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Christ Exalted Above Evil by Jonathan Edwards

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.  The last enemy that shall be destroyed, is death –1 Corinthians 15:25-26

The apostle in this chapter particularly opposes some among the Christian Corinthians who denied the resurrection of the dead and infested the church with their doctrine.  There were two sorts of persons in that age who were especially great opposers of the doctrine of the resurrection: one among the Jews, and the other among the heathen. Among the Jews there the Sadducees of whom we read in Acts 23:8.  Among the heathen, that were the chief opposers of this doctrine were the philosophers.  The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was not consistent with their philosophy which taught that it was impossible that one who was deprived of life should ever receive it again.  And therefore they ridiculed the doctrine when the apostle preached it among them at Athens.  Probably the church at Corinth received this corruption from the philosophers and not the Sadducees.  For Corinth was near to Athens, the place of the chief resort of the philosophers of Greece.

In opposing this error, the apostle first insists on Christ’s resurrection from the dead and next on the resurrection of all the saints at the end of the world.  And in the verses next before the text he shows how both are connected or how one arises or follows from the other.  And then he adds, “then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power.  For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” — Observe,

1. That Christ will be exalted over all his enemies. This is one aspect of the glory of his exaltation and dominion that Christ as our redeemer has – that it issues in the subjection of all enemies under his feet.  Their being under his feet denotes their being perfectly subdued and his being gloriously exalted over them.  It shall be thus with respect to God’s and his people’s enemies universally, not one excepted.  This universality is signified here two ways, all enemies — and the very lost enemy: when there shall be but one enemy left (death) that shall also be put under his feet.

2. That all kinds of enemies are defeated in his resurrection. We may learn what is here meant by enemies by the particular instance here given as the last that shall be destroyed, viz. death.  This shows that enemies does not mean persons only, but all that set themselves in opposition to God and his people, including all evils, whatever is against God and his people and opposes Christ or his saints, whether they be persons or things.

SECTION 1

How evil of all kinds has prevailed and highly exalted itself in the world.

Evil of all kinds has risen to an exceeding height in the world and highly exalted itself against God, and Christ, and the church. — This will appear by the following particulars.

1. Satan has highly exalted himself and greatly prevailed. He is vastly superior in his natural capacity and abilities to mankind.  He was originally one of the highest rank of creatures; but he proudly exalted himself in rebellion against God in heaven.  We are told that pride was the condemnation of the devil.  He became proud of his own superior dignity and mighty abilities and the glory which his Creator had put upon him and probably thought it too much to submit to the Son of God and attempted to exalt his throne above him.  And he prevailed to draw away vast multitudes of the heavenly hosts into an open rebellion against God.  And after he was cast down from heaven, he proudly exalted himself in this world and prevailed to do great things.  By his subtle temptations he procured the fall of our first parents and so brought about the ruin of their whole race.  He procured their ruin in body and soul and in the death of both; and that they should be exposed to all manner of calamity in this world and to eternal ruin hereafter.  He so far prevailed, that he drew men off from the service of their Maker and set up himself to be the god of this world.  And in a little time, he drew the world into that almost universal corruption which brought on the flood by which the world was destroyed.  And after that, he drew off all nations, except the posterity of Jacob, from the worship of the true God and darkened all the world with heathenism and held them under this darkness for a great many ages.  Being as worshipful as God almost all over the world, the nations of the earth offered sacrifices to him and multitudes even offered up their children.

And during that time, he often so far prevailed against the people of God that he had almost swallowed them up.  The church was often brought to the very brink of ruin.  And when Christ himself appeared in the world, how did he exalt himself against him and prevailed so far as to influence men to hate and despise him all the days of his life.  And at last, he persuaded one of his own disciples to betray him.  Accordingly, he was delivered into the hands of men to be mocked, buffeted, spit upon, and treated with the greatest ignominy that unrestrained malice could devise; and at last procured that he should be put to the most cruel and ignominious kind of death.  And since then, he has greatly exalted himself against the gospel and kingdom of Christ.  He has procured that the church, for the most part, has been the subject of great persecution; has often brought it to the brink of utter destruction; has accomplished great works in setting up those great kingdoms of antichrist and Mohamed and darkened great part of the world that was once enlightened with the gospel of Christ with worse than heathen darkness.  And he has infected the Christian world with multitudes of heresies and false ways of worship and greatly promoted atheism and infidelity.  Thus highly has the devil exalted himself against God and Christ, and the elect; and so far he prevailed.

2. Guilt is another evil which has come to a great height in the world.  All guilt is an evil of a dreadful nature: the least degree of it is enough utterly to undo any creature.  It is a thing that reaches unto heaven and cries to God and brings down his wrath.  The guilt of any one sin is so terrible an evil that it prevails to bind over the guilty person to suffer everlasting burnings.  So is in some respect infinite, in that it obliges us to that punishment which has no end and so is infinitely terrible.  But this kind of evil has risen to a most amazing height in this world where not only some persons are guilty, but all, in all nations and ages.  And they who live to act any time in the world are not only guilty of one sin, but of thousands and thousands of thousands.  What multiplied and what aggravated sins are some men guilty of!  What guilt lies on some particular persons!  How much more on some particular populous cities!  How much more still on this wicked world!  How much does the guilt of the world transcend all account, all expression, all powers of numbers or measures!  And above all, how vast is the guilt of the world in all ages, from the beginning to the end of it!  To what a pitch has guilt risen!  The world being, as it were, on every side, loaded with it, as with mountains heaped on mountains, above the clouds and stars of heaven.

And guilt, when it was imputed to Christ, greatly prevailed against him — though in himself innocent and the eternal Son of God — even so as to hold him prisoner of justice for a while, and to open the flood-gates of God’s wrath upon him.

3. Corruption and wickedness of heart is another thing that has risen to an exceeding height in the world. Sin has so far prevailed that it has become universal: all men are become sinful and corrupt creatures.  Let us attend to St Paul’s description of the worlds “Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.  “As is written, There is none righteous, no not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one.”  And not only is every one corrupt, but they are all over corrupt, in every power, faculty, and principle, every part is depraved.  This is here (in Romans 3:10-18) represented by the several parts of the body being corrupt, as the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, the feet: “Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood.”  And not only is every part corrupt, but exceeding corrupt, being possessed with dreadful principles of corruption, horribly evil dispositions and principles of sin, that may be represented by the poison of asps: which makes men like vipers and devils: principles of all uncleanness, pride, deceit, injustice, enmity, malice, blasphemy, murder.  Here their throats are compared to an open sepulcher and their mouth is said to be full of cursing and bitterness and destruction and misery are said to be in their ways.

And there are those principles of sin not only that are very bad, but every kind, here is no sort of wickedness but there is a seed of it in men.  And these seeds and Principles have not only a being in men’s hearts, but they are there in great strength: they have the absolute possession and dominion over men so that they are sold under sin.  Yea, wicked principles, and those only, are in the heart.  The imagination of the thoughts of their heart is evil only.  There are bad principles only, and no good ones.  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  Thus the hearts of all men are deceitful and desperately wicked.  And if we look, not only at the natural corruption of the heart, but at the contracted habits of sin, by wicked education and customs, how full shall we find the world of wickedness, in this respect!  How have men, by bad customs in sinning, broken down all restraints upon natural corruption and as it were abandoned themselves to wickedness!  So far has corruption and wickedness prevailed in the world, and so high has it risen, that it is become a great and universal deluge that overtops all things and prevails with that strength, that it is like the raging waves of the tempestuous ocean; which are ready to bear down all before them.

4. Many of the devil’s instruments have greatly prevailed and have been exalted to an exceeding height in the in the world.  It has been so in almost all ages of the world.  Many of the devil’s instruments have prospered and prevailed till they have got to the head of great kingdoms and empires, with vast riches and mighty power.  Those four great heathen monarchies that rose in the world before Christ are spoken of in Scripture as kingdoms set up in opposition to the kingdom of Christ.  So they are represented in the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  These monarchies were exceeding powerful.  The two last ruled over the greater part of the then known world.  And the last especially, viz. the Roman Empire, was exceeding mighty: so that it is said to be diverse from all kingdoms, and that it should devour the whole earth, and tread it down, and break it in pieces.  It is represented by the fourth beast which was dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly and had great iron teeth that devoured and broke in pieces and stamped the residue with his feet.  These four kingdoms all persecuted the church of God in their turns, especially the last.  One of the governors of this monarchy put Christ to death.  And afterwards one emperor after another made dreadful havoc of the church making a business of it with the force of all the empire to torment and destroy the Christians, endeavoring, if possible, to root out the Christian name from under heaven.

And in these latter ages, how those two great instruments of the devil, viz. antichrist and Mahomet have prevailed and to what a pitch of advancement have they arrived; ruling over vast empires, with mighty wealth, pride and power: so that the earth has been, as it were, subdued by them.  Antichrist has set up himself as the vicar of Christ and has for many ages usurped the power of God, “sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself that he is God; and exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.”  And how dreadfully has he ravaged the church of God, being drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus.  And has often, as it were, deluged the world in Christian blood, shed with the utmost cruelty that human wit and malice could invent. — And at this day, many other instruments of the devil, many heretics, atheists, and other infidels, are exerting themselves against Christ and his church with great pride and contempt.

5. Affliction and misery have also prevailed and risen to an unspeakable height in the world. The spiritual misery which the elect are naturally in is great.  They are miserable captives of sin and Satan and under obligations to suffer eternal burnings.  This misery all mankind are naturally in.  And spiritual troubles and sorrows have often risen to a great height in the elect.  The troubles of a wounded spirit and guilty conscience have been felt with intolerable end insupportable weight.  And the darkness that has risen to God’s people after conversion, through the temptations and buffetings of the devil and the hidings of God’s face and manifestations of his anger, has been very terrible.   And temporal afflictions have often risen exceeding high.  The church of God has, for the most part, all along, been a seat of great affliction and tribulation.

But the height to which the evil of affliction has risen nowhere appears so much as in the afflictions that Christ suffered.  The evil of affliction and sorrow exalted itself so high as to seize the Son of God himself and to cause him to be all in a bloody sweat and to make his soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.  It caused him to cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!”  Affliction never prevailed to such a degree in this world, as in Christ, whose soul was, as it were, overwhelmed in an ocean of it.

6. Death is an evil which has greatly prevailed and made dreadful havoc in this world. How does it waste and devour mankind, one age after another, sparing none, high or low, rich or poor, good or bad!  Wild beasts have destroyed many; many cruel princes have taken away the lives of thousands and laid waste whole countries: but death devours all.  None are suffered to escape.  And the bodies of the saints, as well as others, fall prey to this great devourer.  Yea, so high did this enemy rise that he took hold on Christ himself and swallowed him among the rest.  He became the prey of this great, insatiable monster.  By this means, his bodily frame was destroyed and laid dead in the dark and silent grave.  And death still goes on destroying thousands every day.  And therefore the grave is one of those things which Agur says, never has enough. — So have evils of every kind prevailed and to such a degree have they exalted themselves in the world.

SECTION 2

How Jesus Christ, in the work of redemption, appears gloriously above all these evil.

It was not the will of the infinitely wise and holy Governor of the world that things should remain in this confusion.  But he had a design for subduing it and delivering an elect part of the world from it and exalting them to the possession of the greatest good to reign in the highest glory, out of a state of subjection to all these evils.  And he chose his Son as the person most fit for an undertaking that was infinitely too great for any mere creature: and he has undertaken the work of our redemption.

And though these evils are so many and so great and have prevailed to such a degree and risen to such a height and have been, as it were, all combined together; yet wherein they have exalted themselves, Christ, in the work of redemption, appears above them.  He hath gloriously prevailed against them all and brings them under his feet and rides forth in the chariots of salvation over their heads or leading them in triumph at his chariot wheels.  He appears in this work infinitely higher and mightier than they and sufficient to carry his people above them and utterly to destroy them all.

1. Christ appears gloriously above all evil in what he did to procure redemption for us in his state of humiliation, by the righteousness he wrought out and the atonement he made for sin.  The evils mentioned never seemed so much to prevail against him as in his sufferings: but in them, the foundation was laid for their overthrow.  In them, he appeared above Satan.  Though Satan never exalted himself so high as he did in procuring these sufferings of Christ; yet, then, Christ laid the foundation for the utter overthrow of his kingdom.  He slew Satan, as it were, with his own weapon, the spiritual David cut off this Goliath’s head with his own sword; and he triumphed over him in his cross.  “Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”  There the wisdom of Christ appeared gloriously above the subtlety of Satan.

Satan, that old serpent, used a great deal of subtlety to procure Christ’s death, and doubtless, when he had accomplished it, thought he had obtained a complete victory, being then ignorant of the contrivance of our redemption.  But the wisdom of Christ did so order things that Satan’s subtlety and malice should be made the very means of undermining the foundations of his kingdom.  And so he wisely led him into the pit that he had digged.

In this also, Christ appeared gloriously above the guilt of men.  For he offered a sacrifice, that was sufficient to do away all the guilt of the whole world.  Though the guilt of man was like the great mountains, whose heads are lifted up to the heavens, yet his dying love and his merits, appeared as a mighty deluge that overflowed the highest mountains, or like a boundless ocean that swallows them up; or like an immense fountain of light, that with the fullness and redundancy of its brightness swallows up men’s greatest sins, as little motes are swallowed up and hidden in the disk of the sun.

In this, Christ appeared above all the corruption of man because he purchased holiness for the chief of sinners.  And in undergoing such extreme afflicting, Christ got the victory over all misery and laid a foundation for its being utterly abolished with respect to his elect.  In dying, he became the plague and destruction of death.  When death slew him, it slew itself: for Christ, through death, destroyed him that had the power of death, even the devil.  By this, he laid the foundation of the glorious resurrection of all his people to an immortal life.

2. Christ appears gloriously exalted above all evil in his resurrection and ascension into heaven. When Christ rose from the dead, then it appeared that he was above death, which, though it had taken him captive, could not hold him.  Then he appeared above the devil.  Then this Leviathan that had swallowed him was forced to vomit him up again; as the Philistines that had taken captive the ark were forced to return it, Dagon being fallen before it, with his head and hands broken off, and only the stumps left. — Then he appeared above our guilt: for he was justified in his resurrection.  In his resurrection, he appeared above all affliction.  For though he had been subject to much affliction and overwhelmed in it, he then emerged out of it as having gotten the victory, never to conflict with any more sorrow.   When he ascended up into heaven, he rose far above the reach of the devil and all his instruments, who had before had him in their hands.  And now he has sat down at the right hand of God as being made head over all things to the church, in order to a complete and perfect victory over sin, Satan, death, and all his enemies.  It was then said to him, “Sit thou on my right hand, until I make shine enemies thy footstool.”  He entered into a state of glory wherein he is exalted far above all these evils, as the forerunner of his people; and to make intercession for them, till they also are brought to be with him, in like manner exalted above all evil.

3. Christ appears gloriously above all evil in his work in the hearts of the elect in their conversion and sanctification. This is what the application of redemption consists of in this world.  In this work of Christ in the hearts of his elect, he appears glorious above Satan.  For the strong man armed is overcome, and all his armor wherein he trusted is taken from him, and his spoil divided.  In this work, the lamb is, by the spiritual David, taken out of the mouth of the lion and bear: the poor captive is delivered from his mighty and cruel enemies.

In this, Christ appears gloriously above the corruption and wickedness of the heart, above its natural darkness in dispelling it, and letting in light, and above its enmity and opposition, by prevailing over it, drawing it powerfully and irresistibly to himself, and turning a heart of stone into a heart of flesh: above the obstinacy and perverseness of the will, by making them willing in the day of his power.  In this, he appears above all their lusts.  For all sin is put to death in this work and the soul is delivered from the power and dominion of it. — In this work, the grace of Christ gloriously triumphs over men’s guilt.  He comes over the mountains of their sins and visits them with his salvation.

And God often desires in this work, either in the beginning or progress of it, to give his people those spiritual comforts, in which he gloriously appears to be above all affliction and sorrow: and often gives them to triumph over the devil and his powerful and cruel instruments.  Many saints, by the influences of Christ’s Spirit on their hearts, have rejoiced and triumphed when suffering the greatest torments and cruelties of their persecutors.  And in this work Christ sometimes gloriously appears above death in carrying his people far above the fears of it and making them to say, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory,”

4. Christ gloriously appears above all these aforementioned evils in his glorifying the souls of departed saints in heaven. In this, he gives a glorious victory over death.  Death by it is turned from an enemy into a servant; and their death, by the glorious change that passes in the state of their souls, is become a resurrection, rather than a death.  Now Christ exalts the soul to a state of glory where it is perfectly delivered from Satan and all his temptation’s and all his instruments; and from all remains of sin and corruption and from all affliction: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat — and

God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

5. Christ appears gloriously above these evils in what he does in his providence in the world as head and redeemer of his church.  If he appears gloriously above Satan and all his instruments in upholding his church, even from its first establishment, through all the powerful attempts that have been made against it by earth and hell: hereby fulfilling his promise, “That the gates of hell should never prevail against it.”   Christ gloriously triumphed over these his enemies in a remarkable success of his gospel soon after his ascension when many thousands in Jerusalem and all parts of the world were so soon turned from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God: and in causing his word to go on and prosper and his church to increase and prevail against all the opposition of the heathen world when they united all their power to put a stop to it and root it out.  So that, in spite of all that the philosophers and wise men, and emperors and princes could do, the gospel in a little time overthrew Satan’s old heathenish kingdom in the whole Roman Empire which was then the main part of the world; and so brought about the greatest and most glorious revolution.  Instead of one single nation, now the greater part of the nations of the known world were become God’s people.  And Christ’s exaltation above all evil in his government of the world, in his providence, as the Redeemer of his people, has since gloriously appeared in reviving his church by the reformation from popery, after it had for many ages lain in a great measure hid and dwelt in a wilderness under anti-Christian persecution.

And he will yet far more gloriously triumph over Satan and all his Instruments in all the mighty kingdoms that have been set up in opposition to the kingdom of Christ, at the time of the fall of antichrist and the beginning of those glorious times.  “And then the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15.  Though great and mighty empires have been set up one after another in the world, in opposition to the kingdom of Christ, during the succession of so many ages, yet, Christ’s kingdom shall be the last and the universal kingdom, which he has given him, as the heir of the world.

Whatever great works Satan has wrought, the final issue and event of all in the winding up of things in the last ages of the world shall be the glorious kingdom of Christ through the world; a kingdom of righteousness and holiness, of love and peace, established everywhere.  This is in agreement with the ancient prediction, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.  And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is a everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).  “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Daniel 7:27).

Then shall Christ appear gloriously exalted indeed above all evil: and then shall all the saints in earth and heaven gloriously triumph in him, and sing, “Hallelujah, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Rev. 19:2, 6.

6. Christ will appear gloriously above all evil in the consummation of the redemption of his elect church at the end of the world. Then the whole work of redemption will be completed with respect to all that Christ died for, both in its application, and not till then.  And then Christ’s exaltation above all evil will be most perfectly and fully manifest.  Then shall the conquest and triumph be completed with respect to all of them.  Then shall all the devils and all their instruments be brought before Christ to be judged and condemned.  And then their destruction shall be completed in their consummate and everlasting misery; when they shall be all cast into the lake of fire, no more to roam and usurp dominion in the world nor have liberty to make opposition against God and Christ.  They shall forever be shut up, thenceforward only to suffer.  Then shall death be totally destroyed.  All the saints shall be delivered everlastingly from it.  Even their bodies shall be taken from the power of death by a glorious resurrection.

Then shall all guilt and all sin and corruption, and all affliction, all sighs and tears, be utterly and eternally abolished, concerning every one of the elect since they will all be brought to their consummate and immutable glory.  And all this as the fruit of Christ’s blood and as an accomplishment of his redemption.

Then all that evil which has so prevailed and so exalted itself and usurped and raged and reigned, shall be perfectly and forever thrust down and destroyed, with respect to all the elect, and all will be exalted to a state where they will be forever immensely above all these things.  “And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

SECTION 3

The subject improved and applied.

1. In this, we may see how the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ appears in the work of redemption.  It was because the Father had from eternity a design of exceedingly glorifying his Son that he appointed him to be the person that should thus triumph over the evil in the world.  The work of redemption is the most glorious of all God’s works that are made known to us.  The glory of God most remarkably shines forth in it.  And this is one thing whereby its glory eminently appears, that Christ appears so gloriously above Satan and all his instruments, above all guilt, all corruption, all affliction, above death, at above all evil.  And more especially, because evil hath so exalted itself in the world, as we have heard, and exalted itself against Christ in particular.

Satan has ever had a peculiar enmity against the Son of God.  Probably his first rebellion, which was his condemnation, was his proudly taking it in disdain when God declared the decree in heaven that his Son in man’s nature should be the King of heaven; and that all the angels should worship him.  However that was, yet it is certain that his strife has ever been especially against the Son of God.  The enmity has always been between the seed of the woman and the serpent.  And therefore that war which the devil maintains against God is represented by the devil and his angels fighting against Michael and his angels.  God had appointed his Son to be the heir of the world, but the devil has contested this matter with him and has strove to set himself up as God of the world.  And how exceedingly has the devil exalted himself against Christ!  How did he oppose him as he dwelt among the Jews in his tabernacle and temple!  And how did he oppose him when on earth!  And how has he opposed him since his ascension!  What great and mighty works has Satan brought to pass in the world!  How many Babels has he built up to heaven in his opposition to the Son of God!  How exceeding proud and haughty has he appeared in his opposition!  How have he and his instruments, and sin, affliction, and death, of which he is the father, raged against Christ?  But yet Christ, in the work of redemption, appears infinitely above them all.  In this work, he triumphs over them, however they have dealt proudly; and they all appear under his feet.  In this the glory of the Son of God in the work of redemption remarkably appears.

The beauty of good appears with the greatest advantage when compared with its contrary evil.  And the glory of that which is excellent, then especially shows itself, when it triumphs over in contrary and appears vastly above it in its greatest height.  The glory of Christ, in this glorious exaltation over so great evil, which so exalted itself against him, appears more remarkably in that he is exalted out of so low a state.  Though he appeared in the world as a little child; yet how does he triumph over the most gigantic enemies of God and men!  He who was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” is a man of war who triumphed over his enemies in all their power.  He who was meek and lowly of heart has triumphed over those proud foes.  And he is exalted over them all in that which appears most despicable even his cross.

2. Here is matter of exceeding great encouragement for all sinful creatures in the world of mankind to come to Christ.  For let them be as sinful as they will and ever so miserable, Christ, in the work of redemption, is gloriously exalted above all their sin and misery.  How ever high their guilt has risen, though mountains have been heaping on mountains all the days of their lives, till the pile appears towering up to heaven and even above the stars; yet Christ in the work of redemption appears gloriously exalted above all this height. — Though they are overwhelmed in a mighty deluge of woe and misery; a deluge that is not only above their heads, but above the heads of the highest mountains; and they do not see how it is possible that they should escape; yet they have no reason to be discouraged from looking to Christ for help, who in the work of redemption, appears gloriously above the deluge of evil.  Though they see dreadful corruption in their hearts; though their lusts appear like giants or like the raging waves of the sea; yet they need not despair help; but may look to Christ, who appears in the work of redemption, gloriously above all this corruption.

If they apprehend themselves to be miser the captives of Satan and find him too strong an adversary for esteem; and the devil is often tempting and buffeting them and triumphing over them with great cruelty.  If it seems to them that the devil has swallowed them up, and has got full possession of them, as the whale had of Jonah; yet there is encouragement for them to look again, as Jonah did, towards God’s holy temple, and to trust in Christ for deliverance from Satan, who appears so gloriously exalted above him in the work of redemption.

If they are ready to sink with darkness and sorrows, distress of conscience, or those frowns of God upon them; so that God’s waves and billows seem to pass over them; yet they have encouragement enough to look to Christ for deliverance.  These waves and billows have before exalted themselves against Christ; and he appeared to be infinitely above them. — And if they are afraid of death; if it looks exceeding, terrible, as an enemy that would swallow them up, yet let them look to Christ who has appeared so gloriously above death; and their fears will turn into joy and triumph.

3. What a glorious cause have those who have an interest in Christ to glory in their Redeemer! They are often beset with many evils and many mighty enemies surround them on every side with open mouths ready to devour them, but they need not fear any of them.  They may glory in Christ, the rock of their salvation, who appears so gloriously above them all.  They may triumph over Satan, over this evil world, over guilt, and over death.  For as their redeemer is mighty and is so exalted above all evil, so shall they also be exalted in him.  They are now, in a sense, so exalted, for nothing can hurt them.  Christ carries them, as on eaglets’ wings, high out of the reach of all evils, so that they cannot come near them to do them any real harm.  And, in a little time, they shall be so out of their reach that they shall not be able even to molest them any more forever.

Posted in Jonathan Edwards |

I Know That My Redeemer Liveth by C. H. Spurgeon

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though any reins be consumed within me.” — Job 19:25-27

The hand of God has been upon us heavily this week.  An aged deacon, who has been for more than fifty years a member of this Church, has been removed from our midst; and a sister, the beloved wife of another of our Church-officers, a member for nearly the same term of years, has fallen asleep.  It is not often that a Church is called to sorrow over the departure of two such venerable members — let not our ears be deaf to such a double admonition to prepare to meet our God.  That they were preserved so long and upheld so mercifully for so many years was not only a reason of gratitude to them, but to us also.  I am, however, so averse to the preaching of what are called funeral sermons that I forbear, lest I appear to eulogize the creature when my only aim should be to magnify the grace of God.

Our text deserves our profound attention.  Its preface would hardly have been written had not the matter been of the utmost importance in the judgment of the patriarch who uttered it.  Listen to Job’s remarkable desire: “Oh that my words were now written!  Oh that they were printed in a book!  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!”  Perhaps, hardly aware of the full meaning of the words he was uttering, yet his holy soul was impressed with a sense of some weighty revelation concealed within his words; he therefore desired that it might be recorded in a book.  He has had his desire: the Book of books embalms the words of Job.  He wished to have them graven on a rock, cut deep into it with an iron pen and then the lines inlaid with lead; or he would have them engraved, according to the custom of the ancients, upon a sheet of metal, so that time might not be able to eat out the inscription.  He has not had his desire in that respect, save only that upon many and many a sepulcher those words of Job stand recorded, “I know that my redeemer liveth.”

It is the opinion of some commentators that Job, in speaking of the rock here, intended his own rock-hewn sepulcher and desired that this might be his epitaph; that it might be cut deep, so that ages should not wear it out; that when any asked, “Where does Job sleep?” as soon as they saw the sepulcher of the patriarch of Uz they might learn that he died in hope of resurrection, resting upon a living Redeemer.  Whether such a sentence adorned the portals of Job’s last sleeping-place we know not.  But certainly no words could have been more fitly chosen.  Should not the man of patience, the mirror of endurance, the pattern of trust, bear as his memorial this golden line which is as full of all the patience of hope, and hope of patience, as mortal language can be?  Who among us could select a more glorious motto for his last escutcheon?  I am sorry to say that a few of those who have written upon this passage cannot see Christ or the resurrection in it at all.  If it had been Job’s desire to foretell the advent of Christ and his own sure resurrection, I cannot see what better words he could have used.  And if those truths are not here taught, then language must have lost its original object and must have been employed to mystify and not to explain, to conceal and not to reveal.  What, I ask, does the patriarch mean, if not that he shall rise again when the Redeemer stands upon the earth?

Brethren, no unsophisticated mind can fail to find here what almost all believers have here discovered.  I feel safe in keeping to the old sense and we shall this morning seek no new interpretation, but adhere to the common one, with or without the consent of our critics.

In discoursing upon them, I shall speak upon three things. First, let us, with the patriarch, descend into the grave and behold the ravages of death.  Then, with him, let us look up on high for present consolation.  And, still in his admirable company, let us, in the third place, anticipate future delights.

I. First, LET US DESCEND INTO THE SEPULCHLER.

The body has just been divorced from the soul.  Friends who loved most tenderly have said — “Bury my dead out of my sight.”  The body is borne upon the bier and consigned to the silent earth; it is surrounded by the earthworks of death.  Death has a host of troops.  If the locusts and the caterpillars be God’s army, the worms are the army of death.  These hungry warriors begin to attack the city of man.  They commence with the outworks; they storm the munitions and overturn the walls.  The skin, the city wall of manhood, is utterly broken down and the towers of its glory covered with confusion.  How speedily the cruel invaders deface all beauty.

Regard it as a necessity; nay more, view it as the platform of a miracle, the lofty stage of resurrection, since Jesus shall surely raise again from the dead the particles of this body, however divided from one another.  We have heard of miracles, but what a miracle is the resurrection!  All the miracles of Scripture, yea even those wrought by Christ, are small compared with this.  The philosopher says, “How is it possible that God shall hunt out every particle of the human frame?”  He can do it: he has but to speak the word, and every single atom, though it may have traveled thousands of leagues, though it may have been blown as dust across the desert, and anon have fallen upon the bosom of the sea, and then have descended into the depths thereof to be cast up on a desolate shore, sucked up by plants, fed on again by beasts, or passed into the fabric of another man — I say that individual atom shall find its fellows and the whole company of particles at the trump of the archangel shall travel to their appointed place, and the body, the very body which was laid in the ground, shall rise again.

I am afraid I have been somewhat uninteresting while tarrying upon the exposition of the words of Job, but I think very much of the pith of Job’s faith lay in this: that he had a clear view that the worms would after his skin destroy his body and yet that in his flesh he should see God.  You know we might regard it as a small miracle if we could preserve the bodies of the departed.  If, by some process with spices and gums, we could preserve the particles for the Lord to make those dry bones live and to quicken that skin and flesh were a miracle certainly, but certainly not so great a marvel as when the worms have destroyed the body.

When the fabric has been absolutely broken up, the tenement all pulled down, ground to pieces, and flung in handfuls to the wind, so that no relic of it is left, and yet when Christ stands in the latter days upon the earth, all the structure shall be brought together, bone to his bone — then shall the might of Omnipotence be seen.  This is the doctrine of the resurrection and happy is he who finds no difficulty here, who looks at it as being an impossibility with man but a possibility with God, and lays hold upon the omnipotence of the Most High and says, “Thou sayest it, and it shall be done!”  I comprehend thee not, great God; I marvel at thy purpose to raise my moldering bones, but I know that thou doest great wonders!  And I am not surprised that thou shouldst conclude the great drama of thy creating works here on earth by re-creating the human frame by the same power by which thou didst bring from the dead the body of thy Son Jesus Christ and by that same divine energy which has regenerated human souls in thine own image.

II. LET US LOOK UP WITH THE PATRIARCH AND BEHOLD A SUN SHINING WITH PRESENT COMFORT.

“I know,” said he, “that my Redeemer liveth.”  The word “Redeemer” here used is, in the original, “goel” — kinsman.  The duty of the goel was this: suppose an Israelite had alienated his estate, as in the case of Naomi and Ruth; suppose a patrimony which had belonged to a family had passed away through poverty, it was the goel’s business, the redeemer’s business to pay the price as the next of kin and to buy back the heritage.  Boaz stood in that relation to Ruth.

Now, the body may be looked upon as the heritage of the soul — the soul’s small farm, that little plot of earth in which the soul has been wont to walk and delight, as a man walketh in his garden or dwelleth in his house.  Now, that becomes alienated.  Death, like Ahab, takes away the vineyard from us who are as Naboth.  We lose our patrimonial estate; Death sends his troops to take our vineyard and to spoil the vines thereof and ruin it.  But we turn round to Death and say, “I know that my Goel liveth and he will redeem this heritage.  I have lost it; thou takest it from me lawfully, O Death, because my sin hath forfeited my right.  I have lost my heritage through my own offense and through that of my first parent Adam, but there lives one who will buy this back.”  Brethren, Job could say this of Christ long before he had descended upon earth, “I know that he liveth.”  And now that he has ascended up on high and led captivity captive, surely we may with double emphasis say, “I know that my Goel, my Kinsman, liveth and that he hath paid the price, that I should have back my patrimony, so that in my flesh I shall see God.”  Yes, my hands, ye are redeemed with blood, bought not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.  Yes, heaving lungs and palpitating heart, ye have been redeemed!  He that redeemed the soul to be his altar has also redeemed the body that it may be a temple for the Holy Ghost.  Not even the bones of Joseph can remain in the house of bondage.  No smell of the fire of death may pass upon the garments which his holy children have worn in the furnace.

Remember, too, that it was always considered to be the duty of the goel, not merely to redeem by price, but where that failed, to redeem by power.  Hence, when Lot was carried away captive by the four kings, Abraham summoned his own hired servants and the servants of all his friends and went out against the kings of the East and brought back Lot and the captives of Sodom.  Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, who once has played the kinsman’s part by paying the price for us, liveth, and he will redeem us by power.  O Death, thou tremblest at this name!  Thou knowest the might of our Kinsman!  Against his arm thou canst not stand!  Thou didst once meet him foot to foot in stern battle, and, O Death, thou didst indeed tread upon his heel.  He voluntarily submitted to this, or else, O Death, thou hadst no power against him.  But he slew thee, Death, he slew thee!  He rifled all thy caskets, took from thee the key of thy castle, burst open the door of thy dungeon.  And now thou knowest, Death, thou hast no power to hold my body; thou mayst set thy slaves to devour it, but thou shalt give it up and all their spoil must be restored.  Insatiable Death, from thy greedy mouth yet shall return the multitudes whom thou hast devoured.  Thou shalt be compelled by the Savior to restore thy captives to the light of day.  I think I see Jesus coming with his Father’s servants.  The chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.  Blow ye the trumpet!  Blow ye the trumpet!  Immanuel rides to battle!  The Most Mighty in majesty girds on his sword.  He comes!  He comes to snatch by power his people’s lands from those who have invaded their portion.  Oh, how glorious the victory!  No battle shall there be.  He comes, he sees, he conquers.  The sound of the trumpet shall be enough: Death shall fly affrighted and at once from beds of dust and silent clay to realms of everlasting day the righteous shall arise.

To linger here a moment, there was yet, very conspicuously in the Old Testament, we are informed, a third duty of the goel, which was to avenge the death of his friend.  If a person had been slain, the Goel was the avenger of blood.  Snatching up his sword, he at once pursued the person who had been guilty of bloodshed.  So now, let us picture ourselves as being smitten by Death.  His arrow has just pierced us to the heart, but in the act of expiring, our lips are able to boast of vengeance and in the face of the monster we cry, “I know that my Goel liveth.”   Thou mayst fly, O Death, as rapidly as thou wilt, but no city of refuge can hide thee from him.  He will overtake thee; he will lay hold upon thee, O thou skeleton monarch and he will avenge my blood on thee.  I would that I had powers of eloquence to work out this magnificent thought.  Both Chrysostom or Christmas Evans could picture the flight of the King of Terrors, the pursuit by the Redeemer, the overtaking of the foe, and the slaying of the destroyer.  Christ shall certainly avenge himself on Death for all the injury which Death hath done to his beloved kinsmen.  Comfort thyself then, O Christian; thou hast ever living, even when thou diest, one who avenges thee, one who has paid the price for thee, and one whose strong arms shall yet set thee free.

Passing on in our text to notice the next word, it seems that Job found consolation not only in the fact that he had a Goel, a Redeemer, but that this Redeemer liveth.  He does not say, “I know that my Goel shall live,” but that “he lives,” — having a clear view of the self-existence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.  And you and I looking back do not say, “I know that he did live,” but “he lives today.”  This very day you that mourn and sorrow for venerated friends, you may go to Christ with confidence, because he not only lives, but he is the source of life.  And you therefore believe that he can give forth out of himself life to those whom you have committed to the tomb.  He is the Lord and giver of life originally and he shall be specially declared to be the resurrection and the life when the legions of his redeemed shall be glorified with him.  If I saw no fountain from which life could stream to the dead, I would yet believe the promise when God said that the dead shall live; but when I see the fountain provided, and know that it is full to the brim and that it runneth over, I can rejoice without trembling.  Since there is one who can say, “I am the resurrection and the life,” it is a blessed thing to see the means already before us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us look up to our Goel then who liveth at this very time.

Still the marrow of Job’s comfort, it seems to me, lay in that little word “My.” “I know that MY Redeemer liveth.”  Oh, to get hold of Christ!  I know that in his offices he is precious.  But, dear friends, we must get a property in him before we can really enjoy him.  What is honey in the wood to me, if like the fainting Israelites, I dare not eat?  It is honey in my hand, honey on my lip, which enlightens mine eyes like those of Jonathan.  What is gold in the mine to me?  Men are beggars in Peru and beg their bread in California.  It is gold in my purse which will satisfy my necessities, purchasing the bread I need.  So, what is a kinsman if he be not a kinsman to me?  A Redeemer that does not redeem me, an avenger who will never stand up for my blood, of what avail were such?  But Job’s faith was strong and firm in the conviction that the Redeemer was his.  Dear friends, can all of you say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”?  The question is simple and simply put, but oh, what solemn things hang upon your answer, “Is it MY Redeemer?”  I charge you rest not, be not content until by faith you can say, “Yes, I cast myself upon him; I am his, and therefore he is mine.”

I know that full many of you, while you look upon all else that you have as not being yours, yet can say, “My Redeemer is mine.”  He is the only piece of property which is really ours.  We borrow all else: the house, the children, nay, our very body we must return to the Great Lender.  But Jesus we can never leave, for even when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord.  And I know that even death cannot separate us from him, so that body and soul are with Jesus truly even in the dark hours of death, in the long night of the sepulcher, and in the separate state of spiritual existence.  Beloved, have you Christ?  It may be you hold him with a feeble hand, you half think it is presumption to say, “He is my Redeemer;” yet remember, if you have but faith as a grain of mustard seed, that little faith entitles you to say, and say now, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

There is another word in this consoling sentence which no doubt served to give a zest to the comfort of Job.  It was that he could say, “I KNOW” — “I KNOW that my Redeemer liveth.”  To say, “I hope so, I trust so,” is comfortable; and there are thousands in the fold of Jesus who hardly ever get much further.  But to reach the marrow of consolation you must say, “I KNOW.”  Ifs, buts, and “perhapses” are sure murderers of peace and comfort.  Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow.  Like wasps they sting the soul!  If I have any suspicion that Christ is not mine, then there is vinegar mingled with the gall of death.  But if I know that Jesus is mine, then darkness is not dark; even the night is light about me.  Out of the lion cometh honey; out of the eater cometh forth sweetness.  “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”  This is a brightly-burning lamp cheering the damps of the sepulchral vault, but a feeble hope is like a flickering, smoking flax just making darkness visible, but nothing more.  I would not like to die with a mere hope mingled with suspicion.  I might be safe with this, but hardly happy.  But oh, to go down into the river knowing that all is well, confident that as a guilty, weak and helpless worm, I have fallen into the arms of Jesus, believing that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.  I would have you, dear Christian friends, never look upon the full assurance of faith as a thing impossible to you.

Assurance is a jewel for worth but not for rarity.  It is the common privilege of all the saints if they have but the grace to attain unto it, and this grace the Holy Spirit gives freely.  Surely if Job in Arabia, in those dark, misty ages when there was only the morning star and not the sun, when they saw but little, when life and immortality had not been brought to light — if Job before the coming and advent still could say, “I know,” you and I should not speak less positively.  God forbid that our positiveness should be presumption.  Let us try ourselves and see that our marks and evidences are right, lest we form an ungrounded hope; for nothing can be more destructive than to say, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace.”  But oh, let us build for eternity and build solidly.  Let us not be satisfied with the mere foundation for it is from the upper rooms that we get the widest prospect.  Let us pray the Lord to help us to pile stone on stone until we are able to say as we look at it, “Yes, I know, I KNOW that my Redeemer liveth.”  This, then, provides present comfort today in the prospect of departure.

III. And now, in the third and last place, as THE ANTICIPATION OF FUTURE DELIGHT, let me call to your remembrance the other part of the text.

Job not only knew that the Redeemer lived, but he anticipated the time when he should stand in the latter day upon the earth.  No doubt Job referred here to our Savior’s first advent, to the time when Jesus Christ, “the goel,” the kinsman, should stand upon the earth to pay in the blood of his veins the ransom price, which had, indeed, in bond and stipulation been paid before the foundation of the world in promise.  But I cannot think that Job’s vision stayed there; he was looking forward to the second advent of Christ as being the period of the resurrection.  We cannot endorse the theory that Job arose from the dead when our Lord died, although certain Jewish believers held this idea very firmly at one time.  We are persuaded that “the latter day” refers to the advent of glory rather than to that of shame.  Our hope is that the Lord shall come to reign in glory where he once died in agony.  The bright and hallowed doctrine of the second advent has been greatly revived in our churches in these latter days and I look for the best results in consequence.  There is always a danger lest it be perverted and turned by fanatical minds, by prophetic speculations, into an abuse; but the doctrine in itself is one of the most consoling and, at the same time, one of the most practical, tending to keep the Christian awake, because the bridegroom cometh at such an hour as we think not.  Beloved, we believe that the same Jesus who ascended from Olivet shall so come in like manner as he ascended up into heaven.  We believe in his personal advent and reign.  We believe and expect that when both wise and foolish virgins shall slumber in the night when sleep is heavy upon the saints; when men shall be eating and drinking as in the days of Noah, that suddenly as the lightning flasheth from heaven, so Christ shall descend with a shout and the dead in Christ shall rise and reign with him.  We are looking forward to the literal, personal, and actual standing of Christ upon earth as the time when creation’s groans shall be silenced forever and the earnest expectation of the creature shall be fulfilled.

Mark, that Job describes Christ as standing.  Some interpreters have read the passage, “he shall stand in the latter days against the earth;” that as the earth has covered up the slain, as the earth has become the charnel-house of the dead, Jesus shall arise to the contest and say, “Earth, I am against thee; give up thy dead!  Ye clods of the valley cease to be custodians of my people’s bodies!  Silent deeps, and you, ye caverns of the earth, deliver, once for all, those whom ye have imprisoned!”  Macphelah shall give up its precious treasure, cemeteries and graveyards shall release their captives and all the deep places of the earth shall resign the bodies of the faithful.

Well, whether that be so or not, the posture of Christ, in standing upon the earth, is significant.  It shows his triumph.  He has triumphed over sin which once like a serpent in its coils had bound the earth.  He has defeated Satan.  On the very spot where Satan gained his power Christ has gained the victory.  Earth, which was a scene of defeated goodness, whence mercy once was all but driven, where virtue died, where everything heavenly and pure, like flowers blasted by pestilential winds, hung down their heads, withered and blighted — on this very earth everything that is glorious shall blow and blossom in perfection; and Christ himself, once despised and rejected of men, fairest of all the sons of men, shall come in the midst of a crowd of courtiers, while kings and princes shall do him homage and all the nations shall call him blessed.  “He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth.”

Then, at that auspicious hour, says Job, “In my flesh, I shall see God.” Oh, blessed anticipation — “I shall see God.”  He does not say, “I shall see the saints” — doubtless we shall see them all in heaven — but, “I shall see God.”  Note he does not say, “I shall see the pearly gates, I shall see the walls of jasper, I shall see the crowns of gold and the harps of harmony,” but “I shall see God;” as if that were the sum and substance of heaven.  “In my flesh shall I see God.”  The pure in heart shall see God.  It was their delight to see Him in the ordinances by faith.  They delighted to behold him in communion and in prayer.  There in heaven they shall have a vision of another sort.  We shall see God in heaven, and be made completely like him; the divine character shall be stamped upon us and being made like to him we shall be perfectly satisfied and content.  Likeness to God, what can we wish for more?  And a sight of God, what can we desire better?  We shall see God and so there shall be perfect contentment to the soul and a satisfaction of all the faculties.

Some read the passage, “Yet, I shall see God in my flesh,” and hence think that there is here an allusion to Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the word made flesh.  Well, be it so, or be it not so, it is certain that we shall see Christ, and He, as the divine Redeemer, shall be the subject of our eternal vision.  Nor shall we ever want any joy beyond simply that of seeing him.  Think not, dear friend, that this will be a narrow sphere for your mind to dwell in.  It is but one source of delight, “I shall see God,” but that source is infinite.  His wisdom, his love, his power, all his attributes shall be subjects for your eternal contemplation and, as he is infinite under each aspect, there is no fear of exhaustion.  His works, his purposes, his gifts, his love to you, and his glory in all his purposes and in all his deeds of love — why, these shall make a theme that never can be exhausted.  You may with divine delight anticipate the time when in your flesh you shall see God.

But I must have you observe how Job has expressly made us note that it is in the same body.  “Yet, in my flesh shall I see God;” and then he says again, “Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eye shall behold and not another.”  Yes, it is true that I, the very man standing here, though I must go down to die, yet I shall as the same man most certainly arise and shall behold my God.  Not just part of myself, though the soul alone shall have some view of God, but the whole of myself; my flesh, my soul, my body, my spirit shall gaze on God.  We shall not enter heaven, dear friends, as a dismasted vessel is tugged into harbor.  We shall not get to glory some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship, but the whole ship shall be floated safely into the haven, body and soul both being safe.  Christ shall be able to say, “All that the father giveth to me shall come to me” – not only all the persons, but all of the person — each man in his perfection.  There shall not be found in heaven one imperfect saint.  There shall not be a saint without an eye, much less a saint without a body.  No member of the body shall have perished;,nor shall the body have lost any of its natural beauty.  All the saints shall be all there, and all of all; the same persons precisely, only that they shall have risen from a state of grace to a state of glory.  They shall be ripened; they shall be no more the green blades, but the full corn in the ear; no more buds but flowers; not babes but men.

Please notice, and then I shall conclude, how the patriarch puts it as being a real, personal enjoyment. “Whom mine eye shall behold, and not another.”  They shall not bring me a report as they did the Queen of Sheba, but I shall see Solomon the King for myself.  I shall be able to say, as they did who spoke to the woman of Samaria, “Now I believe, not because of thy word who did bring me a report, but I have seen him for myself.”  There shall be personal intercourse with God; not through the Book, which is but as a glass; not through the ordinances; but directly, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be able to commune with the Deity as a man talketh with his friend.  “Not another.”  If I could be a changeling and could be altered, that would mar my comfort.  Or if my heaven must be enjoyed by proxy, if draughts of bliss must be drunk for me, where were the hope?  Oh, no – for myself, and not through another – shall I see God.

Have we not told you a hundred times that nothing but personal religion will do and is not this another argument for it, because resurrection and glory are personal things?  “Not another.” If you could have sponsors to repent for you, then, depend upon it, you would have sponsors to be glorified for you.  But as there is not another to see God for you, so you must yourself see and yourself find an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In closing, let me observe how foolish have you and I been when we have looked forward to death with shudders, with doubts, with loathings.  After all, what is it?  Worms!  Do ye tremble at those base crawling things?  Scattered particles!  Shall we be alarmed at these?  To meet the worms we have the angels; and to gather the scattered particles we have the voice of God.  I am sure the gloom of death is altogether gone now that the lamp of resurrection burns.  Disrobing is nothing now that better garments await us.  We may long for evening to undress that we may rise with God.  I am sure my venerable friends now present, in coming so near as they do now to the time of the departure, must have some visions of the glory on the other side the stream.  Bunyan was not wrong, my dear brethren, when he put the land Beulah at the close of the pilgrimage.  Is not my text a telescope which will enable you to see across the Jordan?  May it be as hands of angels to bring you bundles of myrrh and frankincense!  You can say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

You cannot want more; you were not satisfied with less in your youth, you will not be content with less now.  Those of us who are young are comforted by the thought that we may soon depart.  I say comforted, not alarmed by it; and we almost envy those whose race is nearly run, because we fear — and yet we must not speak thus, for the Lord’s will be done — I was about to say, we fear that our battle may last long and that mayhap our feet may slip; only he that keepeth Israel does not slumber nor sleep.  So since we know that our Redeemer liveth, this shall be our comfort in life, that though we fall we shall not be utterly cast down.  And since our Redeemer liveth, this shall be our comfort in death, that though worms destroy this body, yet in our flesh we shall see God.

May the Lord add his blessing on the feeble words of this morning and to him be glory forever.  Amen.

“Grave, the guardian of our dust!

Grave, the treasury of the skies!

Every atom of thy trust

Rests in hope again to rise.

Hark! the judgment trumpet calls;

Soul, rebuild thy house of clay,

Immortality thy walls,

And Eternity thy day.”

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

The Influence of His Resurrection by John Flavel

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

He is not here; for he is risen, as he said: come, see the place where the Lord lay — Matthew 28:6

At this time (the Lord being newly risen) the keepers were trembling and became as dead men.  So great was the terrible majesty and awful solemnity attending Christ’s resurrection.  But, to encourage these good souls, the angel presents them with these good tidings; “He is not here; for he is risen, as he said: come, see the place where the Lord lay:” i.e., Be not troubled, though you have not the end you came for – one sight more of your dear though dead Jesus; yet you have not lost your labor.  For to your eternal comfort, I tell you, “he is risen, as he said.”  And to put it out of doubt, come hither and satisfy yourselves, “See the place where the Lord lay.”

In these words, we have both a declaration and confirmation of the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

First—Here is a declaration of it by the angels, both negatively and affirmatively.

Negatively, He is not here.  Here, indeed you laid him, here you left him, and here you thought to find him as you left him; but you are happily mistaken—He is not here.  However, this giving them no satisfaction because he might continue to be dead still, though moved to another place, as indeed they suspected he was (John 20:13), therefore his resurrection is declared positively and affirmatively: He is risen.  The word egerte suggests the active power or self-quickening principle by which Christ raised himself from the state of the dead.  Luke takes notice of this also (Acts 1:3) when he says, “He showed, or presented,” himself alive after his passion.  It was the divine nature, or Godhead of Christ, which revived and raised the manhood.

Secondly—Here is also a plain confirmation of Christ’s resurrection. First, from Christ’s own prediction, He is risen, “as he said.”  He foretold that which I declare to be now fulfilled.  Let it not therefore seem incredible to you.  Secondly, by their own sight, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”  The grave has lost its guest; it is now empty; death has lost its prey.  It received, but could not retain him, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”  Thus the resurrection of Christ is declared and confirmed.  Hence our observation is,

DOCTRINE —that our Lord Jesus Christ, by the almighty power of his own godhead, revived and rose from the dead to the terror and consternation of his enemies and the unspeakable consolation of believers.

That our Lord Jesus Christ was not lost in the grave, but the third day revived and rose again is a truth confirmed to us by many infallible proofs, as Luke witnesseth, Acts 1:3.  We have testimonies of it, both from heaven and earth, and both infallible.  From heaven, we have the testimony of angels and to the testimony of an angel all credit is due; for angels are holy creatures and cannot deceive us.  The angel tells the two Marys, in the text, “He is risen.”  We have testimonies of it from men, holy men, who were eye-witnesses of this truth, to whom he showed himself alive by the space of forty days after his resurrection, by no less than nine solemn apparitions to them.  Sometimes five hundred brethren saw him at once, 1 Corinthians 15:6.  These were holy persons who would not deceive and who confirmed their testimony with their blood.  No point of religion is of more confessed truth and infallible certainty than this before us.

And blessed be God it is so.  For if it were not, then were the “gospel in vain,” 1 Corinthians 15:14.  Seeing it hangs the whole weight of our faith, hope, and salvation upon Christ as risen from the dead.  If this were not so, then could the holy and divinely inspired apostles be found false witnesses, 1 Corinthians 15:15.  For they all, with one mouth, constantly and to the death affirmed it.  If Christ be not risen, then are believers yet in their sins, 1 Corinthians 15:17.  For our justification is truly ascribed to the resurrection of Christ, Romans 4:25.  Whilst Christ was dying and continued in the state of the dead, the price of our redemption was all that while still being paid.  The payment was completed when he revived and rose again.  Therefore for Christ to have continued always in the state of the dead, [the payment] would have never been to completely satisfied; hence the whole force and weight of our justifications depends upon his resurrection.  Nay, had not Christ risen, “the dead had perished,” 1 Corinthians 15:18.   Even the dead who died in the faith of Christ and of whose salvation there now remains no ground to doubt.

Moreover, had he not revived and risen from the dead, how could all the types that prefigured it have been satisfied?  Surely they must have stood as insignificant things in the scriptures; and so must all the predictions of his resurrection, by which it was so plainly foretold.  See Matthew 12:40; Luke 24:46; Psalm 16:10; 1 Corinthians 15:4.

To conclude.  Had he not risen from the dead, how could he have been installed in that glory whereof he is now possessed in heaven which was promised him before the world was upon the account of his death and sufferings?  “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living,” Romans 14:9.   And that, in this state of dominion and glorious advancement, he might powerfully apply the virtues and benefits of his blood to us.

So then, there remains no doubt at all of the certainty of Christ’s resurrection; it was so, and upon all accounts it must needs be so; for you see how great a weight the scriptures hang upon this nail.  And blessed be God, it is a nail fastened in a sure place.  I need spend no more words to confirm it, but rather choose to explain and open the nature and manner of his resurrection, which I shall do by showing you five properties of it.  And the first is this,

First, Christ rose from the dead with awful majesty.  So you find it in Matthew 28:2-4, “And behold there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.  His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.  And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men.”

Human infirmity was not able to bear such heavenly majesty as attended the business of that morning.  Nature sank under it.  This earthquake was a sign of triumph, or token of victory, given by Christ, not only to the keepers and the neighboring city, but to the whole world, that he had overcome death in its own dominions and, like a conqueror, lifted up his head above all his enemies.

Secondly, his resurrection was attended with the resurrection of many of the saints; who had slept in their graves till then and then were awakened and raised to attend the Lord at his rising.  So you read, Matthew 27:52-53, “And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints, which slept, arose, and came out of the graves, after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.”  This wonder was designed both to adorn the resurrection of Christ and to give a specimen or pledge of our resurrection.  This indeed was the resurrection of saints and none but saints, the resurrection of many saints, yet it was but a special resurrection, intended only to show what God will one day do for all his saints.  And for the present, to give testimony of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  They were seen and known of many in the city, who doubtless never thought to have seen them any more in this world.  To enquire curiously, as some do, who they were, what discourse they had with those to whom they appeared, and what became of them afterwards, is a vain thing.  God has cast a veil of silence and secrecy upon these things that we might content ourselves with the written word, and they that “will not believe Moses and the prophets, neither will he believe though one rise from the dead,” as these saints did.

Thirdly, it was by the power of his own Godhead that he quickened and raised himself and by the virtue of his resurrection were they raised also, who accompanied him.  It was not the angel who rolled back the stone that revived him in the sepulcher, but he resumed his own life; so he tells us, John 10:18, “I lay down my life that I may take it again.”  Hence 1 Peter 3:18. He is said to be put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, i.e. by the power of his Godhead, or divine nature, which is opposed there to flesh or his human nature.  By the eternal Spirit, he offered himself up to God when he died, Hebrews 9:14, i.e. by his own Godhead, not the third person in the Trinity, for then it could not have been ascribed to him as his own act, that he offered up himself.  And by the same Spirit he was quickened again.  And, therefore, the apostle well observes, Romans 1:4, “That he was declared to be the Son of God with power, by his resurrection from the dead.”

Now if he had been raised by the power of the Father or Spirit only, and not by his own, how could he be declared by his resurrection to be the Son of God?  What more had appeared in him than in others?  For others are raised by the power of God, if that were all.  So that in this respect also it was a marvelous resurrection.  Never any did or shall rise as Christ rose by a self-quickening principle.  For though many dead saints rose at that time also, yet it was by the virtue of Christ’s resurrection that their graves were opened and their bodies quickened.  In which respect he saith in John 11:25 when he raised dead Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life,” i.e. the principle of life and quickening, by which the dead saints are raised.

Fourthly, Christ is the first-born from the dead. And therefore it may be truly affirmed, that though some dead saints are raised to life before the resurrection of Christ, yet that Christ is “the first-born from the dead,” as he is called, Colossians 1:18.   For though Lazarus and others were raised, yet not by themselves, but by Christ.  It was by his virtue and power, not their own.  And though they were raised to life, yet they died again.  Death recovered them again, but Christ dies no more.  “Death has no dominion over him.”  He was the first that opened the womb of the earth, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.

Fifthly, but lastly, Christ rose as a public or common person.  “As the first fruits of them that slept,” 1 Corinthians 15:20.  I desire this may be well understood, for upon this account it is that our resurrection is secured to us by the resurrection of Christ; and not a resurrection only, but a blessed and happy one, for the first-fruits both assured and sanctified the whole crop or harvest.

Now that Christ did rise, as a public person, representing and comprehending all the elect, who were called the children of the resurrection, is plain from Ephesians 2:6 where we are said to be risen with, or in him.  So that, as we are said to die in Adam, (who also was a common person) as the branches die in the death of the root: so we are said to be raised from death in Christ, who is the head, root, and representative of all his elect seed.  And why is he called the firstborn and first begotten from the dead, except with respect to the whole number of the elect that are to be born from the dead in their time and order also and as sure as the whole harvest follows the first fruits.  So shall the general resurrection of the saints to life eternal follow this birth of the first-born from the dead.

Now there is a three-fold causality, or influence that Christ’s resurrection has upon the saints’ resurrection, of which it is at once the meritorious, efficient, and exemplary cause.

First, The resurrection of Christ is a meritorious cause of the saints’ resurrection, as it completed his satisfaction and finished his payment, and so our justification is properly assigned to it, as before was noted from Romans 4:25.  Thus his resurrection was the receiving of the acquittance or the canceling of the debt.  And had not this been done, we had still been in our sins, as he speaks, 1 Corinthians 15:7, and so our guilt had been still a bar to our happy resurrection.  But now, the price paid for us in his death was discharged to us in his resurrection.  Now nothing lies in bar against our resurrection to eternal life.

Secondly, It is also the efficient cause of our resurrection.  For when the time shall come that the saints shall rise out of the dust, they shall be raised by Christ, as their head, in whom the effective principle of their life is: “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” as it is Colossians 3:3.  Which is also the sense of that scripture, Romans 8:10-11, “And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.” i.e. Though you are really united to Christ by the Spirit, yet your bodies must die as well as other men’s; but your souls shall be presently, upon your dissolution, swallowed up in life.  And then it follows, verse 11, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you,” i.e. though your bodies must die, yet they shall live again in the resurrection; and that by virtue of the Spirit of Christ which dwelleth in you, and is the bond of your mystical union with him your head.  You shall not be raised as others are, by a mere word of power, but by the Spirit of life dwelling in Christ your head, which is a choice prerogative indeed.

Thirdly, Christ’s resurrection is also the exemplary cause or pattern of our resurrection.  “He being the first and best, is therefore the pattern and measure of all the rest.”  So you read, Philippians 3:21, “Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”  Now the conformity of our resurrection to Christ’s stands in the following particulars.  Christ’s body was raised substantially the same; so will ours.  His body was raised first; so will ours be raised before the rest of the dead.  His body was wonderfully improved by the resurrection; so will ours.  His body was raised to be glorified; and so will ours.

First, Christ’s body was raised substantially the same that it was before, and so will ours.  Not another, but the same body.  Upon this very reason the apostle uses that identical expression, 1 Corinthians 15:53, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality.”  Pointing, as it were, to his own body when he spoke it; the same body, I say, and that not only specifically the same, (for indeed no other species of flesh is so privileged) but the same numerically, that very body, not a new or another body in its stead.  So that it shall be both the what it was and the who it was.  And indeed to deny this is to deny the resurrection itself.  For should God prepare another body to be raised instead of this, it would not be a resurrection, but a creation.  That cannot be called a resurrection, where one thing falls and another rises, as Gregory long since pertinently observed.

Secondly, His body was raised, not by a word of power from the Father, but by his own Spirit; so will ours. Indeed the power of God shall go forth to unburrough [unbury] sinners and fetch them forcibly out of their graves; but the resurrection of the saints is to be effected another way, even by his Spirit which now dwelleth in them.  That very Spirit of Christ which effected their spiritual resurrection from sin shall effect their corporal resurrection also from the grave.

Thirdly, Christ’s body was marvelously improved by the resurrection and so will ours.  It fell in weakness, but was raised in power: no more capable of sorrows, pains and dishonors.  In like manner, our bodies are “sown in weakness, but raised in strength, sown in dishonor, raised in glory.  Sown natural bodies, raised spiritual bodies,” as the apostle speaks, 1 Corinthians 15:43-44.  Spiritual bodies, not properly, but analogically.

No distemper hangs about glorified bodies, nor are they henceforth subject to any of those natural necessities to which they are now tied.  There are no flaws, defects, or deformities in the children of the resurrection.  What members are now defective or deformed will then be restored to their perfect being and beauty. Thus shall they be improved by their resurrection.

Fourthly, Christ’s body was raised from the dead to be glorified and crowned with honor. Oh it was a joyful day to him; and so will the resurrection of the saints be to them, the day of the gladness of their hearts.  It will be said to them in that morning, “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust,” as Isaiah 26:19.  O how comfortable will be the meeting betwixt the glorified soul, and its new raised body.  Much more comfortable than that of Jacob’s and Joseph’s, after twenty years absence, Genesis 46:29.  Or that of David’s with Jonathan when he came out of the cave to him, 1 Samuel 20:41.  Or that of the father of the prodigal with his son who “was dead, and is alive, was lost, and is found,” Luke 15.

And there are three things will make it so.

First, The gratifications of the soul by the satisfaction of its natural appetite of union with its own body.  For even glorified souls in heaven have such a desire of reunion.  Indeed, the angels, who are pure spirits, as they never had union with, so they have no inclination to matter; but souls are otherwise tempered and disposed.  We are all sensible of its affection to the body now, in its compounded state, we feel the tender care it has for the body, the sympathy with it, and lothness to be separated from it.

It is said, 2 Corinthians 5:6, “to be at home in the body.”  And had not God implanted such an inclination to this its tabernacle in it, it would not have paid that due respect it owes the body while it inhabited in it, nor have regarded what became of it when it left it.  This inclination remains still with it in heaven; it reckons not itself completely happy till its old dear companion and partner be with it, and in that sense some understand those words, Job 14:14, “All the days of my appointed time,” i.e. of the time appointed for my body to remain in the grave, will I wait till my change (viz. that which will be made by the resurrection) come; for it is manifest enough he speaks there of the resurrection.  Now, when this its inclination to its own body, its longings and hankerings after it are gratified with a sight and enjoyment of it again, oh what a comfortable meeting will this make it!

Second, The excellent temper and state in which they shall meet each other.  For, as the body shall be raised with all the improvements and endowments imaginable, which may render it amiable and every way desirable, so the soul comes down immediately from God out of heaven, shining in its holiness and glory.  It comes perfumed out of those ivory palaces with a strong scent of heaven upon it.  And thus it re-enters its body and animates it again.

Third, The chief joy of this meeting consists in the meeting of the Lord which is the end for which the glorified soul and body are necessary, and so ever to be with the Lord.  To receive a full reward for all the labors and services it performed to God in this world.  This must needs make that day a day of triumph and exaltation.  It comes out of the grave, as Joseph out of his prison, to be advanced to the highest honor.  O do but imagine what an ecstasy of joy and ravishing pleasure it will be, for a soul thus to resume its own body, and say as it were, unto it, come away, my dear, my ancient friend, who served and suffered with me in the world; come along with me to meet the Lord, in whose presence I have been ever since I parted with thee.   Now thy bountiful Lord has remembered thee also and the day of thy glorification is come.  Surely it will be a joyful awaking.  For, do but imagine, what a joy it is for dear friends to meet after long separation, how they give demonstrations of their love and delight in each other by embraces, kisses, tears, etc.  Or frame but to yourselves a notion of perfect health, when a sprightly vivacity runs through every part, and the spirits do, as it were, dance before us, when we go about any business as especially to such a business as the business of that day will be, to receive a crown and a kingdom.  Do but imagine then what a sunshine morning this will be and how the pains and agonies, cold sweats and bitter groans at parting will be recompensed by the joy of such a meeting!

And thus I have showed you the certainty of Christ’s resurrection, the nature and properties of it, the threefold influence it has on the saints’ resurrection and the conformity of ours unto his.  From the consideration of all which,

Inference 1. — We infer, that if Christ was thus raised from the dead, then death is fairly overcome and swallowed up in victory.  If it were not so, it would never have let Christ escape out of the grave.  The prey of the terrible would never have been thus rescued out of its paws.  Death is a dreadful enemy; it defies all the sons and daughters of Adam.  None can cope with this king of terrors but Christ, and he, by dying, went into the very den of this dragon, fought with it, and foiled it in the grave, its own territories and dominions, and came off a conqueror.  For, as the apostle speaks, Acts 2:24, “It was impossible it should hold or detain him.”  Never did death meet with its over match before it met with Christ, and he conquering it for us, and in our names, rising as our representative, now every single saint triumphs over it as a vanquished enemy, 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?  Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Thus, like Joshua, they set the foot of faith upon the neck of that king, and, with a holy scorn, deride its power.  “O death, where is thy sting?”  If it be objected that it is said, 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that is to be destroyed is death.”  And if so, then it should seem the victory is not yet achieved, and so we do but boast before the victory.  It is at hand to reply that the victory over death, obtained by Christ’s resurrection, is twofold, either personal and incomplete, or general and complete.  He actually overcame it at his resurrection, in his own person, perfectly and virtually for us, as our head; but at the general resurrection of the saints (which his resurrection, as the first-fruits, assures them of) then it will be utterly vanquished and destroyed.  Till then, it will exercise some little power over the bodies of the saints, for this reason, it is called the last enemy.  For sin, the chief enemy that let it in, that was conquered utterly and eradicated when they died; but death holds their bodies in the grave till the coming of Christ, and then it is utterly to be vanquished.  For after that they can die no more, 1 Corinthians 15:54, “And then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”  Then, and not till then, will that conquest be fully completed in our persons, though it be already so in Christ’s; now incompletely in ours, and then completely and fully forever.

For the same word which signifies victory does also signify perpetuity and in this place a final or perpetual conquest.  And, indeed, now it smites only with its dart, not with its sting, and that but the believer’s body only, and the body but for a time remains under it neither.  So that there is no reason why a believer should stand in a slavish fear of it.

Inference 2. — Has Christ and has his resurrection such a potent and comfortable influence into the resurrection of the saints? Then it is the duty and will be the wisdom of the people of God to so govern, dispose and employ their bodies, as becomes men and women that understand what glory is prepared for them at the resurrection of the just.  Particularly,

First, Be not fondly tender of them, but employ and use them for God here. How many good duties are lost and spoiled by sinful indulgence to our bodies?  Alas! we are generally more solicitous to live long than to live usefully.  How many saints have active, vigorous bodies, yet God has little service from them?  If your bodies were animated by some other souls that love God more than you do and burned with holy zeal to his service, more work would be done for God by your bodies in a day than is now done in a month.  To have an able, healthy body, and not use it for God, for fear of hurting it is as if one should give you a strong and stately horse, upon condition you must not work or ride him.  Wherein is the mercy of having a body, except it be employed for God?  Will not its reward at the resurrection be sufficient for all the pains you now put it to in his service?

Second, See that you preserve the due honor of your bodies. “Possess them in sanctification and honor,” 1 Thessalonians 4:4.  O, let not these eyes be now defiled with sin, by which you shall see God.  Those ears which shall hear the Hallelujahs of the blessed be inlets to vanity.  God hath designed honor for your bodies.  O, make them not either the instruments or objects of sin.  There are sins against the body, 1 Corinthians 6:18.  Preserve your bodies from those defilements, for they are the temple of God: “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy,” 1 Corinthians 3:17.

Third, Let not the contentment and accommodation of your bodies draw your soul into snares, and bring them under the power of temptations to sin. This is a very common case.  O how many thousands of precious souls perish eternally for the satisfaction of a vile body for a moment?  Their souls must, because their bodies cannot suffer.  It is recorded to the immortal honor of these worthies, in Hebrews 11:35, “That they accepted not deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.”  They might have had a temporal resurrection from death to life, from reproach to honor, from poverty to riches, from pains to pleasure; but upon such terms they judged it not worth acceptance.  They would not expose their souls to secure their bodies.  They had the same natural affections that other men have.  They were made of as tender flesh as we are, but such was the care they had of their souls and the hope of a better resurrection, that they listened not to the complaints and whinings of their bodies.  O, that we were all in the same resolutions with them.

Fourth, Withhold not, upon the pretense of the wants your own bodies may be in, that which God and conscience bid you to share for the refreshment of the saints whose present necessities require your assistance. O, be not too indulgent to your own flesh and cruel to others.  Certainly, the consideration of that reward which shall be given you at the resurrection for every act of Christian charity is the greatest spur and incentive in the world to it.  And to that end, it is urged as a motive to charity, Luke 14:13-14, “When thou makes a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the justly.”  It was the opinion of an eminent moderns divines, that no man living, fully understands and believes that scripture, Matthew 25:40, “In as much as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”  How few saints would be exposed to daily wants and necessities if that scripture were but fully understood and believed!

Inference 3. — Is Christ risen from the dead and that as a public person and representative of believers?  How are we all concerned then to secure to ourselves an interest in Christ and consequently in this blessed resurrection?  What consolation would be left in this world if the hope of the resurrection were taken away?  It is this blessed hope that must support you under all the troubles of life and in the agonies of death.  The securing of a blessed resurrection to yourselves is therefore the deepest concern you have in this world.  And it may be secured to yourselves if, upon serious heart-examination, you can discover the following evidences.

EVIDENCE 1.  First, if you are regenerated creatures, brought forth in a new nature to God, for we are “begotten again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  Christ’s resurrection is the ground work of our hope.  And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it.  So that until our souls are partakers of the spiritual resurrection from the death of sin, we can have no assurance our bodies shall be partakers of that blessed resurrection to life.  “Blessed and holy (saith the Spirit), is he that has part in the first resurrection, on such the second death has no power,” Revelation 20:6.

Never let unregenerate souls expect a comfortable meeting with their bodies again.  Rise they shall by God’s terrible citation, at the sound of the last trump, but not to the same end that the saints arise nor by the same principle.  They to whom the spirit is now a principle of sanctification, to them he will be the principle of a joyful resurrection.  See then that you get gracious souls now or never expect glorious bodies then.

EVIDENCE 2. “If you be dead with Christ, you shall live again by the life of Christ.  If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,” Romans 6:5.   “Sumfutoi” means “planted together.”  Some refer it to believers themselves; Jews and Gentiles are planted together in Christ.  So Erasmus notes, “Believers grow together like branches upon the same root,” which should powerfully enforce the great gospel duty of unity among themselves.

But I would rather understand it with reference to Christ and believers, with whom believers are in other scriptures said to suffer together and be glorified together; to die together and live together; to be crucified together and buried together; all noting the communion they have with Christ, both in his death and in his life.  Now, if the power of Christ’s death, i.e. the mortifying influence of it, has been upon our hearts, killing their lusts, deadening their affections, and flattening their appetites to the creature, then the power of his life, or resurrection shall come (like the animating dew) upon our dead, withered bodies, to revive and raise them up to live with him in glory.

EVIDENCE 3. If your hearts and affections be now with Christ in heaven, your bodies in due time shall be there also, and conformed to his glorious body.  So you find it, Philippians 3:20-21, “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body.”  “The body is here called vile, or the body of our vileness.”  Not as God made it, but as sin has marred it.  Not absolutely, and in itself, but relatively, and in comparison of what it will be in its second edition, at the resurrection.  Then those scattered bones and dispersed dust, like pieces of old broken, battered silver, will be new-cast and wrought in the best and newest fashion, even like to Christ’s glorious body.  Whereof we have this evidence, that our conversation is already heavenly.  The temper, frame, and disposition of our souls is already so; therefore the frame and temper of our bodies in due time shall be so.

EVIDENCE 4. If you strive now by any means to attain the resurrection of the dead, no doubt but you shall then attain what you now strive for.  This was Paul’s great ambition, “that by any means he might attain the resurrection of the dead,” Philippians 3:11.  He means not simply a resurrection from the dead, for that all men shall attain, whether they strive for it or not.  But he intends that complete holiness and perfection which shall attend the state of the resurrection, so it is expounded, verse 12.  So then, if God has raised in your hearts a vehement desire and assiduous endeavor after a perfect freedom from sin and full conformity to God, in the beauties of holiness: that very love of holiness, your present partings, and tendencies after perfection, show you to be a person designed for it.

EVIDENCE 5. If you are such as do good in your generation.  If you be fruitful and useful men and women in the world, you shall have part in this blessed resurrection, John 5:28-29, “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life.”  Now it is not every act materially good that entitles a man to this privilege; but the same requisites that the schoolmen assign to make a good prayer are also necessary to every good work.  The person, matter, manner and end must be good.  Nor is it any single good act, but a series and course of holy actions that are here meant.  What a spur should this be to us all, as (indeed the apostle makes it, closing up the doctrine of the resurrection, with this solemn exhortation, 1 Corinthians 15:58, with which I also close mine) “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.

The complete title of this message by Flavel is, “Wherein the Resurrection of Christ, With Its Influences upon the Saints Resurrection, Is Clearly Opened, and Comfortably Applied, Being the First Step of His Exaltation.”

Posted in John Flavel |

The Necessity of Christ’s Resurrection by Samuel Willard

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

It was required that Christ should rise from the dead. Just as he had to die, he had to rise and live.  This was necessary for several reasons:

1. He rose again to prove and declare that he was the Son of God, Rom. 1:4.  During his Humiliation and particularly in his death, Christ’s divinity was obscured under a veil of the many infirmities of his humanity, but in his resurrection he proved his eternal power and Godhead.  Indeed it is true that others were raised, and indeed shortly all shall rise; therefore merely to be raised from the dead is not proof of the divinity of the one raised.  Yet, for someone to raise himself by his own power, that is sufficient proof of divinity. He gave evidence of divinity by raising others in his name, but he was required to raise himself by his own power to prove himself God.

There was a further proof of his divinity in the resurrection in that he died according to the Law and justice of God, sentenced as our Surety to suffer the whole weight of the wrath of God.  For him to be released from this sentence, after he had been born for that very purpose, and to live again having fulfilled all the demands of justice upon him, proves him to be God.  The weight of wrath that he bore would have broken the whole of creation and they would never have been released.

2. In this way he attested to his perfect victory over death and our spiritual enemies. It was not enough that Christ should die for us.  In dying, he must be a conqueror; otherwise his death would not profit us.  Indeed, he suffered in order that he might overcome, Heb. 2:14, “That through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”  This was shown and proven by his resurrection.  This is the reason why Paul after he had demonstrated by many arguments that Christ was risen and then shown what was the glorious cause of it, concluded the passage with a note of triumph, 1 Cor. 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  It is true that Christ conquered all on his cross: there the battle was fought and there the victory was gained.  But that victory was made into a triumph in his resurrection.  Now his enemies fled, quitting the field. Psa. 68:1, “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those also who hate him flee before him.”  He made a conquest of death itself and it lay dead at his feet.  Christ would never be known as a conqueror except for this.  If death had held him as her captive, where would his victory be?

3. He rose for our justification. “Who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification,” Rom. 4:25.  As he died to pay our debt, so he rose again to acquit or absolve us from it.  Christ’s resurrection was both his and our discharge: his, when he stood as our surety bond for us, and ours, as those for whom he was Surety.  As Christ by dying was made virtually, so by rising he becomes actually the object of our justifying faith.

He became a sufficient object of faith not merely by undertaking to appear in our place, but by actually making an end of the transgressions on our account and paying our whole debt.  If he had not made satisfaction for us, we could not in justice have been pardoned.  If he had not fully reconciled us to God and completely answered the Law’s demands, we could not have been saved.  Therefore if he had continued on in death, it would have shown the continuing need for payment; which would have revealed its imperfection and consequently its invalidity.  Christ could not rise until justice acquitted him.  His bond was submitted for our cause and it must be accepted by the Judge and that only by a full payment of the bond.  When he arose, this bond was returned to him, and cancelled.  Our debt is paid; our bond is returned.  Therefore his resurrection stands in opposition to all that could be laid to our charge, Rom. 8:34.  Therefore this is one of the arguments that the Apostle uses to prove that Christ must be risen, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” 1 Cor. 15:17.

4. It was to put Christ into a proper condition for the completing of the work remaining in the execution of his offices. We observed in a [another] sermon that Christ executes his offices in both states of Humiliation and Exaltation.  As our Priest, here he was to satisfy justice for us and afterwards to intercede for us, Heb. 7:25.  As our Prophet, here he taught with his mouth, but there he sent forth his Spirit and therefore he had to go to the Father, John 16:17.  As our King, here he commanded his disciples and gave them laws, but he must also govern them by his power and wield the scepter over the world.  This was accomplished by his resurrection, Psa. 2:6 and following, cf. Acts 13:33.  Indeed, there was the glory of a mediator promised to him as a reward for his obedience, and it was necessary for him to rise in order to take possession of it, Luke 24:26, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”

5. It was necessary for him to rise, so he would be the first fruits of our resurrection, both spiritually and bodily. See 1 Cor. 15:20-23.  By first fruits, we are not to understand first in order of time, but in order of causation.  Those who rose at Christ’s death, as described in the Gospel, Matt. 27:52-53, rose by the power and influence of his resurrection.  Furthermore it is a sure pledge of the resurrection of his members.  When the first fruits were offered to God under the Law, he accepted them and gave his people an assurance of the harvest.  The Apostle makes the same point in 1 Cor. 15 using the order of the covenants.  Just as Adam in the first covenant, standing for us, procured death for us, so Christ in the new covenant, being our Surety, has purchased a resurrection for us.  His resurrection is the earnest of ours, 1 Cor. 15:20.

To summarize, Christ as God is the efficient cause: Christ as our substitute satisfying for our sins is the meritorious cause: Christ rising from the dead is the continuing cause of our resurrection. “A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also,” John 14:19.

APPLICATION 1. Learn from this, that it is the concern of all those who desire a joyful, triumphant resurrection at last to get and secure a claim to Christ’s resurrection.  There will be a general rising again of all who die, both just and unjust, but no one will rise in glory except those who are under the saving power of the resurrection of Christ.

Others shall rise only to receive an everlasting second fall into the bottomless pit of never-ending miseries.  As long as men are out of Christ, thoughts of the resurrection may well be full of dread, for it is that which truly makes death to be a reason for terror.  If death were to put an end to the being of men, it would not have such fearfulness in it, as it does when one considers that after death comes a dreadful judgment and then a resurrection to condemnation.

To think that I must be restored to an incorruptible state for the purpose of being prepared to suffer eternal torments and lie in everlasting burning is a most confounding thought.  Is it enough to cause us to seriously enquire how may we escape this doom and be happy at the last day?  The solution is, let us get the power of Christ’s resurrection applied to us, first to raise us up from sin, which is done in this life, and then to raise us up to glory, which will be at the last day.  The second depends upon the first.  Let us make sure, then, that he rose for our justification by being in him by faith, and so we shall be both justified and glorified by him at that day.

APPLICATION 2. Let us labor to get our faith strengthened and established by rightly meditating on the resurrection of Christ. Let this satisfy us, that Christ has made a complete redemption, as the Apostle argues, Heb. 7:25. Justice had him in its hands, it put him to death, but it has released him. A risen Surety must be a sufficient Savior: there can no longer be any reason to question whether the justice of God is satisfied. Let this encourage us to go to Christ to finish all that is lacking in our being prepared for eternal life. Remember, he is exalted for this very purpose, to complete what he began in his earthly life and death.

APPLICATION 3. Let the consideration of our interest in his resurrection help us to triumph over death and the grave. Christ is risen and gone to heaven: he is our forerunner to take possession in our name and make ready our accommodations.  Let us cheerfully follow him, rejoicing in the hope of a happy rising, and being with him forever.

This is a portion of a sermon “The Nature of Christ’s Resurrection” preached by Willard on June 8, 1697.  The full version of the sermon can be found on our website.

Posted in Samuel Willard |

The Power of Christ’s Resurrection by George Whitefield

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

“That I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection.” Philippians 3:10

The apostle, in the verses before the text, had been cautioning the Philippians to “beware of the circumcision,” Judaizing teachers, who endeavored to subvert them from the simplicity of the gospel by telling them they still ought to be subject to circumcision and all the other ordinances of Moses.  So that they might not think he spoke out of prejudice and condemned their tenets because he himself was a stranger to the Jewish dispensation, he acquaints them that if any other man thought he had whereof he might trust in the flesh or seek to be justified by the outward privileges of the Jews, he had more: For he was “circumcised the eighth day; of the stock of Israel (not a proselyte, but a native Israelite); of the tribe of Benjamin (the tribe which adhered to Judah when the others revolted); an Hebrew of the Hebrews (a Jew both on the father’s and mother’s side); and as touching the law, a Pharisee,” the strictest sect amongst all Israel.  To show that he was no Galileo in religion, through his great though misguided zeal, he had persecuted the church of Christ; and “as touching the righteousness of the law (as far as the Pharisees exposition of it went, he was) blameless,” and had kept it from his youth.  But, when it pleased God, who separated him from his mother’s womb to reveal his Son in him, “What things were gain to me,” (he says) those privileges I boasted myself in and sought to be justified by, “I counted loss for Christ.”

So that they might not think he repented that he had done so, he tells them, he was now more confirmed than ever in his judgment.  For, says he, “yea doubtless (the expression in the original rises with a holy triumph) and I do count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”  And that they might not object that he professed and did not live it, he acquaints them with the proofs of the sincerity of these professions, because, for the sake of them, he had suffered the loss of all his worldly things and was still willing to do more; for, “I count them but dung so that I may win (or have a saving interest in) Christ and be found in him (as the manslayer in the city of refuge) not having my own righteousness which is of the law (not depending on having Abraham for my father, or on any works of righteousness which I have done, either to atone or serve as a balance for my evil deeds) but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”  A righteousness of God’s appointing and which will also be imputed to me, if I believe in Christ, “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection;” that I may have an experimental knowledge of the efficacy of his resurrection, by feeling the influences of his blessed Spirit on my soul.

In these words two things are implied.

FIRST, That Christ is risen indeed from the dead; and that it was necessary for him so to do; and, SECONDLY, That it highly concerns us to know and experience “the power of his resurrection.”

FIRST, Christ is indeed risen. That Jesus should rise from the dead was absolutely necessary;

1. FIRST, It was necessary on his own account. He had often appealed to this as the last and most convincing proof he would give them that he was the Messiah, “There shall no other sign be given you, than the sign of the prophet Jonas.”  And again he said, “Destroy this temple of my body, and in three days I will build it up.”  These words his enemies remembered and urged it as an argument to induce Pilate to grant them a watch to prevent his being stolen out of the grave: “We know that deceiver said, whilst he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again.”  So that had he not risen again, they might have justly said, we know that this man was an impostor.

2. SECONDLY, It was necessary on our account. “He rose again” (says the apostle) for our justification;” or that the debt we owed to God for our sins might be fully satisfied and discharged.  It had pleased the Father (for ever adored be his infinite love and free grace) to wound his only Son for our transgressions and to arrest and confine him in the prison of the grave as our surety for the guilt we had contracted by setting at naught his commandments.  Now had Christ continued always in the grave, we could have had no more assurance that the payments for our sins was satisfied any more than any common debtor can have of his creditor’s being satisfied whilst his surety is kept confined.  But he being released from the power of death, we are thereby assured, that with his sacrifice God was well pleased, that our atonement was finished on the cross, and that he hath made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the world.

3. THIRDLY, It was necessary that our Lord Jesus should rise again from the dead, to assure us of the certainty of the resurrection of our own bodies. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body was entirely exploded and set at naught among the Gentiles, as appears from the Athenians mocking at and calling St. Paul “a babbler and a setter forth of strange doctrines” when he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.  And though it was believed by most of the Jews, as is evident from many passages of scripture, yet not by all; the whole sect of the Sadducees denied it.  But the resurrection of Jesus Christ put it out of dispute.  For as he acted as our representative, if he our head be risen, then must we also, who are his members, shall rise with him.  And as in the first Adam we all died, even so in him our second Adam we must all, in this sense, be made alive.

As it was necessary, upon these accounts, that our blessed Lord should rise from the dead; so it is plain beyond contradiction that he did.  Never was any matter of fact better attested; never were more precautions made use of to prevent a cheat.  He was buried in a sepulcher hewn out of a rock, so that it could not be said that any digged under and conveyed him away.  It was a sepulcher also wherein never man before was laid; so that if any body did rise from thence, it must be the body of Jesus of Nazareth.  Besides, the sepulcher was sealed; a great stone rolled over the mouth of it and a band of soldiers (consisting not of friends, but of his professed enemies) was set to guard it.

And as for his disciples coming by night and stealing him away, it was altogether improbable.  For it was not long since, that they had all forsaken him and they were the most backward in believing his resurrection.  And supposing it was true, that they came whilst the soldiers slept; yet the soldiers must be cast into a deep sleep indeed, that the rolling away so great a stone did not awake some of them.

And our blessed Lord’s afterwards appearing at sundry times, and in divers manners, to his disciples, as when they were assembled together, when they were walking to Emmaus, when they were fishing: nay, and condescending to show them his hands and feet, and his appearing to above five hundred brethren at once, put the truth of his resurrection out of all dispute.

Indeed, there is one objection that may be made against what has been said, that the books wherein these facts are recorded were written by his disciples.  But who are more proper persons than those who were eye-witnesses of what they related and eat and drank with him after his resurrection?  “But they were illiterate and ignorant men.”  Yet they were as good witnesses of a plain matter of fact as the most learned masters in Israel.  Nay, this rendered them more proper witnesses.  For being plain men, they were therefore less to be suspected of telling or making a lie, particularly, since they laid down their lives for a testimony of the truth of it.  We read indeed of Jacob’s telling a lie, though he was a plain man, in order to get his father’s blessing.  But it was never heard since the world began, that any man, much less a whole set of men, died as martyrs for the sake of an untruth when they themselves were to reap no advantage from it.

No, this single circumstance proves them to Israelites indeed, in whom was no guile.  And the wonderful success God gave to their ministry afterwards when three thousand were converted by one sermon and when twelve poor fishermen in a very short time were enabled to be more than conquerors over all the opposition men or devils could make was as plain a demonstration that Christ was risen, according to their gospel.

But what need we of any further witnesses?  Believe you the resurrection of our blessed Lord?  I know that you believe it, as your gathering together on this first day of the week in the courts of the Lord’s house abundantly testifies.

What concerns us most to be assured of, and which is the SECOND thing I was to speak to, is, Whether we have experimentally known the power of his resurrection; that is, Whether or not we have received the Holy Ghost and by his powerful operations on our hearts have been raised from the death of sin to a life of righteousness and true holiness.

It was this, the great apostle was chiefly desirous to know.  He was satisfied that the resurrection of Christ’s body would avail him nothing unless he experienced the power of it in raising his dead soul. A chief end of our blessed Lord’s rising from the dead was to enter heaven as our representative and to send down the Holy Ghost to apply that redemption he had finished on the cross to our hearts, by working an entire change in them.  Without this, Christ would have died in vain.  For it would have done us no service to have had his outward righteousness imputed to us, unless we had an inward inherent righteousness wrought in us.  Because, being altogether conceived and born in sin and consequently unfit to hold communion with an infinitely pure and holy God, we cannot possibly be made meet to see or enjoy him till a thorough renovation has passed upon our hearts.

Without this, we leave out the Holy Ghost in the great work of our redemption.  But as we were made by the joint concurrence and consultation of the blessed trinity; and as we were baptized in their name, so must all of them concur in our salvation: As the Father made, and the Son redeemed, so must the Holy Ghost sanctify and seal us, or otherwise we have believed in vain.

This then is what the apostle means by the “Power of Christ’s resurrection,” and this is what we are as much concerned experimentally to know, as that He rose at all.  Without this, though we may be moralists, though we may be civilized, good-natured people, yet we are no Christians.  For he is not a true Christian who is only one outwardly; nor have we therefore a right because we daily profess to believe that Christ rose again the third day from the dead.  But he is a true Christian who is one inwardly; and then only can we be stilled true believers when we not only profess to believe but have felt the power of our blessed Lord’s rising from the dead by being quickened and raised by his Spirit (when dead in trespasses and sins) to a thorough newness both of heart and life.

The devils themselves cannot but believe the doctrine of the resurrection and they tremble.  But yet they continue devils, because the benefits of this resurrection have not been applied to them, nor have they received a renovating power from it, to change and put off their diabolical nature.  And so, unless we not only profess to know, but also feel that Christ is risen indeed, by being born again from above, we shall be as far from the kingdom of God as they: our faith will be as ineffectual as the faith of devils.

Nothing has done more harm to the Christian world; nothing has rendered the cross of Christ of less effect, than a vain supposition that religion is something without us.  Whereas we should consider, that everything that Christ did outwardly must be done over again in our souls or otherwise, the believing there was such a divine person once on earth who triumphed over hell and the grave will profit us no more than believing there was once such a person as Alexander, who conquered the world.

As Christ was born of the Virgin’s womb, so must he be spiritually formed in our hearts. As he died for sin, so must we die to sin.  And as he rose again from the dead, so must we also rise to a divine life.  None but those who have followed him in this regeneration or new-birth shall sit on thrones as approvers of his sentence when he shall come in terrible majesty to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

It is true, as for the outward work of our redemption, it was a transient act and was certainly finished on the cross, but the application of that redemption to our hearts is a work that will continue always, even unto the end of the world.  So long as there is an elect man breathing on the earth, who is naturally engendered of the offspring of the first Adam, so long must the quickening spirit, which was purchased by the resurrection of the second Adam, that Lord from heaven, be breathing upon his soul.  For though we may exist by Christ, yet we cannot be said to exist in him till we are united to him by one spirit and enter into a new state of things, as certainly as he entered into a new state of things after that he rose from the dead.  We may throng and crowd about Christ, and call him “Lord, Lord,” when we come to worship before his footstool; but we have not effectually touched him till by a lively faith in his resurrection, we perceive a divine virtue coming out of him to renew and purify our souls.

How greatly then do they err who rest in a bare historical faith of our Savior’s resurrection and look only for external proofs to evidence it?  Whereas were we the most learned disputers of this world and could speak of the certainty of this fact with the tongue of men and angels, yet without this inward testimony of it in our hearts, though we might convince others, yet we would never be saved by it ourselves.  For we are but dead men, we are like so many carcasses wrapped up in grave clothes till that same Jesus, who called Lazarus from his tomb and at whose own resurrection many that slept arose, doth raise us also by his quickening Spirit from our natural death, in which we have so long lain to a holy and heavenly life.

We might think ourselves happy, if we had seen the Holy Jesus after He was risen from the dead, and our hands had handled that Lord of life.  But more happy are they who have not seen him, and yet having felt the power of his resurrection and therefore believe in him.  For many saw our divine master on earth who were not saved by him; but whosoever has thus felt the power of his resurrection has the earnest of his inheritance in his heart, he has passed from death to life and shall never fall into final condemnation.

I am very sensible that this is foolishness to the natural man, as were many such like truths to our Lord’s own disciples when they were only weak in faith before he rose again.  But when these natural men, like them, have fully felt the power of his resurrection, they will then own that this doctrine is from God and say with the Samaritans, “Now we believe not because of thy saying,” for we ourselves have experienced it in our hearts.”

And O that all unbelievers, all letter-learned masters of Israel, who now look upon the doctrine of the power of Christ’s resurrection or our new birth as an idle tale and condemn the preachers of it as enthusiasts and madmen, did but thus feel the power of it in their souls, they would no longer ask, how this thing could be?  But they would be convinced of it, as much as Thomas was, when he saw the Lord’s Christ; and like him, when Jesus bid him reach out his hands and thrust them into his side, in a holy confession, they would cry out, “My Lord and my God!”

But how shall an unbeliever, how shall the formal Christian come thus to “know Christ, and the power of his resurrection?” God, who cannot lie, has told us, “I am the resurrection and the life, whosoever liveth and believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”  Again, says the apostle, “By faith we are saved, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.”  This, this is the way, walk in it.  Believe, and you shall live in Christ and Christ in you; you shall be one with Christ and Christ one with you.  But without this, your outward goodness and professions will avail you nothing.

But then, by this faith we are not to understand a dead speculative faith, a faith in the head; but a living principle wrought in the heart by the powerful operations of the Holy Ghost, a faith that will enable us to overcome the world and forsake all the affection for Jesus Christ.  For thus speaks our blessed Master, “Unless a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”  And so the apostle, in the words immediately following the text, says, “being made conformable to his death;” thereby implying, that we cannot know the power of Christ’s resurrection unless we are made conformable to him in his death.

If we can reconcile light and darkness, heaven and hell, then we may hope to know the power of Christ’s resurrection without dying to ourselves and the world.  But till we can do this, we might as well expect that Christ will have concord with Belial.  For there is such a contrariety between the spirit of this world and the Spirit of Jesus Christ that he who will be at friendship with the one must be at enmity with the other: “We cannot serve God and mammon.”  This may, indeed, seem a hard saying and many, with the young man in the gospel, may be tempted to go away sorrowful.  But wherefore should this offend them?  For what is all that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, but vanity and vexation of spirit?

Could our own wills or the world have made us happy, He never would have sent his own dear Son Jesus Christ to die and rise again to deliver us from the power of them.  But because they only torment and cannot satisfy, therefore God bids us to renounce them.  Had anyone persuaded profane Esau not to lose so glorious a privilege merely for the sake of gratifying a present corrupt inclination when he saw him about to sell his birth-right for a little red pottage, would not one think that man to have been Esau’s friend?  And just thus stands the case between God and us.  By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are new-born to a heavenly inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified; but our own corrupt wills would tempt us to sell this glorious birth-right for the vanities of the world, which, like Esau’s red pottage, may please us for a while but will soon be taken away from us.  God knows this and therefore bids us renounce them for a season rather than for the short enjoyment of them to lose the privilege of that glorious birth-right, which is had by knowing the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

O the depth of the riches and excellency of Christianity!  Well might the great St. Paul count all things but dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of it.  Well might he desire so ardently to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection.  For even on this side of eternity, it raises us above the world and makes us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  Well might that glorious company of worthies, recorded in the Holy scriptures, supported with a deep sense of their heavenly calling, despise the pleasures and profits of this life and wander about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, in dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.  And O that we were all like minded!  That we felt the power of Christ’s resurrection as they did!  How should we then “count all things as dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord!”

How should we then recover our primitive dignity, trample the earth under our feet, and with our souls be continually gasping after God?  And what hinders but we may be thus minded?  Is Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, altered from what he was?  No, “he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  And though he is exalted to the right hand of God, yet he is not ashamed to call us brethren.  The power of his resurrection is as great now as formerly, and the Holy Spirit, which was assured to us by his resurrection, is as ready and able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins as any saint that ever lived.  Let us but cry, and that instantly, to Him that is mighty and able to save; let us, in sincerity and truth, without secretly keeping back the least part, renounce ourselves and the world; then we shall be Christians indeed.  And though the world may cast us out and separate from our company, yet Jesus Christ will walk with and abide in us.  And at the general resurrection of the last day, when the voice of the archangel and trump of God shall bid the sea and the graves to give up their dead and all nations shall appear before him, then will he confess us before his Father and the holy angels, and we shall receive that invitation which he shall then pronounce to all who love and fear him, “Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.

Posted in George Whitefield |

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