Death and Life in Christ

Death and Life in Christ
A Sermon
(No. 503)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, April 5th, 1863, by the
Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto
sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord."–Romans 6:8-11.
THE apostles never traveled far from the simple facts of Christ's life,
death, resurrection, ascension, exaltation, and second advent. These
things, of which they were the witnesses, constituted the staple of all
their discourses. Newton has very properly said that the two pillars of
our religion are, the work of Christ for us, and his work in us by the
Holy Spirit. If you want to find the apostles, you will surely discover
them standing between these two pillars; they are either discoursing
upon the effect of the passion in our justification, or its equally
delightful consequence in our death to the world and our newness of
life. What a rebuke this should be to those in modern times who are
ever straining after novelties. There may be much of the Athenian
spirit among congregations, but that should be no excuse for its being
tolerated among ministers; we, of all men, should be the last to spend
our time in seeking something new. Our business, my brethren, is the
old labor of apostolic tongues, to declare that Jesus, who is the same
yesterday to-day and for ever. We are mirrors reflecting the
transactions of Calvary, telex scopes manifesting the distant glories
of an exalted Redeemer. The nearer we keep to the cross, the nearer, I
think, we keep to our true vocation. When the Lord shall be pleased to
restore to his Church once more a fervent love to Christ, and when once
again we shall have a ministry that is not only flavoured with Christ,
but of which Jesus constitutes the sum and substance, then shall the
Churches revive–then shall the set time to favor Zion come. The goodly
cedar which was planted by the rivers of old, and stretched out her
branches far and wide, has become in these modern days like a tree
dwarfed by Chinese art; it is planted by the rivers as aforetime, but
it does not flourish, only let God the Holy Spirit give to us once
again the bold and clear preaching of Christ crucified in all
simplicity and earnestness, and the dwarf shall swell into a forest
giant, each expanding bud shall burst into foliage, and the cedar shall
tower aloft again, until the birds of the air shall lodge in the
branches thereof. I need offer you no apology, then, for preaching on
those matters which engrossed all the time of the apostles, and which
shall shower unnumbered blessings on generations yet to come.
I. THE FACTS REFERRED TO IN THESE FOUR VERSES CONSTITUE THE GLORIOUS
GOSPEL WHICH WE PREACH.
1. The first fact here very clearly indicated is that Jesus died. He
who was divine, and therefore immortal, bowed his head to death. He
whose human nature was alhed to the omnipotence of his divine nature,
was pleased voluntarily to submit himself to the sword of death. He who
was pure and perfect, and therefore deserved not death, which is the
wages of sin, nevertheless condescended for our sake to yield himself
up to die. This is the second note in the Gospel scale. The first note
is incarnation, Jesus Christ became a man; angels thought this worthy
of their songs, and made the heavens ring with midnight melodies. The
second note is this, I say, that, being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. He died as a sacrifice. Methinks, after many lambs from the
flocks of men had poured out their blood at the foot of the altar, it
was a strange spectacle-to see God's Lamb brought to that same altar to
be sacrificed. He is without spot or blemish, or any such thing. He is
the firstling of the flock; he is the only one of the Great Master; a
right royal, heavenly lamb. Such a Lamb had never been seen before. He
is the Lamb who is worshipped in heaven, and who is to be adored world
without end. Will that sacred head condescend to feel the axe? Will
that glorious victim really be slain? Is it possible that God's Lamb
will actually submit to die? He does so without a struggle; he is dumb
in the shambles before the slaughterers; he gives up the warm blood of
his heart to the hand of the executioner, that he might expiate the
wrath of God. Tell it. Let heaven ring with music, and let hell be
filled with confusion! Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, the Lamb of
Jehovah's Passover, died. His hands were pierced; and his heart was
broken; to prove how surely the spear had struck the mark, the vital
fluid flowed in a double flood, even to the ground:–Jesus died. If
there were any doubt about this, there were doubt about your salvation
and mine. If there were any reason to question this fact, then we might
question the possibility of salvation. But Jesus died, and sin is put
away. The sacrifice smokes to heaven; Jehovah smelleth a sweet savor,
and is pleased through Christ the victim to accept the prayers, the
offerings, and the persons of his people. Nor did he die as a victim
only. He died as a substitute. We were drawn as soldiers for the great
warfare, and we could not go, for we were feeble, and should have
fallen in the battle, and have left our bones to be devoured of the
dogs of hell. But he, the mighty Son of God, became the substitute for
us; entered the battle-field; sustained the first charge of the
adversary in the wilderness; three times he repulsed the grim fiend and
all his host, smiting his assailants with the sword of the Spirit,
until the enemy fled, and angels waited upon the weary Victor. The
conflict was not over, the enemy had but retired to forge fresh
artillery and recruit his scattered forces for a yet more terrible
affray. For three years the great Substitute kept the field against
continual onslaughts from the advance guard of the enemy, remaining
conqueror in every skirmish. No adversary dared to show his face, or if
he shot an arrow at him from a distance, our substitute caught the
arrow on his shield, and laughed his foes to scorn. Devils were cast
out of many that were possessed; whole legions of them were compelled
to find refuge in a herd of swine; and Lucifer himself fell like
lightning from the heaven of his power. At last the time came when hell
had gathered up all its forces, and now was also come the hour when
Christ, as our substitute, must carry his obedience to the utmost
length; he must be obedient unto death. He has been a substitute up
till now; will he now throw down his vicarious character? Will he now
renounce our responsibilities, and declare that we may stand for
ourselves? Not he. He undertook, and must go through. Sweating great
drops of blood, he nevertheless flinches not from the dread assault.
Wounded in hands and in feet he still maintained his ground, and
though, for obedience sake, he bowed his head to die, yet in that dying
he slew death, put his foot upon the dragons' neck, crushed the head of
the old serpent, and beat our adversaries as small as the dust of the
threshing-floor. Yes, the blessed Substitute has died. I say if there
were a question about this, then we might have to die, but inasmuch as
he died for us, the believer shall not die. The debt is discharged to
the utmost farthing; the account is cleared; the balance is struck; the
scales of justice turn in our favor; God's sword is sheathed for ever,
and the blood of Christ has sealed it in its scabbard. We are free, for
Christ was bound; we live, for Jesus died. Dying thus as a sacrifice
and as a substitute, it is a comfort to us to know that he also died as
Mediator between God and man. There was a great gulf fixed, so that if
we would pass to God we could not, neither could he pass to us if he
would condescend to do so. There was no way of filling up this gulf,
unless there should be found one who, like the old Roman, Curtius,
would leap into it. Jesus comes, arrayed in his pontifical garments,
wearing the breast-plate, bearing the ephod, a priest for ever after
the order of Melchisidec: his kingly character is not forgotten, for
his head is adorned with a glittering crown, and o'er his shoulders he
bears the prophet's mantle. How shall I describe the matchless glories
of the prophet-king, the royal priest? Will he throw himself into the
chasm? He will. Into the grave he plunges, the abyss is closed! The
gulf is bridged, and God can have communion with man! I see before me
the heavy veil which shields from mortal eyes the place where God's
glory shineth. No man may touch that veil or he must die. Is there any
man found who can rend it?–that man may approach the mercy-seat. O
that the veil which parts our souls from him that dwelleth between the
cherubims could be torn throughout its utmost length! Strong archangel,
wouldest thou dare to rend it? Shouldest thou attempt the work, thine
immortality were forfeited, and thou must expire. But Jesus comes, the
King Immortal, Invisible, with his strong hands he rends the veil from
top to bottom, and now men draw nigh with confidence, for when Jesus
died a living way was opened. Sing, O heavens, and rejoice O earth!
There is now no wall of partition, for Christ has dashed it down!
Christ has taken away the gates of death, posts and bars, and all, and
like another Samson carried them upon his shoulders far away. This,
then, is one of the great notes of the Gospel, the fact that Jesus
died. Oh! ye who would be save'd, believe that Jesus died; believe that
the Son of God expired; trust that death to save you, and you are
saved. Tis no great mystery; it needs no learned words, no polished
plivases; Jesus died; the sacrifice smokes; the substitute bleeds; the
Mediator fills up the gap; Jesus dies; believe and live.
2. But Jesus rises: this is no mean part of the Gospel. He dies; they
lay him in the new sepulclive; they embalm his body in spices; his
adversaries are careful that his body shall not be stolen away; the
stone, the seal, the watch, all prove their vigilance. Aha! Aha! What
do ye, men? Can ye imprison immortality in the tomb! The fiends of
hell, too, I doubt not, watched the sepulclive, wondering what it all
could mean. But the third day comes, and with it the messenger from
heaven. He touches the stone; it rolls away; he sits upon it, as if he
would defy the whole universe to roll that stone back again. Jesus
awakes, as a mighty man from his slumber; unwraps the napkin from his
head and lays it by itself; unwinds the cerements in which love had
wrapped him, and puts them by themselves; for he had abundant leisure;
he was in no haste; he was not about to escape like a felon who bursts
the prison, but like one whose time of jail-deliverance has come, and
lawfully and leisurely leaves his cell; he steps to the upper air,
bright, shining, glorious, and fair. He lives. He died once, but he
rose again from the dead. There is no need for us to enlarge here. We
only pause to remark that this is one of the most jubilant notes in the
whole gospel scale; for see, brethren, the rich mysteries, which, like
the many seeds of the pomegranate, are all enclosed in the golden apple
of resurrection. Death is overcome. There is found a man who by his own
power was able to struggle with death, and hurl him down. The grave is
opened; there is found a man able to dash back its bolts and to rifle
its treasures; and thus, brethren, having delivered himself, he is able
also to deliver others. Sin, too, was manifestly forgiven. Christ was
in prison as a hostage, kept there as a surety; now that he is suffered
to go free, it is a declaration on God's behalf that he has nothing
against us; our substitute is discharged; we are discharged. He who
undertook to pay our debt is suffered to go free; we go free in him.
"He rose again for our justification." Nay more, inasmuch as he rises
from the dead, he gives us a pledge that hell is conquered. This was
the great aim of hell to keep Christ beneath its heel. "Thou shalt
bruise his heel." They had gotten the heel of Christ, his mortal flesh
beneath their power, but that bruised heel came forth unwounded; Christ
sustained no injury by his dying; he was as glorious, even in his human
nature, as he was before he expired. "Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption."
Beloved, in this will we triumph, that hell is worsted; Satan is put to
confusion, and all his hosts are fallen before Immanuel. Sinner,
believe this; it is the Gospel of thy salvation. Believe that Jesus of
Nazareth rose again from the dead, and trust him, trust him to save thy
soul. Because he burst the gates of the grave, trust him to bear thy
sins, to justify thy person, to quicken thy spirit, and to raise thy
dead body, and verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt be saved.
3. We now strike a third note, without which the gospel were not
complete. Inasmuch as Jesus died, he is now living. He does not, after
forty days, return to the grave; he departs from earth, but it is by
another way. From the top of Olivet he ascends until a cloud receives
him out of their sight. And now at this very day he lives. There at his
Father's right hand he sits, bright like a sun; clothed in majesty; the
joy of all the glorified spirits; his Father's intense delight. There
he sits, Lord of Providence; at his girdle swing the keys of heaven,
and earth, and hell. There he sits, expecting the hour when his enemies
shall be made his footstool. Methinks I see him, too, as he lives to
intercede. He stretches his wounded hands, points to his breastplate
bearing the names of his people, and for Zion's sake he doth not hold
his peace, and for Jerusalem's sake he doth not rest day nor night, but
ever pleadeth–"Oh God! bless thy heritage; gather together thy
scattered ones; I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me
where I am." Believer, this it a cluster of camphire to thee, a bundle
of myrrh–be thou comforted exceedingly.
"He lives! the great Redeemer lives!
What joy the blest assurance gives!"
Trembling penitent, let a living Savior cheer thee. Exercise faith in
him who only hath immortality. He lives to hear thy prayer; cry to him,
he lives to present that prayer before his Father's face. Put yourself
in his hands; he lives to gather together those whom he bought with his
blood, to make those the people of his flock who were once the people
of his purchase. Sinner, dost thou believe this as a matter of fact? If
so, rest thy soul on it, and make it shine as a matter of confidence,
and then thou art saved.
4. One more note, and our gospel-song need not rise higher. Jesus died;
he rose; he lives; and he lives for ever. He lives for ever. He shall
not die again. "Death hath no more dominion over him." Ages shall
follow ages, but his raven locks shall never be blanched with years.
"Thou hast the dew of thy youth." Disease may visit the world and fill
the graves, but no disease or plague can touch the immortal Savior. The
shock of the last catastrophe shall shake both heaven and earth, until
the stars shall fall like withered fig-leaves from the tree, but
nothing shall move the unchanging Savior. He lives for ever. There is
no possibility that he should be overcome by a new death.
"No more the bloody spear,
The cross and nails no more;
For hell itself shakes at his name,
And all the heavens adore."
Would it not be a strange doctrine indeed if any man should dream that
the Son of God would again offer his life a sacrifice. He dieth no
more. This, too, reveals another part of our precious gospel, for now
it is certain, since he lives for ever, that no foes can overcome him.
He has so routed his enemies and driven his foes off the battle-field,
that they will never venture to attack him again. This proves, too,
that his people's eternal life is sure. Let Jesus die, and his people
die. Let Christ leave heaven, and, O ye glorified ones! ye must all
vacate your thrones, and leave your crowns without heads to wear them,
and your harps untouched by fingers that shall wake them to harmony. He
lives for ever. Oh! seed of Abraham, ye are saved with an everlasting
salvation by the sure mercies of David. Your standing in earth and
heaven has been confirmed eternally. God is honored, saints are
comforted, and sinners are cheered, for "he is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them."
Now I would to God that on one of these four anchor-holds your faith
might be able to get rest. Jesus died, poor trembler; if he died and
took thy griefs, will not his atonement save thee? Rest here. Milhons
of souls have rested on nothing but Jesus' death, and this is a granite
foundation; no storms of hell can shake it. Get a good handhold on his
cross; hold it, and it will hold you. You cannot depend on his death
and be deceived. Try it; taste and see, and you shall find that the
Lord is good, and that none can trust a dying Savior without being with
him in Paradise. But if this suffice you not, he rose again. Fasten
upon this. He is proved to be victor over your sin and over your
adversary; can you not, therefore, depend upon him? Doubtless there
have been thousands of saints who have found the richest consolation
from the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead. He rose again for
our justification. Sinner, hang on that. Having risen he lives. He is
not a dead Savior, a dead sacrifice. He must be able to hear our plea
and to present his own. Depend on a living Savior; depend on him now.
He lives for ever, and therefore it is not too late for him to save
you. If thou criest to him he will hear thy prayer, even though it be
in life's last moment, for he lives for ever. Though the ends of the
earth were come, and you were the last man, yet he ever lives to
intercede before his Father's face. Oh! gad not about to find any other
hope! Here are four great stones for you; build your hope on these; you
cannot want surer foundations–he dies, he rises, he lives, he lives
for ever. I tell thee, Soul, this is my only hope, and though I lean
thereon with all my weight it bends not. This is the hope of all God's
people, and they abide contented in it. Do thou, I pray thee, now come
and rest on it. May the Spirit of God bring many of you to Christ. We
have no other gospel. You thought it a hard thing, a scholarly thing, a
matter that the college must teach you, that the university must give
you. It is no such matter for learning and scholarship. Your little
child knows it, and your child may be saved by it. You without
education, you that can scarce read in the book, you can comprehend
this. He dies; there is the cross. He rises; there is the open tomb. He
lives; there is the pleading Savior. He lives for ever; there is the
perpetual merit. Depend on him! Put your soul in his hand and you are
saved.
If I have brought you under the first head of my discourse to a
sufficient height; you can now take another step, and mount to
something higher; I do not mean higher as to real value, but higher as
a matter of knowledge, because it follows upon the fact as a matter of
experience.
II. The great facts mentioned in our text represent THE GLORIOUS WORK
WHICH EVERY BELIEVER FEELS WITHIN HIM.
In the text we see death, resurrection, life, and life eternal. You
observe that the Apostle only mentions these to show our share in them.
I will read the text again–"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from
the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in
that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves also to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Well, then, it seems that as Christ was, so we also are dead. We are
dead to sin because sin can no more condemn us. All the sins which
God's people have ever committed dare not accuse, much less can they
condemn those for whom Jesus died. Sin can curse an unbeliever, but it
has no power so much as to mutter half a curse against a man in Christ.
I cannot claim a debt of a dead debtor, and although I be a debtor to
the law, yet since I am dead, the law cannot claim anything of me, nor
can sin infiict any punisliment upon me. He that is dead, as says the
preceding verse, is freed from sin; being dead to sin we are free from
all its jurisdiction; we fear not its curse; we defy its power. The
true believer in the day when he first came to Christ died to sin as to
its power. Sin had been sitting on a high throne in his heart, but
faith pulled the tyrant down and rolled him in the dust, and though it
still survives to vex us, yet its reigning power is destroyed. From the
day of our new birth, if we be indeed true Christians, we have been
dead to all sin's pleasures. Madame Bubble can no longer bewitch us.
The varnish and gilt have been worn off from the palaces of sin. We
defy sin's most skillful enchantments; it might warble sweetest music,
but the dead ear is not to be moved by melodies. Keep thy bitter
sweets, O earth, for those who know no better delicacies; our mouths
find no flavour in your dainties. We are dead to sin's bribes. We curse
the gold that would have bought us to be untrutliful, and abhor the
comforts which might have been the reward of iniquity. We are dead to
its threatenings, too. When sin curses us, we are as little moved by
its curses as by its promises. A believer is mortified and dead to the
world. He can sing with Cowper–
"I thirst, but not as once I did
The vain delights of earth to share;
Thy wounds, Emmanuel all forbid
That I should seek my pleasures there.
It was the sight of thy dear cross
First wean'd my soul from earthly things;
And taught me to esteem as dross
The mirth of fools and pomp of kings."
I am compelled, however, to say that this mortification is not
complete. We are not so dead to the world as we should be. Instead of
saying here what the Christian is, I think I may rather say what he
should be, for where am I to look for men that are dead to the world
now-a-days? I see professing Christians quite as fond of riches; I see
them almost as fond of gaiety and vanity. Do I not see those who wear
the name of Jesus whose dress is as full of vanity as that of the
worldling; whose conversation has no more savor of Christ in it than
that of the open sinner? I find many who are conformed to this world,
and who show but little renewing of their minds. Oh! how slight is the
difference now-a-days between the Church and the world! We ought to be,
in a spiritual sense, evermore Dissenters–dissenting from the world,
standing out and protesting against it. We must be to the world's final
day Nonconformists, not conforming to its ways and vanities, but
walking without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. Do some of you
recollect the day when you died to the world? Your friends thought you
were mad. They said you knew nothing of life, so your ungodly friends
put you in the sepulclive, and others of them rolled a great stone
against you. They from that day put a ban upon you. You are not asked
out now where you once were everybody. The seal is put upon you; they
call you by some opprobrious epithet, and so far as the world is
concerned, you are like the dead Christ; you are put into your grave,
and shut out from the world's life. They do not want you any more at
their merry-makings, you would spoil the party; you have now become
such a Methodist, such a mean hypocrite, as they put it, that they have
buried you out of sight, and rolled back the stone, and sealed it, and
set watchers at the door to keep you there. Well, and what a blessed
thing that is, for if you be dead with Christ you shall also live with
him.
If we be thus dead with Christ, let us see that we live with him. It is
a poor thing to be dead to the world unless we are alive unto God.
Death is a negative, and a negative in the world is of no great use by
itself. A Protestant is less than a nobody if he only protests against
a wrong; we want a proclaimer, one who proclaims the truth as well as
protests against error. And so, if we be dead to sin we must have,
also, the life of Christ, and I trust, beloved, we know, and it is not
a matter of theory to us–I trust we know that in us there is a new
life to which we were strangers once. To our body and our soul there
has been superadded a spirit, a spark of spiritual life. Just as Jesus
had a new life after death, so have we a new life after death,
wherewith I trust we rise from the grave. But we must prove it. Jesus
proved his resurrection by infallible signs. You and I, too, must prove
to all men that we have risen out of the grave of sin. Perhaps our
friends did not know us when we first rose from the dead. Like Mary,
they mistook us for somebody else. They said, "What! Is this Wilham who
used to be such a hectoring, proud, ill-humoured, domineering fellow?
Can he put up with our jokes and jeers so patiently?" They supposed us
to he somebody else, and they were not far from the mark, for we were
new creatures in Christ Jesus. We talked with some of our friends, and
they found our conversation so different from what it used to be that
it made their hearts burn within them, just as Jesus Christ's disciples
when they went to Emmaus. But they did not know our secret; they were
strangers to our new life. Do you recollect, Christians, how you first
revealed yourselves unto your brethren, the Church? In the breaking of
bread they first knew you. That night when the right-hand of fellowship
was given to you the new life was openly recognized, and they
said–"Come in thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou
without?" I trust, in resurrection-life you desire to prove to all men
that this is not the common life you lived before, a life which made
you serve the flesh and the lusts thereof; but that you are living now
with higher aims, and purer intentions, by a more heavenly rule, and
with the prospect of a diviner result. As we have been dead with
Christ, dear brethren, I hope we have also, in our measure, learned to
live with him.
But now, remember, Christ lives for ever, and so do we. Christ being
raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over
him. The fourteenth verse is wonderfully similar–"Sin shall not have
dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Sin
made us die once in Adam, but we are not to be slain by it again. If
Christ could die now, we could die, but since Christ can never die
again, so the believer can never again go back to his old sin. He dies
to sin no more; he lives, and sin hath no more dominion over him. Oh!
this is a delightful theme! I know not how to express the joy my own
heart feels at the sense of security arising from the fact that Christ
dies no more. Death hath no more dominion over him; and sin hath no
more dominion over me, if I be in Christ. Suppose, my brethren, suppose
for a moment that Christ could die again. Bring out your funeral music!
Let the muffled drums beat the Dead march! Let the heavens be clothed
in sackcloth, and let the verdant earth be robed in blackness, for the
atonement, earth's great hope, is incomplete! Christ must die again.
The adversaries we thought were routed have gathered their strength
again. Death is not dead; the grave is not open; there will be no
resurrection! The saints tremble; even in heaven they fear and quake;
the crowns upon glorified heads are trembling; the hearts that have
been overflowing with eternal bliss are filled with anxiety, for the
throne of Christ is empty; angels suspend their songs; the howlings of
hell have silenced the shouts of heaven: the fiends are holding high
holiday, and they sliviek for very joy–"Jesus dies again! Jesus dies
again! Prepare your arrows! Empty your Quivers! Come up, Ye legions of
hell! The famous conqueror must fight, and bleed, and die again, and we
shall overcome him yet!" God is dishonored, the foundations of heaven
are removed, and the eternal throne quivers with the shock of Christ
subjected to a second death! Is it blasphemy to suppose the case? Yet,
my brethren, it were equal blasphemy to suppose a true believer going
back again to his old lusts and dying again by sin, for that were to
suppose that the atonement were incomplete. I can prove that it
involves the very same things; it supposes an unfinished sacrifice, for
if the sacrifice be finished, then those for whom it was offered must
be saved. It supposes hell triumphant–Christ had bought the soul, and
the spirit had renewed it, but the devil wipes away the blood of
Christ, expels the spirit of the living God, and gets to himself the
victory. A saint perish! Then God's promise is not true, and Christ's
word is false–"I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never
perish;" then the foundations are removed; eternal justice is a name,
and the divine honesty is suspected; the purposes of God are
frustrated, and the crown of sovereignty rolls in the mire. Weep
angels! Be astonished, O heavens! Rock, O ye hills with earthquake! and
hell come up and hold riot! for God himself has ceased to be God, since
his people perish! "Because I live ye shall live also" is a divine
necessity, and if dominion can ever be had by sin over a believer
again, then, mark you, death can again have dominion over Christ; but
that is impossible; therefore rejoice and be glad, ye servants of God.
You will notice, that as they live, so, like Jesus Christ, they live
unto God. This completes the parallel. "In that he liveth he liveth
unto God." So do we. The forty days which Christ spent on earth he
lived unto God, comforting his saints, manifesting his person, giving
forth gospel precepts. For the few days we have to live here on earth
we must live to comfort the saints, to set forth Christ, and to preach
the gospel to every creature. And now that Christ has ascended he lives
unto God; what does that mean? He lives, my brethren, to manifest the
divine character. Christ is the permanent revelation of an invisible
God. We look at Christ and we see justice, truth, power, love; we see
the whole of the divine attributes in him. Christian, you are to live
unto God; God is to be seen in you; you are to show forth the divine
bowels of compassion, longsuffering, tenderness, kindness, patience;
you are to manifest God; living unto God. Christ lives unto God, for he
completes the divine purpose by pleading for his people, by carrying on
his people's work above. You are to live for the same, by preaching,
that sinners may hear and that the elect may live; by teaching that the
chosen may be saved; teaching by your life, by your actions, that God's
glory may be known, and that his decrees may be fulfilled. Jesus lives
unto God, delighting himself in God. The immeasurable joy of Christ in
his Father no tongue can tell. Live in the same way, Christian. Delight
thyself in the Lord! Be blessed; be happy; rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice. Our Redeemer lives unto God, that is he lives
in constant fellowship with God. Cannot you do so too by the Holy
Spirit? You are dead to sin; see to it that you live for ever in
fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Now I have been talking riddles to some of you. How many of you
understand these things? If any are troubled because they understood
the first part and they do trust in Christ's death, but they do not
understand the second part–ah! beloved, you shall comprehend one of
these days; if you are resting on Christ's death, that death shall yet
be made mighty in you. But you that have known something of this, I
pray you struggle after more. Ask the Lord to mortify you altogether,
to fill you with the divine life, and to help you to persevere unto the
end. Pray that you may live unto God and unto God alone.
III. Having brought you thus far, there is only one other step to take,
and then we have done; let us notice that the facts of which we have
spoken are PLEDGES OF THE GLORY WHICH IS TO BE REVEALED IN US.
Christ died. Possibly we shall die. Perhaps we shall not; we may be
alive and remain at the coming of the Son of man; but it may be we
shall die. I do not think we should be so certain of death as some
Christians are, because the Lord's coming is much more certain than our
dying. Our dying is not certain, for he may come before we die.
However, suppose we shall die: Christ rose, and so shall we.
"What though our inbred sins require
Our flesh to see the dust,
Yet as the Lord our Savior rose,
So all his followers must."
Do not, my brethren, think of the cemetery with tears, nor meditate
upon the coffin and the shroud with gloomy thoughts. You only sojourn
there for a little season, and to you it will not appear a moment. Your
body will sleep, and if men sleep all through a long night it only
seems an hour to them, a very short moment. The sleeping-time is
forgotten, and to your sleeping-body it will seem no time at all, while
to your glorified soul it will not seem long because you will be so
full of joy that a whole eternity of that joy would not be too long.
But you shall rise again. I do not think we get enough joy out of our
resurrection. It will probably be our happiest moment, or rather the
beginning of the happiest life that we shall ever know. Heaven is not
the happiest place. Heaven at present is happy, but it is not the
perfection of happiness, because there is only the soul there, though
the soul is full of pleasure; but the heaven that is to be when body
and soul will both be there surpasses all thought. Resurrection will be
our marriage-day. Body and soul have been separated, and they shall
meet again to be re-married with a golden ring, no more to be divorced,
but as one indissolubly united body to go up to the great altar of
immortality, and there to be espoused unto Christ for ever and ever. I
shall come again to this flesh, no longer flesh that can decay, no
longer bones that ache–I shall come back to these eyes and these ears,
all made channels of new delight. Say not this is a materialistic view
of the matter. We are at least one-half material, and so long as there
is material about us we must always expect joy that shall not only give
spiritual but even material delight to us. This body shall rise again.
"Can these dry bones live?" is the question of the unbeliever. "They
must live," is the answer of faith. Oh! let us expect our end with joy,
and our resurrection with transport. Jesus was not detained a prisoner,
and therefore no worm can keep us back, no grave, no tomb can destroy
our hope. Having he lives, and we shall rise to live for ever.
Anticipate, my brethren, that happy day. No sin, no sorrow, no care, no
decay, no approaching dissolution! Be lives for ever in God: so shall
you and I; close to the Eternal; swallowed up in his brightness,
glorified in his glory, overflowing with his love! I think at the very
prospect we may well say–
"Oh! long-expected day begin,
Dawn on these realms of woe and sin."
We may well cry to him to bid his chariots hasten and bring the joyous
season! He comes, he comes, believer! Rejoice with joy unspeakable!
Thou hast but a little time to wait, and when thou hast fallen asleep
thou shalt leap
"From beds of dust and silent clay,
To realms of everlasting day;"
and thou,
"Far from a world of grief and sin
With God eternally shut in,
Shalt be for ever blest!"
May the Lord add his blessing, for Jesu's sake. Amen.