VERSE 4 (CONTINUED)
“My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." Sol. 2:10-11.
Here meditate, O my soul, on this wondrous revelation—bursting forth of light, and living strength from the dark, and hitherto unknown, regions of the tomb. The victory is complete! Christ has personally gone through the straits of death and cleared the passage, for all His followers, of every difficulty and danger. He who was in the lowest parts of the earth is now in glory. And from that glory—the glory of God in the risen Man—divine light now shines in these low and lonely depths. The gloom of death is dissipated, the darkness of the grave illuminated, the shadows of death are only on the human side and felt by our poor hearts.
Death itself, justly styled "king of terrors" (Job 18:14) for man, is completely vanquished! Every circumstance of death and the grave is mastered forever. The Lord is risen from among the dead and associates us with Himself in resurrection-life, power and glory. What a blessed position to be brought into! We stand on the same triumphant ground as the Conqueror Himself and enjoy, with Him, the spoils of His victories.
What is death? What is the passage of death? What are the issues of death? These are questions that had never been fully answered in Scripture until now. Up till the time the blessed Lord appeared, died, rose again and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, comparatively little was known on these solemn subjects. No doubt godly souls in Old Testament times, who had been taught of the Spirit of God to trust God through all their pilgrim days, could quietly trust Him in the hour of their departure. The last glimpse we have of Jacob is truly beautiful. We see him as an aged pilgrim, leaning on his staff, worshiping the living God. And the picture of Joseph is that of peace and victory. "By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones." Heb. 11:21-22.
But to the Jew, as such, the subject of death was necessarily a more gloomy one than it is to the Christian; consequently, the application of verse 4 (Psa. 23) would be somewhat different to the latter. It is of the Jews that the apostle speaks when he says, "Who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Heb. 2:15. Christians may get into this state of mind, and some may never have been in any other, but it is certainly contrary to the cheering light and happy liberty of the gospel. Such, we fear, have never seen or understood the death and resurrection of Christ as God's great principle of blessing to the Christian. This is the only ground of peace with God, oneness with Christ, and of full liberty from the fear of death.
Again, to the Jew as such, this world was the land of the living. It was the place of his blessing; and the great promise to obedience was, "That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Ex. 20:12. "I had fainted," said the psalmist, "unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psa. 27:13. But to the Christian, we may say, it is the land of the dying. "I protest," says Paul, "I die daily." 1 Cor. 15:31. It is also the land of death—the death of the Lord Jesus Christ; consequently it is the valley of the shadow of death. The cross has thrown its dark shadow over the whole scene. And where is the place of the Christian's joy and blessing? In heavenly places in Christ.
Heaven is the Christian's home; he is away from home in this world. As men, we speak of the place where we were born as our natural place; then is the Christian entitled to speak of heaven as his natural place. He is born of God, born from above. And the place, circumstances and company that are suited and proper to his nature as a child of God are on high. And never, until he reaches the shores of his fatherland, shall he breathe his native air or know what the feeling of home means. Hence the instinctive longings and desires of the heart to reach his Father's house are only natural.
“My cheerful soul now all the day
Sits waiting here and sings;
Looks through the ruin of her clay,
And practices her wings.
“Faith almost changes into sight,
While from afar she spies
Her fair inheritance in light,
Above created skies.
“Some rays of heaven break sweetly in
At all the opening flaws;
Visions of endless bliss are seen,
And native air she draws.”
Here, in this body of sin and death, and sojourning in a world of evil where Christ was crucified, we may have much and most blessed fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost. But this is the effect of grace in the midst of evil and of the Holy Ghost's presence in the believer. The Father cares for the children, the Shepherd cares for the sheep, and the Holy Ghost's presence on the earth is the power by which we enjoy our inheritance on high.
This is a great truth, my soul; the truth, I mean, as to thy new birth, thy new life, that thou art born of God, an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ, and placed in Him, far, far above the power of death and the grave. Meditate, I repeat, O meditate deeply, patiently, on what is involved in this most marvelous truth. The knowledge thereof will go far to explain thy wilderness experience, relieve thee of thy wilderness burdens and shed a flood of light over the dark valley.
Beyond all question all who have been quickened since death entered by sin have received their new life through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. The apostle, referring to Old Testament saints, speaks of "the Spirit of Christ which was in them." 1 Peter 1:11. He is that eternal life which was in the Father and was, in due time, manifested unto us. There is no other life—no life anywhere else for the soul dead in sin. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11-12. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:36. But although, from the beginning, life could only be found in and by Christ, still it appears quite evident that the condition of the life enjoyed by the Christian is quite different to that enjoyed by the Old Testament saint. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10. This abundant life, we doubt not, is life in resurrection. (John 20:22.)
Not only is the Christian a child of God, but he is said to be quickened together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:5-6.) Now mark into what blessed scenes this great truth, this union with Christ, introduces the believer. United to Him, the risen Head, He communicates to us the privileges of His own position before God. He is the wellspring of the believer's new life; it is fed by Him every moment. Neither sin, Satan nor death can ever touch it. The Christian by faith has begun his eternity with Christ. He needs not to wait for death or the coming of the Lord to relieve him.
The foundation of all this great truth for the soul is the death and resurrection of Christ; He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. In the greatness of His love He bore the burden of our sins in His own body on the tree. Death in all its bitterness He tasted for us and put away sin, the source and sting of death, by the sacrifice of Himself. But God raised up that blessed One and quickened us together with Him. And now, blessed be His name, we know of a truth that our evil nature has been judged, our sins all blotted out—we know that righteousness has been divinely accomplished—that our peace with God is made—and that we are one with the risen Jesus in an entirely new sphere where no evil can ever come and where the light of God's countenance shines on us perfectly and forever. (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; Heb. 2:9, 9:26; Col. 2:12-13; Eph. 2; 1 Cor. 15.)
This, the death and resurrection of Christ, is the only position from which death can be fairly and calmly viewed. Like Joshua of old who, from Canaan's side of Jordan, returned to its center and there planted his twelve stones of victory. From the heavenly side he could calmly contemplate the river of death and go down into its depths. But the priests were there before him with the Ark of the Covenant, and with "the Lord of the whole earth" (Josh. 3:11) it was as easy to pass the Jordan as the Red Sea.
But to the merely natural man who knows he is unpardoned—unsaved—death must be a fearful thing. If he thinks at all about it and is intelligent and honest, the very thought of it must be dreadful. Death and judgment, the fruit of sin, are the two great objects of men's fears. And so they may be. Terrible indeed to an immortal soul must be the consequences of death and judgment. And how humbling, too, is death to the natural man. He must succumb. The strong man must bow to it. The proud man must humble himself to it. The wise and the rich are alike unable to avoid it or resist it. It is an implacable enemy that cannot be appeased or turned aside; that cannot be guarded against; that will not be sent away; that is relentless, rapacious, insatiable.
Can I prevail on my reader, if this be his state, to give this subject a serious thought? And, oh, let it be now—just now. Delay not! Time is on the wing—thy days are flying fast—already they may be few. And what then? The eternal ages—an eternity of unmingled blessedness or unutterable woe.
In the whole field of fallen human nature there is nothing to be found more awful than death. For as in the forest, so in this field: "As the tree falls, so it lies." (Eccl. 11:3.) How solemn—how eternally solemn! As death finds the soul, so will the judgment seat, and so will a long, long eternity. Beyond death there is no repentance. As breath leaves the body, the state is unalterably fixed. This is man's last change-a change which admits of no succeeding one forever. Oh then, my reader, listen to the affectionate entreaties of one who loves thy soul and would earnestly warn thee against neglecting its salvation! "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Mark 8:36. The whole material world, in the Savior's estimation, is of less value than one human soul. And it may be that the well-being of thy precious soul has never cost thee a serious thought. The most ordinary things of this life, or some ornament for thy person, may have cost thee more thought than thy soul's eternal destiny or the sufferings and death of Christ by which alone it can be saved.
Do think, I pray thee, my fellow sinner, on this all-important subject! At all costs yield to its pressing claims. If it should involve the breaking of many engagements as to this life and the blasting of all thy prospects therein, care not; suffer not such considerations to detain thee on the world's enchanted ground or hinder thy decision for Christ. Remember this—and this is plain—that he who sides not with Christ sides with Satan and must share with him the lake of fire. This is the second death. (Rev. 20:10, 14.) Oh, dreadful thought! What shall I say to thee? How shall I plead with thee? Shall I fall down at thy feet and shed the beseeching tear? Shall I be as a fool in thy sight? Shall my loud and bitter cry be to thee as the noise of some fanatic or of one who is righteous overmuch? Well, be it so; all these and more. I speak from feeling, not by rule. I am content if only thou wilt bethink thyself and flee at once to Jesus, who has paid the ransom-price of the sinner's redemption. To see thee at last as a jewel in the Savior's crown or as a monument of grace on the plains of eternal glory would be a rich compensation for being reckoned a fool or madman in this world. But, soberly, tears of blood, could I shed them, would not be too much to shed over a soul that refuses the provision God has made for His own glory in our eternal happiness.
Jesus, God's blessed Son "was made a little lower than the angels... that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb. 2:9. Here all is plain. Scripture never exaggerates, even if preachers do. What does this text teach us? This truth, plainly, that sin, un-repented of, brings the sinner to the place that the grace of God took Christ. In grace and love He took the sinner's place, the place of the curse, the forsaken place, where it was not possible that the cup of wrath should pass from Him. Now we see, in the cross, where sin leads to—what sin deserves—and how God deals with it. Doubtless sin was measured and dealt with in the holy Person of Jesus in a way that never can be done even in the lake of fire. God's hatred of sin was perfectly expressed on the cross. One drop of that cup which He drained, one stroke of that judgment which He exhausted, would sink a world of rebellious sinners in the depths of woe. But there, alas, the cup will never be drained, the judgment never exhausted.
Truly, may we not say, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Luke 23:31. If the true and living tree so felt the fires of holy justice, what must become of the dry and rotten tree? If He who had not a particle of sin in Himself was thus dealt with when sin was imputed to Him, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? What, my friend, would the rotten branch of thy good deeds avail thee in the swellings of Jordan? One thing seems perfectly plain—he who rejects God's green tree now, can have nothing to say at last when God rejects the dry.
The Lord grant that this may never be the case with thee, my reader, or with any soul who has ever read or heard that beautiful text: Jesus "was made a little lower than the angels... that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb. 2:9. What a revelation of the heart of God for us! "By the grace of God;" and what a blessed work by the Son! He tasted death that we might never taste it. Oh, believe it—rest in Jesus—trust all to His finished work! Glory in the fact that the God of all grace loves thee, that He spared from His bosom His well-beloved Son, that He might taste death for thee a sinner. And now can I hear thee saying, "Bless the Lord, He has tasted death for me a sinner.
Now I believe it: the bitterness of death is past: had I a hundred hearts He should have them all"?
“Descending from glory on high,
With men Thy delight was to dwell,
Contented, our Surety to die,
By dying to save us from hell;
Enduring the grief and the shame,
And bearing our sins on the cross,
Oh! who would not boast of such love,
And count the world's glory but loss?”