1 Corinthians 15:19.

I THINK I see somewhat of the meaning of Paul’s word, “If in this life only,” &c. It is true that the blessed Lord died for me, but He rose again according to the Scriptures. Now, it is not only what He did, but what He does, that I live by; what He will do I have hope in. Not in man, that “would be disappointment, but in God, the living God, the Christ who died, and rose again. It is He who helps me every day. “By the good hand of my God upon me,” said one. “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue,” said another. It is this daily help, this continual consciousness of the presence of God, that makes the Christian life such a reality. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” Not that there is not sympathy and help and comfort along the road, as the grace of Jesus communicates itself through the living members of that body of which He, the Christ, is the head, but the hope (though God be the God of hope, and can fill each saint with joy and peace in believing) is yet a hope that must have its fruition in a resurrection state, and not in a mortal body. This makes believers groan, because they cannot have that now, unhinderedly, which yet is theirs in title―resurrection-life. Liberty, then, is when the Holy Ghost is ungrieved; for the power of the truth would carry the soul into resurrection at once. “Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised hm from the dead.” This is what the soul wants―to walk in company with a risen Christ; and that is what is practically so difficult, by reason of the many things that hinder now. But the power of God keeps through faith unto salvation; that is, Christ keeps, and will keep, that which has been committed to Him against that day. If I saw it in any other hands, I should despair; but He is the resurrection and the life, and cannot lose one that has been given to Him in the eternal counsels of the Godhead, but will raise it up, every jot and title of the mystical body, again at the last day. (John 6:39, 4039And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:39‑40).) The Lord’s day is yet to come, in contradistinction to man’s day. The Lord will have His way in resurrection. Meanwhile, He is able to pluck the feet of His saints out of every net that may be laid in the road―able to save unto the uttermost, all the way through to the end; a succession of salvations―deliverances of the feet; but the final salvation, the last victory, is yet to come. Death is to be swallowed up in victory, mortality to be swallowed up of life.