look. we
must never think that we live by works, by feelings, or by ceremonies.
"The just shall live by faith." We dare not preach to the ungodly
sinner a way of obtaining life by the works of the law, neither dare we
hold up to the most advanced believer a way of sustaining life by legal
means. We should in such a case expect to hear the apostle's
expostulation, "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye
now made perfect by the flesh?" Our glorifying is that our life is not
dependent on ourselves, but is safe in our Lord, as saith the apostle,
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Because he lives, we live, and shall live for ever. God grant that our
eye may ever be clear towards Jesus, our life. May we have no
confidence but in our Redeemer; may our eyes be fixed upon him, that no
other object may in any measure or degree shut out our view of him as
our all in all.
The text contains in it very much of weighty truth, far more than we
shall be able to bring forth from it this morning. First, we see in it
a life; secondly, that life preserved; and thirdly, the reason for the
preservation of that life: "Because I live, ye shall live also."
I. First, we have LIFE here spoken of.
We must not confound this with existence. It were indeed to reduce a
very rich text to a poverty-stricken sentence if we read it, "Because I
exist, ye shall exist also." We could not say of such a use of words
that the water of ordinary speech was turned to wine, but rather that
the wine was turned to water. Before the disciples believed in Jesus
they existed, and altogether apart from him as their spiritual life
their existence would have been continued; it was something far other
and higher than immortal existence which our Lord was here dealing
with.
Life, what is it? We know practically, but we cannot tell in words. We
know it, however, to be a mystery of different degrees. As all flesh is
not the same flesh, so all life is not the same life. There is the life
of the vegetable, the cedar of Lebanon, the hyssop on the wall. There
is a considerable advance when we come to animal life–the eagle or the
ox. Animal life moves in quite a different world from that in which the
plant vegetates–sensation, appetite, instinct, are things to which
plants are dead, though they may possess some imitation of them, for
one life mimics another. Animal life rises far above the experience and
apprehension of the flower of the field. Then there is mental life,
which we all of us possess, which introduces us into quite another
realm from that which is inhabited by the mere beast. To judge, to
foresee, to imagine, to invent, to perform moral acts, are not these
new functions which the ox hath not? Now, let it be clear to you, that
far above mental life there is another form of life of which the mere
carnal man can form no more idea than the plant of the animal, or the
animal of the poet. The carnal mind knoweth not spiritual things,
because it has no spiritual capacities. As the beast cannot comprehend
the pursuits of the philosopher, so the man who is but a natural man
cannot comprehend the experience of the spiritually minded. Thus saith
the Scripture: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." There is in
believers a life which is not to be found in other men–nobler, diviner
for education cannot raise the natural man into it, neither can
refinement reach it; for at its best, "that which is born of the flesh
is flesh," and to all must the humbling truth be spoken, "Ye must be
born again."
It is to be remarked concerning our life in Christ, that it is the
removal of the penalty which fell upon our race for Adam's sin. "In the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was the Lord's
threatening to our first parent, who was the representative of the
race. He did eat of the fruit, and since God is true, and his word
never fails, we may be sure of this, that in that selfsame day Adam
died. It is true that he did not cease to exist, but that is quite
another thing from dying. The threatening was not that he should
ultimately die, but "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die;" and it is beyond all doubt that the Lord kept his word to the
letter. If the first threatening was not carried out we might take
liberty to trifle with all others. Rest assured, then, that the threat
was on the spot fulfilled. The spiritual life departed from Adam; he
was no longer at one with God, no more able to live and breathe in the
same sphere as the Lord. He fell from his first estate; he had need if
he should enter into spiritual life to be born again, even as you and I
must be. As he hides himself from his Maker, and uttersvain excuses
before his God, you see that he is dead to the life of God, dead in
trespasses and sins. We also, being heirs of wrath even as others, are
through the fall dead, dead in trespasses and sins; and if ever we are
to possess spiritual life, it must be said of us, "And you hath he
quickened." We must be as "those that are alive from the dead." The
world is the valley of dry bones, and grace raises the chosen into
newness of life. The fall brought universal death, in the deep
spiritual sense of that word, over all mankind; and Jesus delivers us
from the consequences of the fall by implanting in us a spiritual life.
By no other means can this death be removed: "He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The work of
regeneration, in which the new life is implanted, effectually restores
the ruin of the fall, for we are born again, "not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for
ever." But you remind me that still sin remains in us after we have
received the divine life. I know it does, and it is called "the body of
this death;" and this it is which rages within, between the power of
the death in the first Adam, and the power of the life in the second
Adam; but the heavenly life will ultimately overcome the deadly energy
of sin. Even to-day our inner life groans after deliverance, but with
its groan of "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" it mingles the thankful song, "I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord."
This life is of a purely spiritual kind. We find analogies and
resemblances of it in the common mental life, but they are only
analogies, the spiritual life is far and high above the carnal life,
and altogether out of sight of the fleshly mind. Scarce are there words
in which it can be described. To know this life you must have it; it
must pulsate within your own bosom, for no explanations of others can
tell you what this life is; it is one of the secrets of the Lord. It
would not be possible for us with the greatest skill to communicate to
a horse any conception of what imagination is; neither could we by the
most diligent use of words, communicate to carnal minds what it is to
be joined unto the Lord so as to be one spirit. One thing we know of
it, namely, that the spiritual life is intimately connected with the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul. When he comes we are "born
again from above," "born of the Spirit." While he works in us mightily
our life is active and powerful if he withdraws his active operations
our new life becomes faint and sickly. Christ is our life, but he works
in us through his Holy Spirit, who dwelleth in us evermore.
Further, we know that this life very much consists in union with God.
"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither again can be. So then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God." Death as to the body consists
in the body being separated from the soul; the death of the soul lies
mainly in the soul's being separated form its God. For the soul to be
in union with God is the soul's highest life; in his presence it
unfolds itself like an opening flower; away from him it pines, and
loses all its beauty and excellence, till it is as a thing destroyed.
Let the soul obey God, let it be holy, pure, gracious, then is it
happy, an truly living; but a soul saundered from God is a soul
blasted, killed, destroyed; it exists in a dreadful death; all its true
peace, dignity, and glory, are gone; it is a hideous ruin, the mere
corpse of manhood. The new life brings us near to God, makes us think
of him, makes us love him, and ultimately makes us like him. My
brethren, it is in proportion as you get near to God that you enter
into the full enjoyment of life–that life which Jesus Christ gives
you, and which Jesus Christ preserves in you. "In his favour is life."
Psalm 30:5. "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life." Prov. 14:27.
To turn to God is "repentance unto life." To forget God is for a man to
be "dead whilst he liveth." To believe the witness of God is to possess
the faith which overcometh the world. "He that believeth on the Son of
God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made
him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his
Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he
that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
This life within the soul bears fruit on earth in righteousness and
true holiness. It blooms with sweetest of flowers of fellowship with
God below, and it is made perfect in the presence of God in heaven. The
life of glorified spirits above is but the life of justified men here
below; it is the same life, only it is delivered from encumbrances, and
has come to the fullness of its strength. The life of heaven is in
every believer even now. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus he
receives from God that selfsame life which shall look down serenely
upon the conflagration of earth, and the passing away of those lower
skies. Blessed is that man who hath everlasting life, who is made a
partaker of the divine nature, who is born again from above, who is
born of God by a seed which remaineth in him, for he is the man upon
whom the second death hath no power, who shall enjoy life eternal when
the wicked go away into everlasting punishment.
Thus much concerning this life. We have now to ask each of you whether
you have received it. Have you been born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God? Was there a time with
you when you passed from death unto life, or are you abiding in death?
Have you the witness in yourself that you have been operated upon by a
divinely spiritual power? Is there something in you which was not once
there, not a faculty developed by education, but a life implanted by
God himself? Do you feel an inward craving unknown to carnal minds, a
longing desire which this world could neither excite nor gratify? Is
there a strange sighing for a land as yet unseen, of which it is a
native, and for which it yearns? Do you walk among the sons of men as a
being of another race, not of the world, even as Christ was not of the
world? Can you say, with the favoured apostle, "We know that the Son of
God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him
that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." Oh! then, thank God
for this, and thank God yet more that you have an infallible guarantee
for this, and thank God yet more that you have an infallible guarantee
that your life shall be continued and perfected, for so saith the text,
"Because I live, ye shall live also."
II. Our second head treats of LIFE PRESERVED. "Because I life, ye shall
live also." There stands the promise, " Ye shall live also. This
heavenly life of yours which ye have received shall be preserved to
you.
Concerning this sentence, let me draw your attention, first of all, to
its fullness: "Ye shall live." I think I see in that much more than
lies upon the surface. Whatever is meant by living shall be ours. All
the degree of life which is secured in the covenant of grace, believers
shall have. Moreover, all your new nature shall live, shall thoroughly
live, shall eternally live. By this word it is secured that the eternal
life implanted at regeneration shall never die out. As our Lord said so
shall it be. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him
a well of water springing up into everlasting life." We may not view
this precious word as referring to all the essential spiritual graces
which make up the new man? Not even, in part, shall the new man die.
"Ye shall live," applies to all the parts of our new-born nature. If
there be any believer here who has not lived to the full extent he
might have done, let him lay hold upon this promise; and seeing that it
secures the preservation of all his new nature, let him have courage to
seek a higher degree of health. "I am come," saith Christ, "that ye
might have life, and have it more abundantly." There is no reason,
Christian, why your love to Jesus should not become flaming, ardent,
conquering; for it lives, and ever must live. As to your faith, it also
has immortal vitality in it, and even though it be just now weak, and
staggering, lift up the hands that hang down and confirm the feeble
knees, for your faith shall not die out. Here in your Lord's promise
the abiding nature of the vital faculties of your spirit is guaranteed.
There is no stint in the fullness of Christian life. Beneath the skies
I would labour to attain it, but herein is my joy , that it shall be
most surely mine, for this word is faithful and true. As surely as I
have this day eternal life by reason of faith in Christ Jesus, so
surely shall I reach its fullness when Christ who is my life shall
appear. Even here on earth I have the permit to seek for the fullest
development of this life; nay I have a precept in this promise bidding
me to seek after it. "Ye shall live," means that the new life shall not
be destroyed–no, not as to any of its essentials. All the members of
the spiritual man shall be safe; we may say of it as of the Lord
himself, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." The shield of Christ's
own life covers all the faculties of our spiritual nature. We shall not
enter into life halt or maimed; but he will present us faultless before
the presence of his glory, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing, much less nay dead limbs or decayed faculties. It is a grand
promise, and covers the spiritual nature as with the wings of God, so
that we may apply to it the words of David, in the ninety-first Psalm:
"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from
the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and
under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and
buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the
arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in
darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand
shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it
shall not come nigh thee."
The text secures that the death-penalty of the law shall never fall
upon believers. The quickened man shall never fall back into the old
death from which he has escaped; He shall not be numbered with the
dead, and condemned either in this life or the next. Never shall the
spiritually living become dead again in sin. As Jesus being raised form
the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him; even so
sin shall not have dominion over us again. Once, through the offense of
one, death reigned in us; but now having received abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness, we shall reign in life by one, Christ
Jesus. Rom. 5:17. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to
God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life." Rom. 5:10.
We are united to Christ this day by bands of spiritual life which
neither things present nor things to come can separate. Our union to
Jesus is eternal. It may be assailed; but it shall never be destroyed.
The old body of this death may for awhile prevail, and like Herod it
may seek the young child's life, but it cannot die. Who shall condemn
to death that which is not under the law? Who shall slay that which
abides under the shadow of the Almighty? Even as sin reigned unto
death, even so must grace reign unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Remark carefully the continuance insisted upon in this verse.
Continuance is indeed the main element of this promise–"Ye shall
live." It means certainly that during our abode in this body we shall
live. We shall not be again reduced to our death-state during our
sojourn here. Ten thousand attempts will be made to bring us under
dominion to the law of sin and death, but this one word baffles all.
Your soul may be so assailed that it shall seem as if you could not
keep your hold on Christ, but Christ shall keep his hold on you. The
incorruptible seed may be crushed, bruised, buried, but the life within
it shall not extinguished, it shall yet arise. "Ye shall live." When ye
see all around you ten thousand elements of death, think ye believers,
how grand is this word, "Ye shall live." No falling from grace for you,
no being cast out of the covenant, no being driven from the Father's
house and left to perish. "Ye shall live."
Nor is this all, for when the natural death comes, which indeed to us
is no longer death, our inner life shall suffer no hurt whatsoever; it
will not even be suspended for a moment. It is not a thing which can be
touched by death. The shafts of the last enemy can have no more effect
upon the spiritual, than a javelin upon a cloud. Even in the very
crisis, when the soul is separated from the body, no damage shall be
done to the spiritual nature. And in the awful future, when the
judgment comes, when the thrones are set, and the multitudes are
gathered, and to the right the righteous, and to the left the wicked,
let what may of terror and of horror come frothy, the begotten of God
shall live. Onward through eternity, whatever may be the changes which
yet are to be disclosed, nothing shall affect our God-given life. Like
the life of God himself–eternal, and ever-blessed, it shall continue.
Should all things else be swept away, the righteous must live on; I
mean not merely that they shall exist, but they shall live in all the
fullness of that far-reaching, much-comprehending word "life." Bearing
the nature of God as far as the creature can participate in it, the
begotten from the dead shall prove the sureness of the promise, "Ye
shall live."
Let me further call to your notice that the fact here stated is
univeral, in application to all spiritual life. The promise is, "Ye
shall live," that is to say, every child of God shall live. Every one
who sees Christ, as the world sees him not, is living and shall live. I
can understand such a promised given to eminent saints who live near to
God, but my soul would prostrate herself before the throne in reverent
loving wonder when she hears this word spoken to the very least and
meanest of the saints, "Ye shall live." Thou art not exempted, thou
whose faith is but as a smoking flax, thou shalt live. The Lord bestows
security upon the least of his people as well as upon the greatest. It
is plain that the reason given for the preservation of the new life is
as applicable to one saint as another. If it had been said, "Because
your faith is strong, ye shall live" then weak faith would have
perished; but when it is written, "Because I live," the argument is as
powerful in the one case as in the other. Take it home to thyself, my
brother, however heavy thy heart, or dim thy bone, Jesus lives, and you
shall live.
Remark yet again that this text is exceeding broad. Mark its breadth
and see how it meets everything to the contrary, and overturns all the
hopes of the adversary. "Ye shall live." Then the inbred corruption
which rides within us shall not stifle the new creature. Chained as the
spirit seem to be to the loathsome and corrupt body of this death, it
shall live in spite of its hideous companionship. Though besetting sins
may be as arrows, and fleshly lusts like drawn swords, yet grace shall
not be slain. Neither the fever of hasty passion, nor the palsy of
timorousness, nor the leprosy of covetousness, nor any other disease of
sin, shall so break forth in the old nature as to destroy the new. Nor
shall outward circumstances overthrow the inner life. "For he shall
give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." They
shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a
stone. If providence should cast you into a godless family, where you
dwell as in a sepulcher, and the air you breathe is laden with the
miasma of death, yet shall you live. Evil example shall not poison your
spirit, you shall drink this deadly thing and it shall not hurt you,
you shall be kept from giving way to evil. You shall not be decoyed by
fair temptation, you shall not be cowed by fierce persecution: mightier
is he that is in you than he which is in the world. Satan will attack
you, and his weapons are deadly, but you shall foil him at all points.
To you is it given to tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and
the dragon shall you trample under foot. If God should allow you for
awhile to be sorely tried, as he did his servant Job, and if the devil
should have all the world to help him in his attempt to destroy your
spiritual life, yet even on the dunghill of poverty, and in the
wretchedness of sickness, your spirit shall still maintain its holy
life, and you shall prove it so by blessing and magnifying God,
notwithstanding all. We little dream what may be reserved for us; we
may have to climb steeps of prosperity, slippery and dangerous, but we
shall live; we may be called to sink into the dark waters of adversity,
all God's waves and billows may go over us, but we shall live. WE may
traverse persilent swamps of error, or burning dewerts of unbelief, but
the divine life shall live amid the domains of death. Let the future be
bright or black, we need not wish to turn the page; that which we prize
best, namely, our spiritual life, is hid with Christ in God, beyond the
reach of harm, and we shall live. If old age shall be our portion, and
our crown shall be delayed till we have fought a long and weary battle,
yet nevertheless we shall live; or if sudden death should cut short the
time of our trial here, yet we shall have lived in the fullness of that
word.
III. Our third point is, THE REASON FOR THE SECURITY OF THE SPIRITUAL
LIFE.
The reason assigned is this, "Because I live, ye shall live also."
Christ has life essentially as God. Christ, as man, having fulfilled
his life-work, having offered full atonement for human sin, dieth no
more, death hath no more dominion over him. His life is communicated to
us, and becomes the guarantee to us that we shall live also.
Observe, first, that this is the sole reason of the believer's
spiritual life. "Because I live, ye shall live also." The means by
which the soul is pardoned is found in the precious blood of Jesus; the
cause of its obtaining spiritual life at first is found in Christ's
finished work; and the only reason why the Christian continues still to
live after he is quickened, lies in Jesus Christ, who liveth and was
dead and is alive for evermore. When I first come to Christ, I know I
must find all in him, for I feel I have nothing of my own; but all my
life long I am to acknowledge the same absolute dependence; I am still
to look for everything to him. " I am the vine, ye are the branches: he
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me, yet can do nothing." the temptation is after we have
looked to Jesus and found life there, to fancy that in future time we
are to sustain ourselves in spiritual existence by some means within
ourselves, or by supplies extra and apart from Christ. But it must not
be so; all for the future as well as all for the past is wrapped up in
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. Because he died, ye are
pardoned; because he lives, ye live; all your life still lies in him
who is the way, the truth, and the life. Does not the Christian's life
depend upon his prayerfulness? Could he be a Christian if he ceased to
pray? We reply, the Christian's spiritual health depends upon his
prayerfulness, but that prayerfulness depends on something else. The
reason why the hands of the clock move may be found first in a certain
wheel which operates upon them, but if you go to the primary cause of
all, you reach the main-spring, or the weight, which is the source of
all the motion. Many secondary causes tend to sustain spiritual life;
but the primary cause, the first and foremost, is because Jesus Christ
lives. "All my fresh springs are in thee." While Jesus lives, he sends
the Spirit; the Spirit being sent, we pray; our payer becomes the
evidence of our spiritual life. "But are not good works essential to
the maintenance of the spiritual life?" Certainly, if there be no good
works, we have no evidence of spiritual life. In its season the tree
must bring forth its fruit and its leaves; if there be no outward sign
we suspect that there is no motion of the sap within. Still, to the
tree the fruit is not the cause of life, but the result of it, and to
the life of the Christian, good works bear the same relationship, they
are its outgrowth, not its root. If then my spiritual life is low, what
am I to look to? I am not to look to my prayers, I am not to find
comfort in my works. I may from these discover how declining I am; but
if I want my life to be renovated, I must fly to the fountain of my
life, even Jesus, for there, and there only, shall I find restoration.
Do let us recollect this, that we are not saved because of anything
that we are, or anything that we do; and that we do not remain saved
because of anything we are or can be. A man is saved because Christ
died for him he continues saved because Christ lives for him. The sole
reason why the spiritual life abides is because Jesus lives. This is to
get upon a rock, above the fogs which cover all things down below. If
my life rests on something within me, then to-day I live, and to-morrow
I die; but if my spiritual life rests in Christ, then in my darkest
frames-ay, and when sin has most raged against my spirit- still I live
in the ever-living One, whose life never changes.
Secondly, it is a sufficient cause for my life. "Because I live, ye
shall live also." It must be enough to make believers live that Christ
lives; for first, Christ's life is a proof that his work has
accomplished the absolution of his people from their sins. He would
have been in the tomb to this hour had he not made a complete
satisfaction for their sins, but his rising again from the dead is the
testimony of God that he has accepted the atonement of his dear Son;
his resurrection is our full acquittal. Then if the living Christ be
our acquittal, how can God condemn us to die for sins which he has by
the fact of Christ's resurrection declared to be for ever blotted out?
If Jesus lives, how can we die? Shall there be two deaths for one sin,
the death of Christ and the death of those for whom he died? God forbid
that there should be any such injustice with the Most High. The very
fact that Jesus lives, proves that our sin has been atoned for, that we
are absolved, and therefore cannot die.
Jesus is the representative of those for whom he is the federal head.
Shall the representative live, and yet those represented die? How shall
the living represent the dead? But in his life I see my own life, for
as Levi was in the loins of Abraham, so is every saint in the loins of
Christ, and the life of Christ is representatively the life of all his
people.
Moreover, he is the surety for his people, under bonds and pledges to
bring his redeemed safely home. His own declaration is, "I give unto my
sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hands." Will he break his covenant bonds? Shall
his suretyship be cast to the winds? It cannot be. The fact that if any
of his people for whom he died, to whom he has given spiritual life,
should after all die, Christ would be disappointed of his intent, which
supposition involves the grossest blasphemy. What so many shall he have
for his reward? The purchase-price shall not be given in vain; a
redemption so marvelous as that which he has presented upon the tree,
shall never in any degree become a failure. His life, which proves his
labour to be over, guarantees to people. Know ye not, my brethren, that
if one of those to whom Christ has given spiritual life should after
all fall from it and die, it would argue either that he had a want of
power to keep them, or a want of will to do so. Shall we conceive him
to be devoid of power? Then how he is mighty God? Is he devoid of will
to keep his people- is that conceivable? Cast out the traitorous
thought! He must be as willing as he is able, and as able as he is
willing. While he was in this world, he kept his people; having loved
his own, he loved them to the end; he is "the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever," he will not suffer one of these little ones to perish.
Recollect, and this perhaps will cheer you most of all, that all who
have spiritual life are one with Christ Jesus. Jesus is the head of the
mystical body, they are the members. Suppose one of the members of the
mystical body of Christ should die, then from that moment, with
reverence be it spoken, Christ is not a complete Christ. What were the
head without the body? A most ghastly sight. What were the head with
only a part of the members? Certainly not perfect. There must be every
member present to make a complete body. Therefore we gather that you,
brother, though you think yourself the meanest part of the body, are
nevertheless, essential to its perfection; and you, sister, though you
fancy yourself to be one of the uncomely portions of the body, yet you
must be there, or else the body cannot be perfect, and Christ cannot be
a complete Christ. From him, the head, the life streams into all the
members and while that head lives as a perfect head of a perfect body,
all members must live also. As we have often said, as long as a man's
head is above water you cannot drown his limbs; as long as our head is
above the reach of spiritual death we also are the same-no weapons can
hurt, no poison can destroy, not all hell's fires could burn, nor all
earth's floods could drown, the spiritual life within us: it must be
safe because it is indissolubly one with Jesus Christ the Lord. What
comfort, then, lies in this, the sole but sufficient reason for the
eternal maintenance of the new-born life within us, is this, "Because I
live, ye shall live also."
And be it remembered, that this reason is an abiding reason–"Because I
live, ye shall live also"–a reason which has as much force at one time
as another. From causes variable the effects are variable; but
remaining causes produce permanent effects. Now Jesus always lives.
Yesterday, dear brother you were exalted in fellowship with him, and
stood upon the mountain top; then your heart was glad, and your spirit
rejoiced, and you could say, "I live in Christ." To-day darkness has
intervened, you do not feel the motions of the inner life as you did
yesterday, but do not therefore conclude that the life is not there.
What is to be your sign; what is to be the rainbow of the covenant to
you? Why, that Jesus lives. Do you doubt that he lives? You dare not.
You trust him, doubt not then that you live, for your life is as sure
as his. Believe also that you shall live, for that also is as sure as
the fact that he lives. God gave to Noah, a token that he would not
destroy the earth-it was the rainbow: but then the rainbow is not often
seen; there are peculiar circumstances before the bow is placed in the
cloud. You, brother, you have a token of God's covenant given you in
the text which can always be seen, neither sun nor shower are needful
to its appearance. The living Christ is the token that you live too.
God gave to David the token of the sun and the moon; he said if the
ordinances of day and night should be changed, then would he cast off
the seed of David. But there are times when neither sun nor moon
appear, but your token is plain when these are hidden. Christ at all
times lives. When you are lowest, when you cannot pray, when you can
hardly groan, when you do not seem to have spiritual life enough even
to heave a desire, still if you cling to Jesus this life is as surely
in you as there is life in Christ himself at the right hand of the
Father.
And lastly, it is a most instructive cause. It instructs us in many
ways: let us hint at three. It instructs us to admire the condescension
of Christ. Look at the two pronouns, "ye" and "I"; shall they ever come
into contact? yes, here they stand in close connection with each other.
"I"–the I AM the Infinite; "ye" the creatures of an hour; yet I, the
Infinite, come into union with you, the finite; I the Eternal, take up
you the fleeting, and I make you live because I live. What? Is there
such a bond between me and Christ? Is there such a link between his
life and mine? Blessed be his name! Adored be his infinite
condescension!
It demands of us next abundance of gratitude. Apart from Christ we are
dead in trespasses and sins; look at the depth of our degradation! But
in Christ we live, live with his own life. Look at the height of our
exaltation, and let our thankfulness be proportioned to this infinity
of mercy. Measure if you can from the lowest hell to the highest
heaven, and so great let your thankfulness be to him who has lifted you
from death to life.
Let the last lesson be see the all-importance of close communion with
Jesus. Union with Christ makes you live; keep up your enjoyment of that
union, that you may clearly perceive and enjoy your life. Begin this
year with the prayer, "Nearer to thee, my Lord, nearer to thee." Think
much of the spiritual life and less of this poor carnal life, which
will be soon be over. Go to the source of life for an increase of
spiritual life. Go to Jesus. Think of him more than you have done, pray
to him more; use his name more believingly in your supplications. Serve
him better, and seek to grow up into his likeness in all things. Make
an advance this year. Life is a growing thing. Your life only grows by
getting nearer to Christ; therefore, get under the beams of the Sun of
the Righteousness. Time brings you nearer to him, you will soon be
where he is in heaven; let grace bring you nearer also. You taste more
of his love as fresh mercies come, give him more of your love, more of
your fellowship. Abide in him, and may his word abide in you henceforth
and for ever, and all shall be to his glory. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Colossians 3.
* This text has been sent us by a venerable clergyman of the Church of
England, who has for many years selected a new year's text for us, and
others of his friends. In the calm enjoyment of divine consolations,
such as this verse affords, may his last days pass away in tranquility
and rejoicing.