THE RESURRECTION

There is indeed no book in the entire world that can be placed upon the same line with the Word of God.

That Word has a divine authority and eternity is in it.

From word to word it has been inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The contents are so deep that we shall never be able to reach the bottom.

It never becomes old, but it ever remains new, and that is especially true for the heart which has been renewed by God’s Spirit.

Ah, would that it was always thus, but that is not the case, yet God’s children may frequently find something new in it of which they say, “That is something new again.” And that is not what we can find, but what God manifests and explains by the light of His Spirit in the hearts of His favorites. The opening of Thy Word giveth light.

Thus it is also with the three words which I wrote above. We may have read it a thousand times, but we always just read it inattentively and never realized what was implied.

The eunuch of Candace needed an interpreter, and thus we must also receive the Holy Spirit Who guides into all truth.

The text tells us, “So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulchre.” The other disciple was John, but at present it is not my intention to ask your attention for John, but for Peter.

Now we come to the subject. We all know what had happened to Peter. Christ had sufficiently warned him, but he had paid no attention. He had denied Christ three times. No, he did not live in sin, but he fell into it.

With him it was altogether different than with Judas Iscariot. With Judas it was intentional, but Peter was overtaken unawares. Notwithstanding, it was a great sin into which Peter fell. Each sin is God dishonoring and soul destroying. We can never plead in favor of sin. God hates sin, and it is and remains an offending of and an attack upon His Divine Essence. Thus it was also here. That sin has also aggravated Christ’s sufferings. It was averted, but if God had not intervened, Peter would have sinned himself into hell. Of himself man cannot remain standing; no, not for a moment. In the life of Peter it has been confirmed what Christ told him, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.” It would be eternally lost if salvation was in our own hands, but now the Triune God takes care of that. It was from personal experience and knowledge that later Peter himself wrote that God’s people are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time, I Peter 1:5. Peter was also greatly favored after his deep fall, namely, that Christ looked upon him. The cock would crow and remind him of that which Christ had told him. God never forsakes His people, however deep they have sunk. Yea, it is all a wonder and a proof of the sovereign grace of God in Christ shown to a deeply fallen sinner. Peter had no right to expect that Christ would ever cast a glance upon him. God is great and we know Him not, and as fruit of that, Peter was favored to go out and weep bitterly. His repentance was sincere. What a sorrow he had within his heart. They were no Esau’s tears, but tears which God put into His bottle.

Even though Peter had sinned away his membership and had made himself unworthy of his office, the other disciples and the Church did not let him go.

God may allow much to happen, but there is no apostasy of the saints.

God cannot let go of His people, but neither can they live without God.

Peter was with John, or John with Peter, and Mary Magdalene sought them both when in her want she was walking about. With all their misery and want and strife, they continued to cleave to each other and put in practice: “I believe the communion of saints.” By the grace of the Holy Spirit they were bound to God with unbreakable bonds, but because of love, they could not part from each other either.

God Himself had bound them together, and it also applies in this case, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” That which we paste together hangs together like loose sand. But “a friend loveth at all times”, and that is Christ in the first place, but He also keeps them together that are comprehended in Him.

At times sad separations may occur among the people of God, but that is mostly when the flesh comes in between or when our character and our nature betrays us.

God’s Spirit binds together, but destruction proceeds from men because sin has a destructive character. Even among the dear disciples of Christ there were disagreements before His suffering.

At times they also quarreled with each other about who would be the greatest. When we are not at our place, then we are always looking for a quarrel, and then the one wants to be above the other.

We are such dangerous creatures. Luther once said that he was more afraid of his own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. That is really a proof and a fruit of self-knowledge. When we are left to ourselves, we want it all our own way, and then you know what the result is.

If there is a contest to be the least and to stand behind each other, then the devil cannot get his claws in between.

After the death of Christ, when they were all in want, they sought each other. Truly, then they did not do much damage. Then they had nothing to reproach each other about, and even though they sat together in the dark, they then appreciated each other more than ever before.

Then they needed each other. It is very humbling for us in the times in which we are living. Nowadays there is a great need. It becomes manifest that the devil has only a short time. How torn and divided God’s Church is; it is like bones that are scattered at the grave’s mouth. How many are the signs of God’s displeasure.

And looking at ourselves, we must say, “There is no voice nor any that regardeth.” So much happens but it does not penetrate. It does not make us what we should be, namely, humble and guilty so that we return to the Lord.

How little we see God’s workings. How often He hides His face from the house of Jacob—and how we are able to do without each other, being so cold and unfeeling.

We pass each other’s door and feel no need to meet each other; mistrusting, distrusting, suspecting, condemning and contending with each other, reviling each other, seeking each other’s ruin and what not.

These are not signs of life. At times we would think, “Is God’s Word still the truth or have we perhaps received another Bible?” It is easy to explain why the question arises with weak and wavering souls, and with many professors of the truth. They see and hear so much that is at variance with the revealed will of God. We put a rod into the hands of the world to strike us, and we give reasons to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. It is a life far from God, far from the truth, far from the life of God. No, let us not glaze it over with all sorts of reasonings, because it is nothing but a vindicating of ourselves. Many judgments have already passed over us, but—it has cast off no true and real fruits of the Spirit. The Lord says, “I have smitten them but they have felt no pain.” We always tend to go farther away from God and from each other. At times the question arises, “Shall the Lord ever bring His church to the right place again? What ways would God have to open so that the churches shall be driven toward each other again. Perhaps when one day the churches shall be broken down because of the persecutions of the Antichrist, and we shall be dispersed, then we shall meet each other in the woods and ditches and be glad that we may shake hands with each other.

Ah, would that the example of Mary Magdalene might be blessed by God’s Spirit to bring us to ourselves and to each other. With the death of Christ those women and disciples had come into a deep way of affliction, but it had also brought them closer together.

When Mary Magdalene saw that the Lord had been taken away out of the grave, and feared that the enemies had taken away His body, she had fled to Simon Peter and John with her problem. Also to Peter? Yes! Did she then ignore the denial of Peter? Has she then lightly esteemed that sin? Oh no, far, far from that.

Mary Magdalene was a person who thought about sin just as God thinks about it. She had demonstrated that during her life. But whatever had happened to Peter, she did not exclude him. The Lord Jesus had not excluded her either because of her inattention and doubt, and for that reason she did not do it to the disciples either. She had so much self-knowledge that she knew very well what man is when the Lord leaves him to himself.

Yet we read: that John outran Peter.

The tables are turned. Before Peter ran ahead of the others and stood in the foreground. Ah yes, his character was not to follow. He was so energetic. He was always ready to speak. It was difficult for him to give another an opportunity to speak. His character was so fervent.

Some people think before they speak, but that was not Peter’s custom. He always acted as spokesman. But now it was different. So much had been experienced within his soul since that Friday morning. His soul was consumed with grief, and his heart was pierced with the arrows of Satan. Was there ever among God’s children and servants one that had a sorrow like Peter?

No, he did not put the blame upon another. His sins lay as heavy as lead upon his soul. And now Christ had died; there was no way to beg forgiveness, to make a confession before Him, to fall at those blessed feet of Christ. Ah, if there had only been an opportunity to do so, but now it was so dark on all sides. Then everything, everything returns to mind, having been warned so friendly and earnestly. And . . . “would that I had risked my life for Him, but now I have denied Him, that Christ Who always surrounded me with so much love.”

When God converts a person by His Spirit, then the Lord sets his sins in order before his eyes. His life returns. But after grace has been received, and then to sin against love, that is much more grievous. Then everything that God has done for our soul begins to testify against us. No, God’s true people can never forgive their sins themselves. It is true, Peter wept and mourned over his sins, but although tears give proof of guilt, yet they cannot wipe out guilt.

The reason why Peter did not run so fast, not as fast as John, was not because John was much younger than Peter. O no, although that was true, Peter was also still in the prime of life. There were altogether different reasons. It was not outwardly; neither sickness nor weakness caused him to remain behind John, but it was the burden of his guilt and sin which oppressed him. Inwardly he was so sad and ashamed.

Peter had “broken his legs”. His denial pressed heavy upon his soul. No doubt within they must have said, “Dare you still come to that grave? No doubt there shall be a message from heaven to tell you, ‘Go back, you denier, you unfaithful one. You have sinned away grace, made yourself unworthy of your office; God will have nothing to do with you anymore.’ And if Christ is really risen, then you shall hear an anathema out of His mouth. He has looked upon you in the palace of the High Priest, but now He shall bid you farewell forever.”

Ah yes, friends, it cannot be described what a tempest it must have been in his heart. That is only known to them who have experienced such matters. For although there may be no special sins in our life, the murderer is behind us from day to day. Also, with respect to our daily offenses (James 3:2) and corrupt nature, how those poor people are constantly plagued and persecuted; but especially in a case like this with Peter.

Yet there is an attractive and precious element in this incident. It was a deep way for Peter, but on the other hand it was profitable for his soul.

How clearly and obviously it is proven by his conduct that the true change of heart was present which had been wrought by the Holy Spirit.

Being ashamed about his sin, and sad because he had so abominably and scornfully offended God; had sinned against the love of Christ and against his fellow brethren, he did not run so fast. With Peter it became manifest in the fruits that it was not only his conscience, but that it was clearly a work of the heart. God had made his heart tender and the Lord had humbled him.

That is something which we have not of ourselves. We cannot work that ourselves. We must first be made sinner before God, by God Himself. Also, after a deep fall, we must be brought to true repentance to which we cannot be brought by ourselves. The desire of the humbled heart is to bow down before God. That which David sang in Psalm 119 (old Dutch version) is in their heart:

“Lord, Thou canst grant me no greater good Than to humble me and make me small.”

How much God loved Peter, and what tender care of Christ was over him. By and by he would learn from the women that Christ had not rejected him, but that His affections went out to him.

Christ would personally seek Peter an hour later, and would receive him again as a child.

John outran Peter. Peter came on behind. What a great grace had been bestowed upon him. It was a deep way for Peter himself, but yet so profitable.

No doubt he had remembered with guilt and sorrow that he had not listened to the serious admonition of his Master, but also that he had placed himself above the other disciples. He had learned more in those three days than in all of those three years that he had been favored to follow Christ. Truly we may become jealous of that.

It is God’s own work to arrest a sinner and to stop him on the way to destruction, since by nature he hastens with rapid strides to eternal perdition. It is God’s own work to bring us from the broad way of destruction, and to cause us to enter in through the strait gate so that we may set our feet upon the narrow way of life, upon that way where a fool shall not err, upon that way which is above to the wise.

But it is also a great blessing when once we may be favored to come behind. By nature we only wish to walk before, but God must teach us to come behind and to stay behind as in the case of Peter. Although it is contrary to flesh and blood, yet the Lord can open ways for us so that we still come on behind.

The entire life of a child of God is only a training school. More and more lessons must be learned which are so very humiliating to our nature, but by which our soul prospers and for which we shall later thank the Lord.

In nature there is a great difference between a frog and a snail. A frog does nothing but jump, he jumps over everything; but a snail crawls. And when we pay attention to a snail, then it is difficult for us to see that the snail advances; but he does advance, and then wherever the snail has crawled, he leaves a silver line behind.

Thus, no doubt, it must have also been with Peter. His soul has been like a watered garden. “For my transgression I confess,

I ever see my sin.
Against Thee only have I sinned,
Done evil in Thy sight;
Lord, in Thy judgment Thou art just,
And in Thy sentence right.”

Although he did not run as fast as John, yet he was on the way to Christ, on the way to be able and privileged to confess his sins; on the way to receive the forgiveness of his sin, on the way to partake again of communion with Christ.

There is no apostasy of saints. God maintains His own work in them. Their aim is to possess God. A longing after Christ has been wrought within their heart. Those poor people want to live where Christ is. Where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together.

That which God has placed in the heart of His people, neither devil, nor sin, nor world can ever remove. Neither was there here anything of Peter, but, what we read of the one-sided work of God with Israel in Hosea 11:4, “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.”

If the Lord had not held on to Peter, he would have fainted in his sorrow; if the Lord Himself had not drawn him, he would have never come outside of the door again, and if the Lord Himself had not saved him, he would have surely perished.

God’s work cannot remain concealed. God takes His people’s part, and Christ continues to pray for them. For the man will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this day. Here, also, Peter must fall away, but God’s work shines forth in all the dealings which He has with His people.

The rest of the history tells us that Peter came to the grave, that he went in, saw the linen clothes lying and the napkin that was about His head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

If the Lord spares me, I hope at another time to write something about that, and also how this disciple who came on behind was found by Christ.

May we now turn to ourselves with that which has been considered. Peter was richly favored, and although he was poor and needy, yet the Lord thought on him. Christ did not thrust him from Him, but drew him toward Him and sweetly embraced him.

We always deceive ourselves, and that more and more, but the Lord knows that we have been transgressors from our youth. Yea, He knows what He may expect from His creatures. God has loved His people freely, and He loves them until the end.

Yet it is a personal matter. We can do nothing with Peter. We personally need the same grace, and let us bear in mind that it is not something which we can just take hold of ourselves, or can give ourselves. Far from it. It is not something that we can initiate. We may walk behind a child of God and associate with him, but all that which we begin with ourselves, shall end in death. It must be God’s work within us, and from our side it is an impossibility. Our only hope is, “That which is impossible with man, is possible with God.” We rush on, whether in sin or selfrighteousness, but both shall terminate in eternal destruction.

Oh, that many might be brought to a standstill and learn to make supplication to their Judge.

Oh, that God might bare His arm to seize many that are drawn unto death, also from the young and rising generation, and that God might set them up as an example of His Almighty and allconquering grace. What a different life it would bring into the church and also into our families.

The revealed will of God is, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”

May God’s command become a prayer in our life, and if God grants us what He commands, then He shall not have commanded in vain. The service of God is a blessed service. Yea, then there shall come moments in our life that we may sing with David,

“And in His service I delight.”

That is not our, but His service of love; the service of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

People of the Lord, may your life be a praying and sighing life before God. We cannot preserve ourselves; we cannot stand upon our own legs.

The apostle Paul tells us so emphatically, not “He that stands,” but: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” May we not be highminded, but rather fear. Fear for sin, fear for ourselves.

May the highness of God be ever bound upon our hearts so that because of His highness we might not sin. May we live under the deep impression of the humiliation of Christ, what it has cost Him to satisfy God’s justice and to pay for the sins of His people.

There lie so many snares and traps. The way which we must walk is full of pits and holes. The Lord Jesus taught His disciples and teaches all His people to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..” Alas, how often we walk toward temptation. We trust ourselves far too much. We often run so fast; ah, that vain self-confidence! Would that the Pharisee within us were dead, but he still lives too much in us. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. Alas, we have much more the life of the Pharisee than that we identify ourselves with the publican. And from thence those sad experiences in our life. When Peter came behind John, then he had the frame of a publican. Yea, in such a frame we are not dangerous; then we do not often do wrong. A humble and quiet spirit is precious before God. The end shall be a surprise to those who can no longer run fast. Soon their sins shall be reconciled, and their iniquities shall be removed, and they shall receive double for all their sins and be restored in honor. Yea, one day they shall hear, “Friend, come up higher,” and there in heaven shall be no more sin. There they shall deny God and Christ no more, there shame shall no more cover their faces, but eternal joy shall be upon their head. Mourning and sighing shall then forever flee away.

Rev. Lamain

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