We
were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death,
we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Romans 6:4-5
On the likeness of His death there follows
necessarily the likeness of His resurrection. To speak alone of the likeness of
His death, of bearing the cross, and of self-denial, gives a one-sided view of
following Christ. It is only the power of His resurrection that gives us
strength to go on from that likeness of His death as what we receive at once by
faith, to that conformity to His death which comes as the growth of the inner
life. Being dead with Christ refers more to the death of the old life to sin
and the world which we abandon; risen with Christ refers to the new life
through which the Holy Spirit expels the old. To the Christian who earnestly
desires to walk as Christ did, the knowledge of this likeness of His
resurrection is indispensable. Let us see if we do not here get the answer to
the question as to where we shall find strength to live in the world as Christ
did.
We have already seen how our Lord’s life before His
death was a life of weakness. Sin had great power over Him It had also power
over His disciples, so that He could not give them the Holy Spirit, or do for
them what He wished. But with the resurrection all was changed. Raised by the
Almighty power of God, His resurrection life was full of the power of eternity.
He had not only conquered death and sin for Himself but for His disciples, so
that He could from the first day make them partakers of His Spirit, of His joy,
and of His heavenly power.
When the Lord Jesus now makes us partakers of His
life, then it is not the life that He had before His death, but the
resurrection life that He won through death. A life in which sin is already
made an end of and put away, a life that has already conquered hell and the devil,
the world and the flesh, a life of Divine power in human nature, This is the
life that likeness to His resurrection gives us:
In
the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11
Oh that through the Holy Spirit God might reveal to
us the glory of the life in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection! In it we
find the secret of power for a life of conformity to Him.
To most Christians this is a mystery, and therefore
their life is full of sin and weakness and defeat. They believe in Christ’s
resurrection as the sufficient proof of their justification. They think that He
had to rise again, to continue His work in heaven as Mediator. But that He rose
again, in order that His glorious resurrection life might now be the very
power of their daily life, of this they have no idea. Hence their
hopelessness when they hear of following Jesus fully, and being, perfectly
conformed to His image. They cannot imagine how it can be required of a sinner,
that he should in all things act as Christ would have done. They do not know
Christ in the power of His resurrection, or the mighty power with which His
life now works in those, who are willing to count all things but loss for His
sake (Phil. 3:8; Eph. 1:19, 20). Come, all you who are weary of a life unlike
Jesus, and long to walk always in His footsteps, who begin to see that there is
in the Scriptures a better life for you than you have hitherto known, come and
let me try to show you the unspeakable treasure that is yours, in your likeness
to Christ in His resurrection. Let me ask three questions.
The first is: Are you ready to surrender your life
to the rule of Jesus and His resurrection life? I doubt not that the
contemplation of Christ’s example has convinced you of sin in more than one
point. In seeking your own will and glory instead of God’s, in ambition and
pride and selfishness and want of love towards man, you have seen how far you
are from the obedience and humility and love of Jesus. And now it is the
question, whether in view of all these things, in which you have acknowledged
sin, you are willing to say: If Jesus will take possession of my life, then I
resign all right or wish ever in the least to have or to do my own will. I give
my life with all I have and am entirely to Him, always to do what He through
His Word and Spirit commands me. If He will live and rule in me, I promise
unbounded and hearty obedience.
For such a surrender faith is needed; therefore the
second question is:
Are you prepared to believe that Jesus will take
possession of the life entrusted to Him, and that He will rule and keep it?
When the believer entrusts his entire spiritual and temporal life completely to
Christ, then he learns to understand aright Paul’s words: "I am dead; I
live no more: Christ lives in me." Dead with Christ and risen again, the
living Christ in His resurrection life takes possession of and rules my new
life. The resurrection life is not a thing that I may have if I can undertake
to keep it: No, just this is what I cannot do. But blessed be God! JESUS CHRIST
himself is the resurrection and the life, is the resurrection life. He
Himself will from day to day and hour to hour see to it and ensure that
I live as oil who is risen with Him. He does it through that Holy Spirit
who is the Spirit of His risen life. The Holy Spirit is in us, and will, if we
trust Jesus for it, maintain within us every moment the presence and power of
the risen Lord. We need not fear, that we never can succeed in leading such a holy
life as becomes those who are temples of the living God. We are indeed not
able. But it is not required of us. The living Jesus, who is the
resurrection, has shown His power over all our enemies; He Himself, who so
loves us, He will work it in us. He gives us the Holy Spirit as our power, and
He will perform His work in us with Divine faithfulness, if we will only trust
Him; Christ Himself is our life.
And now comes the third question: are you ready to
use this resurrection life for the purpose for which God gave it Him, and gives
it to you, as a power of blessing to the lost? All desires after the
resurrection life will fail, if we are only seeking our own perfection and
happiness. God raised up and exalted Jesus to give repentance and remission of
sins. He ever lives to pray for sinners. Yield yourself to receive His
resurrection life with the same aim. Give yourself wholly to working and
praying for the perishing: then will you become a fit vessel and instrument in
which the resurrection life can dwell and work out its glorious purposes.
Believer! your calling is to live like Christ. To
this end you have already been made one with Him in the likeness of His
resurrection. The only question is now, whether you are desirous after the full
experience of His resurrection life, whether thou art willing to surrender thy
whole life that He Himself may manifest resurrection power in every part of it.
I pray that you, do not draw back. Offer yourself unreservedly to Him, with all
thy weakness and unfaithfulness. Believe that as His resurrection was a wonder
above all thought and expectation, so He as the Risen One will still work in
thee exceeding abundantly above all you could think or desire.
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