“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”―1 Cor. 15:5858Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58).
THIS soul-stirring appeal of the apostle is founded upon the most glorious hopes and prospects that could be set before the heart and mind of man. He had been telling them what must be; he had been showing them a mystery of God; and the mysteries of God are things not depending in any sort upon man or his ways for their accomplishment, but eternal purposes―things foreknown and designed of God Himself to be by Him accomplished, for His own glory, and the blessing of His creation. The judgment too, doubtless, of that which shall be found finally in arms against Him. But this latter is not the subject here; the saints are the subject. We shall not all sleep, he says. Many do sleep; they have fallen asleep in Jesus. All the way down from the apostle’s time till now it has been so. But some remain. Thank God, amid the terrible state of ruin and confusion into which things have fallen, there are some on earth still who are His. Who they are and where they are He knows. They are heavenly; they belong to the new creation; they have bodies of humiliation, mortal, corruptible, still about them, but they shall be changed. “We,” says the apostle, “shall be changed.” It is wonderful how faith links itself with every family of God, whether in earth or heaven. Faith in the apostle linked him with all the saints, those who live in our day as well as in his own; and faith in us links all together; yea, goes back to the very earliest day in which a saint was, and sees him in the resurrection by the power of God. It is a vast and wonderful subject, but it is blessedly brought out here in the fifteenth of 1St Corinthians. The very self-same individuals as have borne this image of the earthly shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I speak of saints now, of course; and such a marvelous change as is here indicated could only be absolutely and entirely the work of God. This makes it so sure; and this to me invests the whole subject of redemption, from first to last, with such a wondrous glory. Who conceived it? God. Who wrought it as far as it has been wrought? God surely. The incarnate Word was here more than eighteen hundred years ago to accomplish in suffering the work assigned Him to do. He did it; He shed His precious blood upon the cross as the ransom price for His people; He has won the victory for them over sin, and death, and hell. Justice is satisfied for all their guilt, and He lives in heaven to carry on their cause as Advocate on high. But this is not all. He is the resurrection; He is the life. Eternal life was in Him always, manifested when He was on earth to them whose eyes were opened to behold Him, known in heaven to faith now, the Holy Ghost having quickened souls to know and to believe on (or in) Him.
These wait the resurrection of the body, the resurrection of the just, the justified by faith from the beginning; for as salvation is of grace, so by faith; grace working faith in each, faith in the word of God, the testimony of God, whatever that might have been in any age, always, we know, to Jesus; for in Him the substance of all blessing was, and ever will be. These wait, I say, His coming. Christ is the one hope for all, in heaven and in earth. The earth waits for the day of His glory, the day of His espousals, and of the gladness of His heart; the day to which the saints already belong; (“Ye are all the children of the light, and of the day;”) that day which cannot dawn upon the world until the mighty transformation shall be accomplished of which this chapter treats, this mystery yet to have its action to the glory of the power of God; for victory then will be opened and displayed as it has never been before. True, when the first fruits, in the person of the Christ, rose up and left the tomb, the victory was secured for all―all that are Christ’s. The Head arose in glorious triumph―went to glory―blessed be His name! and faith, beholding Him, can say, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” But then it will be displayed. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, we now may sing. And many have sung it, as they passed away from earth to heaven; but they will sing it again, in louder, happier song on that blest morning.
“Thrice blessed joy-inspiring hope,
It lifts the fainting spirit up.”
May the saints now feel it so. Is it not joy, that one thought, that all depends on God―on God alone? Therefore it cannot fail, His Son will be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe in that day.
Beloved brethren, is there not room then for the exhortation, “Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord”? What is that work? a solemn, serious question. Not surely, to act on principles of schism―to carry further the wretched work of scattering and dividing the living sheep of Christ―of multiplying tables and of building walls. No, beloved brethren, let the time past suffice for this. We cannot surely mend the past; we have to hang our heads in shame for what has happened to God’s church on earth, for all that our own folly has brought on us; but let no man’s heart fail him because of this event. God is faithful. Jesus will soon appear. The Holy Ghost abides with us. The word of God is as pure and true as ever. Let us then earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Let his truth be spoken―souls cared for and nourished, the sincere milk of the word be sought for and administered, the gospel preached to sinners, the salvation of those yet spared sought earnestly, prayers made for all, mutual strengthening of hands be sought, love cultivated, the poor cared for, each man waiting on his ministry, thus shall blessing flow, thus shall God be glorified, and thanks and praise shall arise to Him even from the wilderness, from hearts that Jesus’ love has stooped to bless.