CHRIST IS OUR RESURRECTION

Here we have it from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself, and He having spoken it we may safely believe and assert, and make a Doctrine of it,—

That Jesus Christ is the resurrection to true believers.

Show, I. How we are to understand this.

II. What proof there is of it.

III. How we are to improve it.

I. How are to understand this—I am the resurrection? There is a three-fold resurrection, and Jesus Christ is all the three to true believers.

1. There is spiritual resurrection; which is, the raising of the soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. It is called the first resurrection, for so I think we are to understand that passage, Rev. 20:6. All that are made truly holy, by the renewing, sanctifying grace of God, are certainly thereby delivered from the second death, that is, from burning in hell for ever. Now all true believers have this holiness wrought in them; and how, but by Jesus Christ? When He is made unto us sanctification, then He is thus made unto us resurrection, Eph. 2:1. It is His voice that opens the grave and fetches us out; He says unto us, Live; and we live, and the time is a time of love. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live,” John 5:25;—and now is; then, at that very time. There was a present resurrection, in the conversion of divers that left all, and followed Him. No less than almighty power can do this, can bring such a wonderful change.

Examine, inquire, brethren, Are ye thus raised again? Are ye passed from death to life? There is such a thing, and it may be known, and we can have no comfort in living the life of nature, if we be not spiritually alive, if we do not live the life of grace.

Now one good mark to know it by is,—the end that we Uve to. Whether is that—God, or self? Do we Uve to God, or to ourselves? Rom. 6:11.

Another is, by the food that we Uve upon. Is that Christ? Phil. 1:21,—His merit and righteousness for justification, His spirit and grace for sanctification?

Another is, by the rule that we Uve by. Is that the rule of the new creature—the Word of God? Is that the card and compass we sail by, the Ught and lamp we walk by? or, is it something else—the dictates of our own corrupt nature, carnal reason, fleshly appetites, the course and custom of this vain world? Try by this.

Let me exhort you. Would you have Christ this resurrection to you? Close immediately with the gospel call; stand it out no longer against the voice, entreating—beseeching. As soon as ever Christ said to Lazarus, Come forth, presently Lazarus came forth, without ifs or ands, without making objections. How, you ask, can I that am dead stir? No, though you are as he was with the grave-clothes about him, yet he that was dead came forth. So I address you—”Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,” Eph. 5:14.

2. There is a figurative resurrection; and that is the raising of a person, or people, from an exceedingly low, miserable, afflicted, helpless condition, to a state of comfort and joy, peace and safety. Such a thing there is, and it is a resurrection. There is something in it, like to a resurrection, Hosea 6:1,2,—when smitten and torn, reckoned as dead; when delivered, and recovered, and settled again, reckoned as raised again. Read Ezekiel 37. That valley of dead and dry bones, was the nation and people of the Jews, in the time of their captivity in Babylon, where they lay past all hope, till the end of the seventy years, and then, by a proclamation from Cyrus, they were released, and it was like a kind of resurrection. It is in like manner with them at this day, and hath been for near seventeen hundred years,—a scattered, broken, miserable people. There is a time, we hope, at hand, when God will gather them again, that there may be one sheepfold, as there is one Shepherd. Now, how is that time called? Resurrection time, Romans 11:15,—life from the dead.—Once more: The condition of many ministers and people amongst ourselves, of many in France, hath been, in outward appearance, a dead condition. But blessed be God, there hath been a resurrection, in some measure a coming out of the grave again, of which, whoever was the instrument, the Lord Jesus Himself was the principal agent. He is the resurrection to us. When a company of nonconformists went to court, to congratulate the king and queen, and to thank them for the present liberty, being clothed alike in long black cloaks, such as ministers usually wear in London, a scoffer said, Whither are all these going, to a burial? No, Sir, said one of them, to a resurrection. It is so, likewise, in reference to personal deliverances from personal calamities, as Isaac, when bound and laid on the altar, Hebrews 11:19. It was Paul’s case, 2 Cor. 1:8 -10. Hath not Jesus Christ, in this sense, been the resurrection many a time to thee, and to me? We were brought low, and He helped us. Was not Job’s restoration a resurrection? so some understand Job 19:25,26.

Learn hence, on whom to depend, and to whom to fly in such cases; even to the blessed Jesus.

Learn also, to whom to give the praise of such a resurrection, public or personal; even to the same.

3. There is a proper resurrection, and that is, the raising up of the dead bodies, properly, naturally dead, out of which the life and the soul is departed. And is Jesus Christ that too? He is. That is chiefly meant here. The text was spoken to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, upon occasion of raising her brother to life again, after he had been dead four days. Now, as to this, Jesus Christ is the resurrection three ways:

(1.) As He was the only one that ever raised Himself to life again: no one ever did it but He. (It is not with us in the sleep of death as it is in the death of sleep, when we have slept enough we wake of ourselves. No; the human body must be waked.) And therefore, as in some places it is said, God raised Him from the dead, so in other places it is said, He rose again on the third day; making it His own act and deed, I Cor. 15:4. He had two natures, the divine and human. His human nature could never have raised itself; no, His divine nature raised His human nature. Christ, as God, raised Himself as man.

(2.) As by His power alone it was that all were raised that ever were raised; all under the Old Testament, all under the New. Though Himself, in His own proper person, raised three only; the ruler’s daughter, newly dead; the widow’s son, upon the bier; Lazarus, buried; yet all that ever any of the prophets raised, or that ever any of the apostles raised they raised in His name, not in their own; by a power derived from Him, not by any power of their own: allude to Acts 3:12,16.

(3.) As to the day of the great resurrection at the end of the world, when all the dead shall be raised. It will be done only by the power of the Lord Jesus, especially as to true believers; the raising of them will in a special manner be His doing. And as to this it is that He is the resurrection.

II. Let us consider the proof of this.

1. It is certain there is to be such a thing. As sure as we must die, we shall Uve again; go to the grave, and come out again. There have been, and there are, those that deny this; old Sadducees, new Sadducees, I Cor. 15:12; 2 Tim. 2:18. I shall give not other proof at present but that of our Lord Jesus, Matt. 22:23 -34. Therefore Abraham was alive—in soul—but the soul of Abraham was not Abraham, therefore his body must live too. —Can this be? Yes, easily, to almighty power.

2. For the manner of it, how it is to be, God hath revealed it to His holy apostles, else we could not have known it:—”For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord,” I Thess. 4:16, 17.

The Lord Himself shall descend. This Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ, and no other. The Father hath committed it wholly into His hand. He is the resurrection: the same that ascended, the same shall also descend. He descended once in rags of flesh, but when He shall descend the second time, it will be in robes of glory.

There will be a great shout, the voice of the archangel, that is, of Christ Himself. We never read of more than one archangel, the Lord of the angels. And the trump of God. —Trumpets were used in calling of assemblies. So here—the greatest of assemblies that ever was. They are used at the assizes, when the judges are going to the bench. So here—This was the trumpet that Jerome said was always sounding in his ears.

The dead in Christ shall rise first—either, the dead for Christ, the martyrs, before other saints—or, the dead in Christ, that is, all true believers, before the rest of mankind. Those who lived and died in true union with Him by faith, which union still remained even when dead; or, before those that shall then be found alive.

And what then? Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up, etc. This is the short account the Scripture gives us concerning this matter; and we are bound to believe, without doubting or wavering, that so it shall be.

Read to the same purpose, but more fully, I Cor. 15. It is the scope of the whole chapter. Where the apostle,

(1.) Positively asserts and proves that there is to be such a thing, that all true believers must and shall certainly rise again at the last day. See one of his arguments, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” ver. 19.

(2.) Plainly lays the ground of it upon Christ’s being made the resurrection to them. If He be risen, then they shall rise. But He is risen; therefore believers shall rise.

The consequence He proves,

From their union with Him. He is the head, they the members. It is a real union, I Cor. 15:15. If the body of one saint were lost, there would be a maim in Christ’s mystical body.—Therefore it is said we shall be changed, that of the same metal our glorious body may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Phil. 3:21. It is said also, that the head and members shall be together in the same place, John 17:24.

He is the first-fruits; they the lump, I Cor. 15:20; Lev. 23:10, 11. Read Deut. 26:1, etc. It is a relative union.

He is the second Adam; they the children descended from Him, I Cor. 15:21, 22. This is another relative union. He proves it also,

From the victory that He hath obtained over everything that might hinder; sin, death, the grave, the devil, I Cor. 15:25, 26; Heb. 2:14,15.

Is not Christ the resurrection to unbelievers? must not they rise also?

They must rise; but neither by virtue of any union they have with Him, nor any victory He hath obtained for them. The devil is not against the rising of the wicked; he doth nothing to oppose or hinder it; he would have their souls and bodies to come together again, in order to their being tormented together. The grave is free to part with them for the same reason. But they would hinder the rising of the godly. Ay, but they shall not, I Cor. 15:55, 56. The wicked are raised by the power of Christ, in order to condemnation; but the righteous by their union with Christ: the one in wrath, the other in love, John 5:28, 29. The righteous to be married—crowned; the wicked to be executed.

3. He declares, also with what kind of bodies they shall be raised; the self-same in substance, Job 19:26, but greatly changed in qualities; no defect, no deformity. If scars have been received in suffering, they are not to disgrace, but to honour them. They shall be made like Christ’s body; either that, Matt. 17:1, 2; or that, Acts 1:9 - 11; or that, Rev. 1:13 - 16. In particular, see I Cor. 15:35 - 38, 42 - 44. Their bodies shall be made spiritual, immortal, incorruptible, powerful, able to attend the soul in all its actings and operations, without weariness: not as here below; but able to bear up all that weight of glory which is prepared. In a word, have you seen the body of the sun in its noon-day brightness, such a light as you are not able to behold? Then you have seen something like it. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars;” but it is said in Matt. 13:43, “They shall shine forth as the sun.”

III. The improvement.

1. That of the apostle, I Thess. 4:15, “Wherefore comfort one another.” It is a thing that the servants of the Lord should be often talking of one to another, for the comforting and encouraging one of another. If one another, sure ourselves much more. This should be done,

Under bodily blemishes and infirmities:—They shall shortly be done away.

Against fears of death and the grave:—it is but unclothing us to put on better—the grave is as the refiner’s furnace.

Against inordinate sorrow at the death of godly friends, John 11:23; I Thess. 4:13. They are not dead, but asleep—as when we take leave over night.

2. That of the same apostle, I Cor. 15:58, “Be ye steadfast,” —it may be rendered, Exhort one another, — “unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

A notable spur to all manner of duty in general—to abound therein. It will certainly not be in vain.

In particular—to serve God with our bodies, I Cor. 6:14, 15—not to serve the devil, and lust, and sin with them.

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