Teaching Resources International

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 |

Theme Study: The Resurrection by Jim & Debbie Ehrhard

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

Nothing in Christianity is of greater importance than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus makes Christianity unique among all the other religions of the world. Every other religion has its founders and holy men, but none but Christianity has a Risen Savior! This is why Peter said, “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Such a statement is not narrow-minded or arrogant. It is a simple fact—no one else has died for sins and risen from the dead. As a National Chinese friend of mine always says, “If you can find a better savior, serve him!” You won’t; you can’t—there is but one who is risen from the dead—Jesus Christ, our savior.

Christ’s resurrection is essential for our salvation. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, then his payment for sins was not acceptable to the Father. As Paul notes: “”If Christ be not raised, then your faith is in vain and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). His resurrection also proves his claim to be the Son of God (Romans 1:3-4). His resurrection also insures our resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 6:14, Paul connects our resurrection with his: “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” Similarly in 2 Corinthians 4:14, he says, “he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” His resurrection also provides strength for life. In Philippians 3:10, Paul speaks about “the power of his resurrection” as a regular source of strength. And his resurrection gives us reason to continue to serve him each day and hope for the life to come!

We hope that the various articles in this issue will remind you of the importance and power of the resurrection of Jesus. May you know the power and the presence of our risen Savior in your lives every day!

To God be the Glory, alone and forever!

By His Grace, Jim & Debbie

Posted in Uncategorized |

The Peace Which Christ Gives His True Followers by Jonathan Edwards

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

The Peace Which Christ Gives His True Followers by Jonathan Edwards

Peace, I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. (John 14:27)

These words are a part of a most affectionate and affecting discourse that Christ had with his disciples the same evening in which he was betrayed, knowing that he was to be crucified the next day. This discourse begins with the 31st verse of the 13th and is continued to the end of the 16^th chapter. Christ began his discourse after he partook of the Passover with them after he had instituted and administered the sacrament of the supper, and after Judas was gone out. None were left but his true and faithful disciples whom he now addresses as his dear children. This was the last discourse that Christ had with them before his death. As it was his parting discourse, and, as it were, his dying discourse, so it is on many accounts the most remarkable we have recorded in our Bibles.

It is evident this discourse made a deep impression on the minds of the disciples; and we may suppose that it did so, in a special manner, on the mind of love the beloved disciple whose heart was especially full of love to him and who had just then been leaning on his bosom. In this discourse Christ had told his dear disciples that he was going away which filled them with sorrow and heaviness. The words of the text are given to comfort them and to relieve their sorrow. He supports them with the promise of that peace which he would leave with them and which they would have in him and with him when he was gone.

This promise he delivers in three emphatic expressions which illustrate one another. “Peace I leave with you.” As much as to say, though I am going away, yet I will not take all comfort away with me. While I have been with you, I have been your support and comfort and you have had peace in me in the midst of the losses you have sustained and troubles you have met with from this evil generation. This peace I will not take from you but leave it with you in a more full possession.

“My peace I give unto you.” Christ by calling it his peace signifies two things,

1. That it was his own that which he had to give. It was the peculiar benefit that he had to bestow on his children now as he was about to leave the world as to his human presence. Silver and gold he had none; for, while in his estate of humiliation, he was poor. The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests; but the Son of man had not where to lay his head (Luke 9:58). He had no earthly estate to leave to his disciples who were as it were his family: but he had peace to give them.

2. It was his peace that he gave them; as it was the same kind of peace which he himself enjoyed. The same excellent and divine peace which he ever had in God and which he was about to receive in his exalted state in a vastly greater perfection and fullness. For the happiness Christ gives to his people is a participation of his own happiness: agreeable to chapter 15:11: “These things have I said unto you, that my joy might remain in you.” And in his prayer with his disciples at the conclusion of this discourse, chapter 17:13: “And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” And verse 22: “And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.” Christ here alludes to men making their wills before death. When parents are about to leave their children by death, they are wont in their last will and testament to give them their estate, that estate which they themselves were wont to possess and enjoy. So it was with Christ when he was about to leave the world with respect to the peace which he gave his disciples; only with this difference, that earthly parents, when they die, though they leave the same estate to their children which they themselves heretofore enjoyed; yet when the children come to the full possession of it, they enjoy it no more; the parents do not enjoy it with their children. The time of the full possession of parents and children is not together. Whereas with respect to Christ’s peace, he did not only possess it himself before his death, when he bequeathed it to his disciples; but also afterwards more fully: so that they were received to possess it with him.

The third and last expression is “not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” Which is as much as to say, my gifts and legacies, now I am going to leave the world are not like those which the rich and great men of the world are wont to leave to their heirs when they die. They bequeath to their children their worldly possessions; and it may be vast treasures of silver and gold and sometimes an earthly kingdom. But the thing that I give you is my peace, a vastly different thing from what they are wont to give and which cannot be obtained by all that they can bestow or their children inherit from them.

DOCTRINE

That peace which Christ, when he died, left as a legacy to all his true saints is very different from all those things which the men of this world bequeath to their children, when they die.

I. Christ at his death made over the blessings of the new covenant to believers, as it were in a will or testament.

II. A great blessing that Christ made over to believers in this his testament was his peace.

III. This legacy of Christ is exceedingly diverse from all that any of the men of this world ever leave to their children when they die.

I. Christ at his death made over the blessings of the new covenant to believers, as it were in a will or testament.

The new covenant is represented by the apostle as Christ’s last will and testament. Hebrews 9:15, 16: “And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.” What men convey by their will or testament is their own estate. So Christ in the new covenant conveys to believers his own inheritance, so far as they are capable of possessing and enjoying it. They have that eternal life given to them in their measure which Christ himself possesses. They live in him and with him and by a participation of his life. Because he lives they live also. They inherit his kingdom: the same kingdom which the Father appointed unto him, Luke 25:29, “And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.” They shall reign on his throne, Revelation 3:21. They have his glory given to them, John 17. And because all things are Christ’s, so in Christ all things are the saints, 1 Corinthians 3:21-22.

Men in their wills or testaments most commonly give their estates to their children: so believers are in Scripture represented as Christ’s children. Hebrews 2:13, “Behold, l, and the children which God hath given me.” Men most commonly make their wills a little before their death: so Christ did, in a very special and solemn manner, make over and confirm to his disciples the blessings of the new covenant on the evening before the day of his crucifixion in that discourse of which my text is a part. The promises of the new covenant were never so particularly expressed and so solemnly given forth by Christ in all the time that he was upon earth as in this discourse. Christ promises them mansions in his Father’s house (Chapter 14:1-3). Here he promises them whatever blessings they should need and ask in his name (Chapter 15:7; 14:23, 24). Here he more solemnly and fully than any where else gives forth and confirms the promise of the Holy Spirit, which is the sum of the blessings of the covenant of grace (Chapter 14:18; 17:26; 15:25; 16:7). Here he promises them his own and his Father’s gracious presence and favor (Chapter 14:18-21). Here he promises them peace, as in the text. Here he promises them his joy (Chapter 15:11). Here he promises grace to being forth holy fruits (Chapter 15:16). And victory over the world (Chapter 16:33). And indeed there seems to be nowhere else so full and complete an edition of the covenant of grace in the whole Bible as in this dying discourse of Christ with his eleven true disciples.

This covenant between Christ and his children is like a will or testament also in this respect that it becomes effectual, and a way is made for putting it in execution, no other way than by his death; as the apostle observes it is with a will or testament among men, “For a testament is of force after men are dead” (Hebrews 9:17). For though the covenant of grace indeed was of force before the death of Christ, yet it was of force no otherwise than by his death, so that his death then did virtually intervene, being already undertaken and engaged. As a man’s heirs come by the legacies bequeathed to them no otherwise than by the death of the testator, so men come by the spiritual and eternal inheritance no otherwise than by the death of Christ. If it had not been for the death of Christ they never could have obtained it.

II. A great blessing that Christ in his testament hath bequeathed to his true followers, is his peace.

Here are two things that I would observe particularly, viz. That Christ hath bequeathed to believers true peace and then, that the peace he has given them is his peace.

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ has bequeathed true peace and comfort to his followers. Christ is called the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6). And when he was born into the world, the angels on that joyful and wonderful occasion sang, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace:” because of that peace which he should procure for and bestow on the children of men; peace with God and peace one with another and tranquility and peace within themselves: which last is especially the benefit spoken of in the text. He has procured for them peace and reconciliation with God and his favor and friendship; in that he satisfied for their sins and laid a foundation for the perfect removal of the guilt of sin, and the forgiveness of all their trespasses and wrought out for them a perfect and glorious righteousness, most acceptable to God and sufficient to recommend them to God s full acceptance to the adoption of children and to the eternal fruits of his fatherly kindness.

By these means, true saints are brought into a state of freedom from condemnation and all the curses of the law of God. Romans 8:34, “Who is he that condemneth?” And by these means, they are safe from that dreadful and eternal misery to which naturally they are exposed and are set on high out of the reach of all their enemies, so that the gates of hell and powers of darkness can never destroy them; nor can wicked men, though they may persecute, ever hurt them. Romans 8:31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Numbers 23:8, “How shall l curse whom God hath not cursed?” And verse 23,. “There is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.” By these means, they are out of the reach of death, John 6:4-9, 50, 51, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.” By these means, death with respect to them has lost its sting and is no more worthy of the name of death. 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting?” By these means, they have no need to be afraid of the day of judgment when the heavens and earth shall be dissolved. Psalm 46:1, 2, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed: and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” Yea, a true saint has reason to be at rest in an assurance, that nothing can separate him from the love of God (Romans 8:38, 39). Thus he that is in Christ is in a safe refuge from every thing that might disturb him; Isaiah 32:2, “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest: as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” And hence they that dwell in Christ have that promise fulfilled to them which we have in the 18th verse of the same chapter: “And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.”

And the true followers of Christ have not only ground of rest and peace of soul by reason of their safety from evil, but on account of their sure title and certain enjoyment of all that good which they stand in need of, living, dying, and through all eternity. They are on a sure foundation for happiness, are built on a rock that can never he moved, and have a fountain that is sufficient and can never be exhausted. The covenant is ordered in all things and sure, and God has passed his word and oath, “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us.” The infinite Jehovah is become their God, who can do everything for them. He is their portion who has an infinite fullness of good in himself: “He is their shield and exceeding great reward.” As great a good is made over to them as they can desire or conceive of and is made as sure as they can desire: therefore they have reason to put their hearts at rest and be at peace in their minds.

Besides, he has bequeathed peace to the souls of his people, as he has procured for them and made over to them the spirit of grace and true holiness; which has a natural tendency to the peace and quietness of the soul. It implies a discovery and relish of a suitable and sufficient good. It brings a person into a view of divine beauty and to a relish of that good which is a man’s proper happiness; and so it brings the soul to its true center. The soul by his means is brought to rest and ceases from restlessly inquiring, as others do, who will show us any good; and wandering to and fro, like lost sheep seeking rest, and finding none. The soul hath found him who is as the appletree among the trees of the wood and sits down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is sweet unto his taste (Cant. 2:2). And thus that saving of Christ is fulfilled, John 4:14, “Whoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.” And besides, true grace naturally tends to peace and quietness, as it settles things in the soul in their due order, sets reason on the throne, and subjects the settees and affections to its government, which before were uppermost. Grace tends to tranquility as it mortifies tumultuous desires and passions, subdues the eager and insatiable appetites of the sensual nature and greediness after the vanities of the world. It mortifies such principles as hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, envyings, and the like, which are a continual source of inward uneasiness and perturbation; and supplies those sweet, calming, and quieting principles of humility, meekness, resignation, patience, gentleness, forgiveness, and sweet reliance on God. It also tends to peace, as it fixes the aim of the soul to a certain end; so that the soul is no longer distracted and drawn by opposite ends to be sought and opposite portions to be obtained and many masters of contrary wills and commands to be served; but the heart is fixed in the choice of one certain, sufficient, and unfailing good: and the soul’s aim at this and hope of it is like an anchor that keeps it steadfast that it should no more he driven to and fro by every wind.

2. This peace which Christ has left as a legacy to his true followers is his peace. It is the peace which himself enjoys. This is what I take to be principally intended in the expression. It is the peace that he enjoyed while on earth in his state of humiliation. Though he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and was every where hated and persecuted by men and devils and had no place of rest in this world, yet in God, his Father, he had peace. We read of his rejoicing in spirit, Luke 10:21. So Christ’s true disciples, though in the world they have tribulation, yet in God have peace.

When Christ had finished his labors and sufferings had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, he entered into his rest a state of most blessed, perfect, and everlasting peace: delivered by his own sufferings from our imputed guilt, acquitted and justified of the Father on his resurrection. Having obtained a perfect victory over all his enemies, he was received of his Father into heaven the rest which he had prepared for him, there to enjoy his heart’s desire fully and perfectly to all eternity. And then were those words in the six first verses of the 21st Psalm which have respect to Christ fulfilled. This peace and rest of the Messiah is exceeding glorious. Isaiah 11:10, “And his rest shall be glorious.” This rest is what Christ has procured, not only for himself, but also his people by his death; and he has bequeathed it to them, that they may enjoy it with him, imperfectly in this, and perfectly and eternally in another world. That peace, which has been described and which believers enjoy is a participation of the peace which their glorious Lord and Master himself enjoys, by virtue of the same blood by which Christ himself has entered into rest. It is in a participation of this same justification; for believers are justified with Christ. As he was justified when he rose from the dead and as he was made free from our guilt, which he had as our surety, so believers are justified in him and through him, as being accepted of God in the same righteousness. It is in the favor of the same God and heavenly Father that they enjoy peace, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

It is in a participation of the same Spirit for believers have the Spirit of Christ. He had the Spirit given to him not by measure, and of his fullness do they all receive and grace for grace. As the oil poured on the head of Aaron went down to the skirts of his garments, so the Spirit poured on Christ, the head, descends to all his members. It is as partaking of the same grace of the Spirit that believers enjoy this peace (John 1:16). It is as being united to Christ and living by a participation of his life, as a branch lives by the life of the vine. It is as part thing of the same love of God; John 17:26, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.” — It is as having a part with him in his victory over the same enemies: and also as having an interest in the same kind of eternal rest and peace. Ephesians 2:5, 6, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in heavenly places.”

III. This legacy of Christ to his true disciples is very different from all that the men of this world ever leave to their children when they die.

The men of this world, many of them, when they come to die, have great estates to bequeath to their children, an abundance of the good things of this world, large tracts of ground, perhaps in a fruitful soil, covered with flocks and herds. They sometimes leave to their children stately mansions, and vast treasures of silver, gold, jewels, and precious things, fetched from both the Indies, and from every side of the globe. They leave them wherewith to live in much state and magnificence and make a great show among men, to fare very sumptuously, and swim in worldly pleasures. Some have crowns, scepters, and palaces, and great monarchies to leave to their heirs. But none of these things are to be compared to that blessed peace of Christ which he has bequeathed to his true followers. These things are such as God commonly in his providence gives his worst enemies, those whom he hates and despises most. But Christ’s peace is a precious benefit, which he reserves for his peculiar favorites. These worldly things, even the best of them that the men and princes of the world leave for their children are things which God in his providence throws out to those whom he looks on as dogs; but Christ’s peace is the bread of his children. All these earthly things are but empty shadows, which, however men set their hearts upon them are not bread and never can satisfy their souls; but this peace of Christ is a truly substantial satisfying food (Isaiah 55:2). None of those things, if men have them to the best advantage, and in ever so great abundance, can give true peace and rest to the soul, as is abundantly manifest not only in reason, but experience; it being found in all ages, that those who have the most of them, have commonly the least quietness of mind.

It is true, there may be a kind of quietness, a false peace, in the enjoyment of worldly things; men may bless their souls and think themselves the only happy persons, and despise others: may say to their souls, as the rich man did, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19). But Christ’s peace, which he gives to his true disciples, differs from this peace that men may have in the enjoyments of the world in the following respects:

1. Christ’s peace is a reasonable peace and rest of soul. It is what has its foundation in light and knowledge, in the proper exercises of reason, and a right view of things; whereas the peace of the world is founded in blindness and delusion. The peace that the people of Christ have arises from their having their eyes open and seeing things as they are. The more they consider and the more they know of the truth and reality of things — the more they know what is true concerning themselves, the state and condition they are in; the more they know of God and what manner of being he is; the more certain they are of another world and future judgment and of the truth of God’s threatenings and promises; the more their consciences are awakened and enlightened, and the brighter and the more searching the light — the more is their peace established. Whereas, on the contrary, the peace that the men of the world have in their worldly enjoyments can subsist no otherwise than by their being kept in ignorance. They must be blindfolded and deceived, otherwise they can have no peace: do but let light in upon their consciences, so that they may look about them and see what they are and what circumstances they are in and it will at once destroy all their quietness and comfort. Their peace can live no where but in the dark. Light turns their ease into torment. The more they know what is true concerning God and concerning themselves. The more they are sensible of the truth concerning those enjoyments which they possess; and the more they are sensible what things now are and what things are like to be hereafter, the more will their calm be turned into a storm. The worldly man’s peace cannot he maintained but by avoiding consideration and reflection. If he allows himself to think and properly to exercise his reason, it destroys his quietness and comfort.

But with respect to the peace which Christ gives, reason is its great friend. The more this faculty is exercised, the more it is established. The more they consider and view things with truth and exactness, the firmer is their comfort and the higher their joy. How vast a difference then is there between the peace of a Christian and the worldling! How miserable are they who cannot enjoy peace any otherwise than by hiding their eyes from the light and confining themselves to darkness. Their peace is stupidity, it is as the ease that a man has who has taken a dose of stupefying poison, the ease and pleasure that a drunkard may have in a house on fire over his head, or the joy of a distracted man in thinking that he is a king, though a miserable wretch confined in bedlam! Whereas the peace that Christ gives his true disciples is the light of life, something of the tranquility of heaven, the peace of the celestial paradise that has the glory of God to lighten it.

2. Christ’s peace is a virtuous and holy peace. The peace that the men of the world enjoy is vicious: it is vile depraves and debases the mind and makes men brutish. But the peace that the saints enjoy in Christ is not only their comfort, but it is a part of their beauty and dignity. The Christian tranquility, rest, and joy of real saints are not only unspeakable privileges, but they are virtues and graces of God’s Spirit, wherein his image partly consists. This peace has its source in those principles which are in the highest degree virtuous and amiable, such as poverty of spirit, holy resignation, trust in God, divine love, meekness, and charity; the exercise of the blessed fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23).

3. This peace greatly differs from that which is enjoyed by the men of the world, with regard to its exquisite sweetness. It is a peace so much above all that natural men enjoy in worldly things, that it surpasses their understanding and conception (Philippians 4:7). It is exquisitely sweet and secure, because it has so firm a foundation, the everlasting rock that never can be moved because perfectly agreeable to reason; because it rises from holy and divine principles, that, as they are the virtue, so are they the proper happiness of men; and because the greatness of the objective good that the saints enjoy is no other than the infinite bounty and fullness of that God who is the fountain of all good. The fullness and perfection of that provision that is made in Christ and the new covenant is a foundation laid for the saints’ perfect peace; and this hereafter they shall actually enjoy. And though their peace is not now perfect, it is not owing to any defect in the provision made, but to their own imperfection, sin, and darkness. As yet, they partly cleave to the world and seek peace from thence and do not perfectly cleave to Christ. But the more they do so, and the more they see of the provision made and accept of it and cleave to that alone, the nearer are they brought to perfect tranquility (Isaiah 27:5).

4. The peace of the Christian infinitely differs from that of the worldling, in that it is unfailing and eternal. That peace which carnal men have in the things of the world is, according to the foundation upon which it is built, of short continuance; like the comfort of a dream, 1 John 2; 1 Corinthians 7:31. These things, the best and most durable of them, are like bubbles on the face of the water; they vanish in a moment (Hosea 10:7) — But the foundation of the Christian’s peace is everlasting; it is what no time nor change can destroy. It will remain when the body dies: it will remain when the mountains depart and the hills shall be removed and when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll. The fountain of his comfort shall never be diminished and the stream shall never be dried. His comfort and joy is a living spring in the soul, a well of water springing up to everlasting life.

APPLICATION

The use that I would make of this doctrine is to improve it as an inducement unto all to forsake the world, no longer seeking peace and rest in its vanities, and to cleave to Christ and follow him. Happiness and rest are what all men pursue. But the things of the world, wherein most men seek it, can never afford it, they are laboring and spending themselves in vain. But Christ invites you to come to him and offers you this peace, which he gives his true followers, and that so much excels all that the world can afford, Isaiah 55:2, 3.

You that have hitherto spent your time in the pursuit of satisfaction in the profit or glory of the world, or in the pleasures and vanities of youth have this day an offer of that excellent and everlasting peace and blessedness which Christ has purchased with the price of his own blood. As long as you continue to reject those offers and invitations of Christ and continue in a Christless condition, you never will enjoy any true peace or comfort; but will be like the prodigal, that in vain endeavored to be satisfied with the husks that the swine did eat. The wrath of God will abide upon and misery will attend you, wherever you go, which you never will be able to escape. Christ gives peace to the most sinful and miserable that come to him. He heals the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. But it is impossible that they should have peace while they continue in their sins (Isaiah 57:19-21). There is no peace between God and them, for, as they have the guilt of sin remaining in their souls and are under its dominion so God’s indignation continually burns against them, and therefore they travail in pain all their days. While you continue in such a state, you live in dreadful uncertainty what will become of you and in continual danger. When you are in the enjoyment of things most pleasing to you where your heart is best suited, and most cheerful, yet you are in a state of condemnation. You hang over the infernal pit with the sword of divine vengeance hanging over your head, having no security one moment from utter and remediless destruction. What reasonable peace can anyone enjoy in such a state as this? Though you clothe him in gorgeous apparel, or set him on a throne, or at a prince’s table, and feed him with the rarest dainties the earth affords – How miserable is the ease and cheerfulness that such have! What a poor kind of comfort and joy is it that such take in their wealth and pleasures for a moment while they are the prisoners of divine justice and wretched captives of the devil! They have none to befriend them, being without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world!

I invite you now to a better portion. There are better things provided for the sinful, miserable children of men. There is a surer comfort and more durable peace: comfort that you may enjoy in a state of safety and on a sure foundation: a peace and rest that you may enjoy with reason and with your eyes open. You may have all your sins forgiven, your greatest and most aggravated transgressions blotted out as a cloud and buried as in the depths of the sea that they may never be found more. And being not only forgiven but accepted to favor, you become the objects of Gods complacency and delight being taken into God’s family and made his children, you may have good evidence that your names were written on the heart of Christ before the world was made, and that you have an interest in that covenant of grace that is well ordered in all things and sure; wherein is promised no less than life and immortality, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, a crown of glory that fades not away. Being in such circumstances, nothing shall be able to prevent your being happy to all eternity; having for the foundation of your hope that love of God which is from eternity to eternity and his promise and oath and his omnipotent power, things infinitely firmer than mountains of brass. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, yea, the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the earth shall wax old like a garment, yet these things will never be abolished.

In such a state as this, you will have a foundation of peace and rest through all changes, and in times of the greatest uproar and outward calamity be defended from all storms, and dwell above the floods (Psalm 32:6, 7). And you shall be at peace with everything, and God will make all his creatures throughout all parts of his dominion to befriend you (Job 5:19-24). You need not be afraid of anything that your enemies can do unto you (Psalm 3:5, 6). Those things that now are most terrible to you, viz. death, judgment, and eternity, will then be most comfortable, the most sweet and pleasant objects of your contemplation, at least there will be reason that they should be so.

Hearken therefore to the friendly counsel that is given you this day, turn your feet into the way of peace, forsake the foolish and live; forsake those things which are no other than the devil’s baits and seek after this excellent peace and rest of Jesus Christ, that peace of God which passeth all understanding. Taste and see; never was any disappointed that made a trial (Proverbs 24:13, 14). You will not only find those spiritual comforts that Christ offers you to be of a surpassing sweetness for the present, but they will be to your soul as the dawning light that shines more and more to the perfect day; and the issue of all will be your arrival in heaven, that land of rest, those regions of everlasting joy, where your peace and happiness will be perfect, without the least mixture of trouble or affliction, and never be interrupted nor have an end.

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