So much of what has just been said upon the third text applies to this, that little remains to be added. In Romans, the apostle was laying down the theory, the foundations of the doctrine of the Christian faith. In writing to Timothy, he takes up the practice, the superstructure of a life so built; and, as the times were difficult, stirs him up to enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. His life we have; With Him we expect to live and to reign when we come home to Him-till then, the world under Satan, and heavenly places preoccupied with foes-assure us of suffering if we walk as He, whose life we have, walked here below.
Συ οὐν κακοπαθησον thou, therefore, endure hardness, is almost the key-note of this letter, chap. 1:8, 12, chap. 2:3, 9, chap. 4:5; and this flows out of the life of Christ, possessed now in circumstances, and amid power strangely contrasted with, and opposed to, itself. The circumstances and the powers around, are adverse to the life; but the life of Jesus Christ is already in us; and he that has it can say, in the power of it, I choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and of Christ, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. May we, then, endure hardness, as the God soldiers of Jesus Christ, for the little of that, "yet a little while," which remains. Even so. Come, Lord Jesus.
If, what the Spirit states by Paul is, that " we were quickened TOGETHER WITH Christ" (Eph. 2:33Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Ephesians 2:3), Col. 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13)), then, clearly, we have one life in common with Him. Not; He possessed of one kind of life, held in one kind of way, and we of another kind of life, held in another kind of way; but one life possessed in one and the same way; for we were quickened together with Himself.
It was a life taken by Himself-upon earth, in the grave—taken by, with, and in perfect divine power. A life not subject to death (Horn. vi. 9, Rev. 1:1515And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. (Revelation 1:15)), nor in us to corruption (1 Peter 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)). That it has been, as yet, comparatively little displayed by and in Himself upon earth, since His taking of it, is true; in Him its chief display has been in heaven. Yet this matters not: in Him it has been seen in action among His disciples, He being upon earth (John 20 and 21, Acts 1, &c.).
Now that He has left the earth and abides " the little while" in heaven, He is there as Son of man, and interested in what passes down here. He showed it in Stephen's martyrdom, often in connection with Paul, and does so constantly, as we see at the close of Heb. 4, to the feeblest of His disciples. He will return to earth to show it forth again here, in narrower circumstances, which are to be more limited than those of His present position-more restricted to earth.
In us, it never is separated from Himself. It acts in. us down here, but turns us to the heaven where He is; acts in us to make us know ourselves as members of a body, the Head of which is in heaven; acts in us, poor channels of blessing, which it fills as itself ever flowing ceaselessly down from Himself; the alone Fountain-Head. That He is God over all blessed forever, must never be forgotten: yet we have a life in common with Him as Son of Man, He having taken His life again as man, in other circumstances, and in other connections, than He had it at first.
And what is most peculiar of all to us is, not that the liberty from all condemnation which is His should be ours; not that. we should be graced in Him the beloved; not that we should have experiences and prospects in common with Him, but that the objects and motives which influenced Him in His highest acts, are the objects and motives which influence this life in us. As Paul most abundantly shows in Phil. 2 " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," &c. "For it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure," &c.