If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on thing. on the earth.-Colossians 3:1,
2.
THE resurrection of our divine Lord from the
dead is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might
more accurately call it the key-stone of the arch of Christianity,
for if that fact could be disproved the whole fabric of the gospel
would fall to the ground. If Jesus Christ be not risen then is our
preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your
sins. If Christ be not risen, then they which have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished, and we ourselves, in missing so glorious
a hope as that of resurrection, are of all men the most miserable.
Because of the great importance of his
resurrection, our Lord was pleased to give many infallible proofs
of it, by appearing again and again in the midst of his followers.
It would be interesting to search out how many times he appeared;
I think we have mention of some sixteen manifestations. He showed
himself openly before his disciples, and did eat and drink with
them. They touched his hands and his side, and heard his voice,
and knew that it was the same Jesus that was crucified. He was not
content with giving evidence to the ears and to the eyes, but even
to the sense of touch he proved the reality of his resurrection.
These appearances were very varied. Sometimes he gave an interview
to one alone, either to a man, as to Cephas, or to a woman, as to
Magdalen. He conversed with two of his followers as they went to
Emmaus, and with the company of the apostles by the sea. We find
him at one moment amongst the eleven when the doors were shut for
fear of the Jews, and at another time in the midst of an assembly
of more than five hundred brethren, who years after were most of
them living witnesses to the fact. They could not all have been
deceived. It is not possible that any historical fact could have
been placed upon a better basis of credibility than the
resurrection of our Lord from the dead. This is put beyond all
dispute and question, and of purpose is it so done, because it is
essential to the whole Christian system.
For this same cause the resurrection of Christ
is commemorated frequently. There is no ordinance in Scripture of
any one Lords-day in the year being set apart to commemorate the
rising of Christ from the dead, for this reason, that every
Lords-day is the memorial of our Lords resurrection. Wake up any
Lords-day you please, whether in the depth of winter, or in the
warmth of summer, and you may sing
To day he rose and left the dead,
And Satans empire fell;
To day the saints his triumph spread,
And all his wonders tell.
To set apart an Easter Sunday for special
memory of the resurrection is a human device, for which there is
no Scriptural command, but to make every Lords-day an Easter
Sunday is due to him who rose early on the first day of the week.
We gather together on the first rather than upon the seventh day
of the week, because redemption is even a greater work than
creation, and more worthy of commemoration, and because the rest
which followed creation is far outdone by that which ensues upon
the completion of redemption. Like the apostles, we meet on the
first day of the week, and hope that Jesus may stand in our midst,
and say, Peace be unto you. (Ed note: all
bolding & coloring added) Our Lord has
lifted the Sabbath from the old and rusted hinges whereon the law
had placed it long before, and set it on the new golden hinges
which his love has fashioned. He hath placed our rest-day, not at
the end of a week of toil, but at the beginning of the rest which
remaineth for the people of God. Every first day of the week we
should meditate upon the rising of our Lord, and seek to enter
into fellowship with him in his risen life.
Never let us forget that all who are in him
rose from the dead in his rising. Next in importance to the fact
of the resurrection is the doctrine of the federal headship of
Christ, and the unity of all his people with him. It is because we
are in Christ that we become partakers of everything that Christ
did,-we are circumcised with him, dead with him, buried with him,
risen with him, because we cannot be separated from him. We are
members of his body, and not a bone of him can be broken. Because
that union is most intimate, continuous, and indissoluble,
therefore all that concerns him concerns us, and as he rose so all
his people have arisen in him.
They are risen
in two ways. First, representatively.
All the elect
rose in Christ in the day when he quitted the tomb. He was
justified, or declared to be clear of all liabilities on account
of our sins, by being set free from the prison-house of the tomb.
There was no reason for detaining him in the sepulcher, for he had
discharged the debts of his people by dying unto sin once. He
was our hostage and our representative, and when he came forth
from his bonds we came forth in him. We have endured the sentence
of the law in our Substitute, we have lain in its prison, and even
died under its death-warrant, and now we are no longer under its
curse. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from
the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For
in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he
liveth unto God.
Next to this representative resurrection comes
our
spiritual resurrection,
which is ours as soon as we are led by faith to believe in Jesus
Christ. Then it my be said of us, And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins.
The resurrection blessing is to be perfected
by-and-by at the appearing of our Lord and Savior, for then our
bodies shall rise again, if we fall asleep before his coming. He
redeemed our manhood in its entirety, spirit, soul, and body, and
he will not be content until the resurrection which has passed
upon our spirit shall pass upon our body too. These dry bones
shall live; together with his dead body they shall rise.
When he arose ascending high,
He showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our flesh shall fly
At the great rising day.
Then shall we know in the perfection of our
resurrection beauty that we are indeed completely risen in Christ,
and as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.
This morning we shall only speak of our
fellowship with Christ in his resurrection as to our own spiritual
resurrection. Do not misunderstand me as if I thought the
resurrection to be only spiritual, for a literal rising from the
dead is yet to come; but our text speaks of spiritual
resurrection, and I shall therefore endeavor to set it before you.
I.
First, then,
Let Us
Consider Our Spiritual Rising With Christ:
If ye then be risen with Christ. Though the words look
like a supposition they are not meant to be so. The apostle casts
no doubt, and raises no question, but merely puts it thus for
arguments sake. It might just as well be read, Since ye then
are risen in Christ. The if is used logically,
not theologically: by way of argument, and not by way of doubt.
All who believe in Christ are risen with Christ. Let us meditate
on this truth.
For, first, we were dead in trespasses and
sins, but having believed in Christ we have been quickened
by the Holy Ghost, and we are dead no longer. There we lay in the
tomb, ready to become corrupt; yea, some of us were corrupt, the
marks of the worm of sin were upon our character, and the foul
stench of actual sin arose from us. More or less according to the
length of time in which we abode in that death, and according to
the circumstances with which we were surrounded, death wrought in
us corruption. We lay in our death quite unable to raise ourselves
there from; ours were eyes that could not see, and ears that could
not hear; a heart that could not love; and a withered hand that
could not be stretched out to give the touch of faith. We were
even as they that go down into the pit, as those that have been
long dead: only in this we were in a worse plight than those
actually dead, for we were responsible for all our omissions and
inabilities. We were as guilty as if we had power, for the loss of
moral power is not the loss of moral responsibility: we were,
therefore, in a state of spiritual death of the most fearful kind.
The Holy Spirit visited us and made us live. We remember the first
sensation of life, some of us-how it seemed to tingle in our
souls veins with pain sharp and bitter; just as drowning persons
when life is coming back to them suffer great pain; so did we.
Conviction was wrought in us and confession of sin, a dread of
judgment to come and a sense of present condemnation; but these
were tokens of life, and that life gradually deepened and opened
up until the eye was opened-we could see Christ, the hand ceased
to be withered, and we stretched it out and touched his garments
hem; the feet began to move in the way of obedience, and the heart
felt the sweet glow of love within. Then the eyes, not content
with seeing, fell to weeping; and afterwards, when the tears were
wiped away, they flashed and sparkled with delight. Oh, my
brethren, believers in Jesus, you are not spiritually dead any
longer; on Christ you have believed, and that grand act proves
that you are no more dead. You have been quickened by God
according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in
Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own
right hand in the heavenlies. Now, beloved, you are new creatures,
the produce of a second birth, begotten again in Christ Jesus unto
newness of life. Christ is your life; such a life as you never
knew before, nor could have known apart from him. If ye then be
risen with Christ ye walk in newness of life, while the world
abideth in death.
Let us advance another step: we are risen with
Christ, and therefore there has been wrought in us a wonderful
change. When the dead shall rise they will not appear as they now
are. The buried seed rises from the ground, but not as a seed, for
it puts forth green leaf, and bud, and stem, and gradually
develops expanding flower and fruit, and even so we wear a new
form, for we are renewed after the image of him that created us in
righteousness and holiness.
I ask you to consider the change which the
Spirit of God has wrought in the believer: a wonderful change
indeed! Before regeneration our soul was as our body will be when
it dies; and we read that it is sown in corruption.
There was corruption in our mind and it was working irresistibly
towards every evil and offensive thing. In many the corruption did
not appear upon the surface, but it worked within; in others it
was conspicuous and fearful to look upon. How great the change!
For now the power of corruption within us is broken, the new life
has overcome it, for it is a living and incorruptible seed which
liveth and abideth for ever. Corruption is upon the old nature,
but it cannot touch the new, which is our true and real self. Is
it not a great thing to be purged of the filthiness which would
have ultimately brought us down to Tophet where the fire
unquenchable burns, and the worm undying feeds upon the corrupt?
Our old state was further like that which comes
upon the body at death; because it was a state of dishonor. You
know how the apostle saith of the body, It is sown in
dishonor; and certainly no corpse weareth such dishonor as
that which rests upon a man who is dead in trespasses and sins.
Why, of all things in the world that deserve shame and contempt, a
sinful man is certainly the most so. He despises his Creator, he
neglects his Savior, he chooses evil instead of good, and puts the
light from him because his deeds are evil, and therefore he
prefers the darkness. In the judgment of all pure spirits a sinful
man is a dishonorable man. But oh how changed is man when the
grace of God works within him, for then he is honorable. Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. What an honor is this!
Heaven itself contains not a more honorable being than a renewed
man. Well may we cry with David, What is man, that thou art
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
But when we see man, in the person of Jesus, made to have dominion
over all the works of Gods hands, and know that Jesus hath made
us kings and priests unto God, we are filled with amazement that
God should so exalt us. The Lord himself has said, Since
thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I
have loved thee. Unto you therefore which believe he is an
honor, for so the original text may run. A precious Christ
makes us precious: such honor have all the saints.
When a body is buried, we are told by the apostle again that
it is sown in weakness. The poor dead frame cannot lay
itself down in its last bed, friendly hands must place it there;
even so we were utter weakness towards all good. When we were the
captives of sin we could do nothing good, even as our Lord said,
Without me ye can do nothing. We were incapable of even
a good thought apart from him. But when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly; and now
we know him and the power of his resurrection. God hath given us
the spirit of power and of love; is it not written, As many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name?
What an amazing power is this! Now we taste
of the powers of the world to come, and we are strengthened
with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience
and longsuffering with joyfulness. Faith girds us with a
divine power, for all things are possible to him that
believeth, and each believer can exclaim, without boasting,
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Is not this a marvellous change which the spiritual resurrection
has wrought upon us? Is it not a glorious thing, that Gods
strength should be perfect in our weakness?
The great
change mainly concerns another point. It is said of the body,
It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
Aforetime we were natural men and discerned not the things that be
of the Spirit of God. We minded earthly things and were moved by
carnal lustings after the things which are seen; but now through
divine grace a spirit has been created in us which feeds on
spiritual bread, lives for spiritual objects, is swayed by
spiritual motives and rejoices in spiritual truth. This change
from the natural to the spiritual is such as only God himself
could have wrought, and yet we have experienced it. To God be the
glory. So that by virtue of our rising in Christ we have received
life and have become the subjects of a wondrous change,- old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
In
consequence of our receiving this life and undergoing this change
the things of the world and sin become a tomb to us.
To a dead man
a sepulcher is as good a dwelling as he can want. You may call it
his bedchamber, if you will; for he lies within it as unconscious
as if he were in slumber. But the moment the dead man lives, he
will not endure such a bedchamber; he calls it a dreary vault, a
loathsome dungeon, an unbearable charnel (Ed note:
charnel is a building in which bodies or bones are deposited),
and he must leave it at once. So when you and I were natural men,
and had no spiritual life, the things of this life contented us;
but it is far otherwise now. A merely outward religion was all
that we desired; a dead form suited a dead soul. Judaism pleased
those who were under its yoke, in the very beginning of the
gospel; new moons and holy days and traditional ordinances, and
fasting and feasting were great things with those who forgot their
resurrection with Christ. All those things make pretty furniture
for a dead mans chamber; but when the eternal life enters the
soul these outward ordinances are flung off, the living man rends
off his grave clothes, tears away his cerements (Ed note:
cerement: a shroud for the dead),
and demands such garments as are suitable for life. So the apostle
in the chapter before our text tells us to let no man spoil us by
the traditions of men and the inventions of a dead ritualism, for
these things are not the portion of renewed and spiritual men.
So, too, all merely carnal objects become as a
grave to us, whether they be sinful pleasures or selfish gains.
For the dead man the shroud, the coffin, and the vault are
suitable enough; but make the corpse alive again, and he cannot
rest in the coffin; he makes desperate struggles to break it up.
See how by main force he dashes up the lid, rends off his
bandages, and leaps from the bier (Ed note:
bier: stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed).
So the man renewed by grace cannot abide sin, it is a coffin to
him: he cannot bear evil pleasures, they are as a shroud; he cries
for liberty. When resurrection comes the man uplifts the hillock (Ed
note: hillock: small hill or mound)
above his grave, and scatters monument and head-stone, if these
are raised above him. Some souls are buried under a mass of
self-righteousness, like wealthy men on whom shrines of marble
have been heaped; but all these the believer shakes off, he must
have them away, he cannot bear these dead works. He cannot live
otherwise than by faith; all other life is death to him. He must
get out of his former state; for as a tomb is not a fit place for
a living man, so when we are quickened by grace the things of sin,
and self, and carnal sense become dreary catacombs to us, wherein
our soul feels buried, and out of which we must arise. How can we
that are raised out of the death of sin live any
longer
therein?
And, now,
beloved, we are at this time wholly raised from the dead in a
spiritual sense.
Let us think of this, for our Lord did not have his head quickened
while his feet remained in the sepulcher; but he rose a perfect
and entire man, alive throughout. Even so have we been renewed in
every part. We have received, though it be but in its infancy, a
perfect spiritual life: we are perfect in Christ Jesus. In our
inner man our eye is opened, our ear is awakened, our hand is
active, our foot is nimble: our every faculty is there, though as
yet immature, and needing development, and having the old dead
nature to contend with.
Moreover, and best
of all, we are so raised that we shall die no more. Oh, tell
me no more the dreary tale that a man who has received the divine
life may yet lose grace and perish. With our Bibles in our hands
we know better. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no
more, death hath no more dominion over him, and therefore he
that hath received Christs life in him shall never die. Hath he
not said, He that believeth in me, though he were dead yet
shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die? This life which he has given us shall be in us a
well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. He has
himself said, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.
On the day of our quickening we bid farewell to spiritual death,
and to the sepulcher wherein we slept under sins dominion.
Farewell, thou deadly love of sin; we have done with thee!
Farewell, dead world, corrupt world; we have done with thee!
Christ has raised us. Christ has given us eternal life. We forsake
for ever the dreary abodes of death, and seek the heavenly places.
Our Jesus lives, and because he lives we shall live also, world
without end.
Thus I have tried to work out the metaphor of
resurrection, by which our spiritual renewal is so well set forth.
II.
We are
urged by the apostle to use the
life which we have received, and so, secondly,
Let Us
Exercise The New Life In Suitable Pursuits.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above. Let your actions be
agreeable to your new life.
First, then, let us leave the sepulcher
(Ed note: sepulcher: a burial tomb).
If we are quickened, our first act should be to leave the region
of death. Let us quit the vault of a merely outward religion, and
let us worship God in spirit and in truth. Let us have done with
priestcraft, and all the black business of spiritual undertaking,
and let the dead bury their dead; we will have none of it. Let us
have done with outward forms, and rites, and ceremonies, which are
not of Christs ordaining, and let us know nothing save Christ
crucified; for that which is not of the living Lord is a mere
piece of funeral pomp, fit for the cemeteries of formalists, whose
whole religion is a shoveling in of dust on coffin-lids. Earth
to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh.
Let us also
quit the vault of carnal enjoyments, wherein men seek to satisfy
themselves with provision for the flesh.
Let us not live by the sight of the eye, nor by the hearing of the
ear. Let us not live for the amassing of wealth, or the gaining of
fame, for these ought to be as dead things to the man who is risen
in Christ. Let us not live for the world which we see, nor after
the fashion of men to whom this life is everything. Let us live as
those that have come out of the world, and who, though they are in
it, are no more of it. Let us be unmindful of the country from
whence we came out, and leave it, as Abraham did, as though there
were no such country, henceforth dwelling with our God, sojourners
with him, seeking a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. As Jesus Christ left behind him
all the abodes of death, let us do the same.
And, then, let us hasten to forget every evil,
even as our Lord hastened to leave the tomb. How little a time,
after all, did he sojourn among the dead. He must needs lie in the
heart of the earth three days, but he made them as short as
possible, so that it is difficult to make out the three days at
all. They were there, for there were fragments of each period, but
surely never were three days so short as Jesus made them. He cut
them short in righteousness, and being loosed from the pains of
death, he rose early, at the very break of day. At the first
instant that it was possible for him to get away from the
sepulcher consistently with the Scriptures he left the napkin and
the grave-clothes, and stood in the garden, waiting to salute his
disciples. So let it be with us: there should be no lingering, no
loitering, no hankering after the world, no clinging to its
vanities, no making provision for the flesh. Up in the morning
early, oh ye who are spiritually quickened! Up in the morning
early, from your ease, your carnal pleasure, your love of wealth
and self, and away out from the dark vault into a congenial sphere
of action: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above.
To pursue the analogy: when our Lord had left
the tomb thus early he spent a season on earth among his
disciples, and we are to pass the time of our sojourning here on
earth, as his was passed, in holy service. Our Lord reckoned that
he was on the move from earth as soon as he rose. If you remember,
he said, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father. He did not
say, I shall ascend, as though he looked at it as a future
thing; but he said, I ascend, as if it were so quickly to be
done that it was already doing. Forty days he stayed, for he had
forty days work to do; but he looked upon himself as already
going up into heaven. He had done with the world, he had done with
the grave, and now he said, I ascend to my Father, and your
Father. We also have our forty days to tarry here; the period
may be longer or shorter as the providence of God ordains, but it
will soon be over, and the time of our departure will come. Let us
spend our risen life on earth as Jesus spent his,-in a greater
seclusion from the world and in greater nearness to heaven than
ever. Our Lord occupied himself much in testimony, manifesting
himself, as we have already seen, in divers ways, to his friends
and followers. Let us also manifest the fruits of our risen life,
and bear testimony to the power of God. Let all men see that you
are risen. So live that there can be no more doubt about your
spiritual resurrection than there was about Christs literal
resurrection. Do not publish to the world your own virtues that
you may be honored among them; yet let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father Which is in heaven. Put your possession of the new life
beyond question, so that when you have gone home your friends and
acquaintances may say- He was a living child of God, for we
felt the power of his life; he was a changed man, for we saw the
renewing. Jesus spent his risen life also in comforting his
saints. He said, Peace be unto you. He spoke to one and
another -to the Manes, to poor Peter who denied him, and to all
the assembled company, cheering them and preparing them for their
future career. He spent those forty days in setting everything in
order in his kingdom, arranging as to what should be when he
should be taken up, and leaving his last commission to his
followers that they should go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Beloved, let us also spend the
time of our sojourning here in the fear of God, worshipping him,
serving him, glorifying him, endeavoring to set everything in
order for the extension of our Masters kingdom, for the
comforting of his saints, for the accomplishment of his sacred
purposes.
But now I have led you up so far, I want to go
further and rise higher. May the Lord help us. Let our minds
ascend to heaven in Christ. Even while our bodies are here we are
to be drawn upward with Christ; attracted to him, so that we can
say, He hath raised, us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Our text saith, Seek
those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God; what is this but rising to heavenly pursuits?
Jesus has gone up; let us go up with him. As to these bodies, we
cannot as yet ascend, for they are not fit to inherit the kingdom
of God; yet let our thoughts and hearts mount up and build a happy
rest on high. Let not a stray thought alone ascend like one lone
bird which sings and mounts the sky; but let our whole mind, soul,
spirit, heart, arise as when doves fly as a cloud. Let us be
practical, too, and in very deed seek the things that are above:
seek them because we feel we need them; seek them because we
greatly prize them; seek them because we hope to gain them; for a
man will not heartily seek for that which he hath no hope of
obtaining. The things which are above which we are even now to
seek are such as these; let us seek heavenly communion, for we are
no more numbered with the congregation of the dead, but we have
fellowship in Christs resurrection, and with all the risen ones.
Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son
Jesus Christ, and our conversation is in heaven.
Let us seek to walk with the living God, and to know the
fellowship of the Spirit.
Let us seek heavenly graces; for every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Let us seek
more faith, more love, more patience, more zeal: let us labor
after greater charity, greater brotherly kindness, greater
humbleness of spirit. Let us labor after likeness to Christ, that
he may be the firstborn among many brethren. Seek to bear the
image of the heavenly, and to wear those jewels which adorn
heavenly spirits.
Seek also heavenly objects. Aim at the glory of
God in everything. You have to labor and toil in this world, for
you are yet in the body; take care to use worldly things to Gods
glory. Exercise your privileges and fulfill your duties as men,
and as Englishmen, as before God, not minding the judgment of men.
Wherein you mingle with the sons of men, take heed that you
descend not to their level, nor act from their motives. You are
not to seek your own selfish ends, or the aggrandizement of a
party, but to promote the general good, and the interests of
truth, righteousness, peace, and purity. Sanctify everything by
the love of God and your neighbor. Seek no party ends, but things
which are pure, and honest, and of good report. Descend not to the
falsehood, the trickery, the policy which are from beneath; but
honestly, sincerely, righteously, ever seek to live as those who
are alive from the dead.
Seek those things which are above,
that is, heavenly joys. Oh seek to know on earth the peace of
heaven, the rest of heaven, the victory of heaven, the service of
heaven, the communion of heaven, the holiness of heaven: you may
have foretastes of all these; seek after them. Seek, in a word, to
be preparing for the heaven which Christ is preparing for you. You
are soon to dwell above; robe yourselves for the great festival.
Your treasure is above, let your hearts be with it. All that you
are to possess in eternity is above, where Christ is; rise, then,
and enjoy it. Let hope anticipate the joys which are reserved, and
so let us begin our heaven here below. If ye then be risen with
Christ, live according to your risen nature, for your life is hid
with Christ in God.
What a
magnet to draw us towards heaven should this fact be,
-that Christ sitteth at Gods right hand. Where should the wifes
thoughts be when her husband is away but with the absent and
beloved one? You know, brethren, it is not otherwise with us:
the
objects of our affection are always followed by our thoughts.
Let Jesus, then, be as a great loadstone
(Ed note: lodestone: a
naturally occurring rock consisting of nearly pure magnetite &
thus naturally magnetic),
drawing our meditations and affections towards himself. He is
sitting, for his work is done; as it is written, This man,
when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at
the right hand of God. Let us rise and rest with him. He is
sitting on a throne. Observe his majesty, delight in his power,
and trust in his dominion. He is sitting at the right hand of God
in the place of honor and favor. This is a proof that we are
beloved and favored of God, for our representative has the
choicest place, at Gods right hand. Let your hearts ascend and
enjoy that love and favor with him. Take wing, my thoughts, and
fly away to Jesus. My soul, hast thou not often said, Woes me
that I dwell in Meshach, and tabernacle in the tents of Kedar: oh
that I had wings like a dove, that I might flee away and be at
rest? Now, then, my soul, here are wings for thee. Jesus draws
thee upward. Thou hast a right to be where Jesus is, for thou art
married to him; therefore let thy thoughts abide with him, rest in
him, delight in him, rejoice in him, and yet again rejoice. The
sacred ladder is before us; let us climb it until by faith we sit
in the heavenlies with him.
May the Spirit of God bless these words to you.
III.
Thirdly, inasmuch as we are risen with Christ,
Let The New
Life Delight Itself In Suitable Objects.
This brings in the second verse: Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. Set your affection. These
words do not quite express the meaning, though they are as near it
as any one clause could well come. We might render it thus: Have
a relish for things above; or, study industriously things
above; or, set your mind on things above, not on things on the
earth. That which is proper enough for a dead man is quite
unsuitable for a risen one. Objects of desire which might suit us
when we were sinners are not legitimate nor worthy objects for us
when we are made saints. As we are quickened we must exercise
life, and as we have ascended we must love higher things than
those of earth.
What are these
things above which we should set our affection upon? I ask
you now to lift your eyes above you clouds and this lower
firmament to the residence of God. What see you there? First,
there is God himself. Make him the subject of your thoughts, your
desires, your emotions, your love. Delight thyself also in the
Lord, and he will give thee the desires of thine heart. My
soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him.
Call him God my exceeding joy. Let nothing come between you
and your heavenly Father. What is all the world if you have not
God, and when you once have God, what matters it though all the
world be gone? God is all things, and when thou canst say God is
mine, thou art richer than Croesus. O to say, Whom have I in
heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside
thee. O to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul,
and with all our mind, and with all our strength: that is what the
law required, it is what the gospel enables us to render.
What see I next? I see Jesus, who is God, but yet is truly man.
Need I press upon you, beloved, to set your love upon the Well
beloved? Has he not won your heart, and doth he not hold it now as
under a mighty spell? I know you love him. Fix your mind on him
then. Often meditate upon his divine person, his perfect work, his
mediatorial glory, his second coming, his glorious reign, his love
for you, your own security in him, your union with him. Oh let
these sweet thoughts possess your breasts, fill your mouths, and
influence your lives. Let the morning break with thoughts of
Christ, and let your last thought at night be sweetened with his
presence. Set your affection upon him who has set his affection
upon you.
But what next do I see above? I see the new
Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all. I see the church of
Christ triumphant in heaven, with which the church militant is
one. We do not often enough realize the fact that we are come unto
the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are
written in heaven. Love all the saints, but do not forget the
saints above. Have fellowship with them, for we make but one
communion. Remember those
Who once were mourning here below,
And wet their couch with tears,
Who wrestled hard, as we do now,
With sins, and doubts, and fears.
Speak with the braves who have won their
crowns, the heroes who have fought a good fight, and now rest from
their labors, waving the palm. Let your hearts be often among the
perfected, with whom you are to spend eternity.
And what else is there above that our hearts
should love but heaven itself? It is the place of holiness; let us
so love it that we begin to be holy here. It is the place of rest;
let us so delight in it that by faith we enter into that rest. O
my brethren, you have vast estates which you have never seen; and
methinks if I had an estate on earth which was soon to be mine I
should wish to take a peep over the hedge now and then. If I could
not take possession, I should like to see what I had in reversion.
I would make an excuse to pass that way and say to any who were
with me, That estate is going to be mine before long. In your
present poverty console yourselves with the many mansions. In your
sickness delight much in the land where the inhabitants shall no
more say, I am sick. In the midst of depression of spirit
comfort your heart with the prospect of unmixed felicity.
No more fatigue, no more distress,
Nor sin nor death shall reach the place;
No groans to mingle with the songs
Which warble from immortal tongues.
What! Are you fettered to earth? Can you not
project yourself into the future? The stream of death is narrow;
cannot your imagination and your faith leap over the brook to
stand on the hither shore awhile and cry, Allis mine, and mine
for ever. Where Jesus is there shall I be; where Jesus sits there
shall I rest;
Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in?
Set your affection on things above.
Oh to get away at this present time from these dull cares which
like a fog envelope us! Even we that are Christs servants, and
live in his court, at times feel weary, and droop as if his
service were hard. He never means it to be a bondage, and it is
our fault if we make it so. Marthas service is due, but she is
not called to be cumbered with much serving; that is her own
arrangement: let us serve abundantly, and yet sit with Mary at the
Masters feet. You who are in business, and mix with the world by
the necessity of your callings, must find it difficult to keep
quite clear of the down-dragging influences of this poor world; it
will hamper you if it can. You are like a bird, which is always in
danger when it alights on the earth. There are lime, twigs, and
traps, and nets, and guns, and a poor bird is never safe except
upon the wing and up aloft. Yet birds must come down to feed, and
they do well to gather their meal in haste, and take to their
wings again. When we come down among men we must speedily be up
again. When you have to mix with the world, and see its sin and
evil, yet take heed that you do not light on the ground without
your Father: and then, as soon as ever you have picked up your
barley, rise again, away, away, for this is not your rest. You are
like Noahs dove flying over the waste of waters, there is no rest
for the sole of your feet but on the ark with Jesus. On this
resurrection-day fence out the world, let us chase away the wild
boar of the wood, and let the vines bloom, and the tender grapes
give forth their good smell, and let the Beloved come and walk in
the garden of our souls, while we delight ourselves in him and in
his heavenly gifts. Let us not carry our burden of things below on
this holy day, but let us keep it as a Sabbath unto the Lord. On
the Sabbath we are no more to work with our minds than with our
hands. Cares and anxieties of an earthly kind defile the day of
sacred rest. The essence of Sabbath-breaking lies in worry, and
murmuring, and unbelief, with which too many are filled. Put these
away, beloved, for we are risen with Christ, and it is not meet
that we should wander among the tombs. Nay, rather let us sing
unto the Lord a new song, and praise him with our whole soul.
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