The Christian’s portion, as a Christian, is beyond the reach of death because it is in resurrection. “Hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” What is in resurrection is beyond the reach of death. The resurrection of Christ is a wondrous truth and it is viewed from different standpoints. First of all, perhaps, it is the evidence of God’s acceptance of His work of atonement (5th of Romans).
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (Vs. 18-21).
There is nothing sparse or meager about the truth of Christianity – the truth of the gospel.
The Lord says, at the end of the first of Revelation, “I am the living one and become dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of death and hades.” What is that? You can’t get beyond the reach of His power. Suppose you die and go into death. He has the keys. All that are in their graves, one of these days, shall hear His voice. “The keys of death and hades.” They crucified their own Messiah and their own hopes. All centered in Christ.
Now God comes in, raises Christ from the dead, and now there is a living hope – a Christ that will never die again. “I am alive forevermore,” and in that life the believer is associated with Christ. Nothing meager about that, is there? Associated with Christ in resurrection life. They lost it once when they crucified Christ.
“Begotten us again to a living hope.” We have that word “living” in the next chapter, 5th verse. “Living stone” is Christ – “living stones” His people. A living temple, formed of living stones, founded on the Living Stone.
Now, you see, one thing the church of God (when I say “church of God” I mean all true Christians) one thing they have to contend for is the truth that Christ rose from the dead – that He is a living man – the Man that was dead, and is alive for evermore. The resurrection of Christ is the great foundation of Christianity. “If Christ be not raised ye are yet in your sins.” That is a strong statement. What did the resurrection of Christ have to do with our sins? Nothing at all, but it shows God accepted what He did in death. Suppose He still lay in the grave. Is it a proof that God accepted His work? He has been taken out of it. That line of things is brought before us in “hath begotten us again unto a living hope” – a hope that death can’t touch.
That comes out very beautifully, in the 11th of Hebrews. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” “By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
There you get the Christian’s position. Justification by faith in the work of Christ acceptance of God – God’s testimony to it in accepting Christ – “God testifying of His gifts.” Enoch’s testimony was, not that he was righteous, but that he pleased God. That is another thing. He walked in this world, knowing that he might be taken to heaven any minute without dying. Enoch knew he had a life that death had no claim upon. “By faith Enoch was translated.”
Just so with the believer – the believer as a believer. The life he has as a Christian, is a life upon which death has no claim. It is in resurrection, and he may never die. If we do, death comes in by the way, and is not an abiding state. If we die, we shall be raised like the Lord, and because He was raised. That is the argument in one way in 2 Corinthians 4:14. If God raised Jesus, He will raise you too. That is, God wouldn’t take the Shepherd out of death, and leave the sheep. He raised the Shepherd, and will raise the sheep. Association with Christ in life is a wonderful truth. “Begotten us again.”
Then He gives us “An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.”
Where is all the glory of Solomon’s kingdom? It was the wonder of the world at that time.
His fame was spread abroad. The Queen of the South came all that way, it says, “from the ends of the earth” when she heard of his fame. She came to see if it were true. She didn’t believe it. Now, she says, “I do believe. I thought they made too much of it.” Where is it all gone? All faded away.
Of course it was a type of the true Solomon reigning by and by, when the earth will be filled with His glory, and His name shall be great to the ends of the earth and so on. But Solomon’s kingdom has passed away. And that kingdom to come will pass away too in time, not like Solomon’s exactly, but it will pass away.
That inheritance incorruptible (can’t be corrupted), and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, Where is it? (That is what it is.) Where is it? In heaven.
Here the Apostle says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again.” Paul says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3. The Christian’s blessings are spiritual, heavenly, and eternal. As to his present circumstances, he is like other people. He has not entered into his inheritance yet. That is in heaven.
In the meantime – “kept by the power of God.” The inheritance, nothing can corrupt or defile it and so on. It is up there, and we are here. God is taking care of the inheritance, and taking care of us.
We find the same thing, practically, in the first part of the 5th chapter of 2 Corinthians: “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.”
What he was speaking of was resurrection glory the Christian is heir to. So here. God has begotten us to this inheritance. We are heirs to it, and while away from it, He preserves us by His power by using moral means. “Kept by the power of God through faith.” God brings faith into exercise.
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” That is God’s way of keeping us. He does not let us go on our own way and take us up to heaven at last. He disciplines us. He does not like us to go on like unbroken colts.
“Kept by the power of God through faith,” and the children of God are the objects of God’s care in this way. And if “need be” – in heaviness. We have many trials, and God sees it needful to give us seasons of heaviness. He sees a “need be” for it. We sometimes wonder why it is, but there is a “need be” for it, and it is well for us to consider and know there is a “need be.” It is that which humbles us, and breaks the will.
“If need be.” What is God trying? “That the trial of your faith.” If faith didn’t get trials, it would not grow. It grows by trials. Sometimes, in speaking of the muscle in the arm, we say it is pretty flabby muscle, because we don’t exercise it. That is the way with faith.
We don’t like this development – this “kept by the power of God through faith.”
It is “unto salvation, ready to be revealed.” All is prepared. The kingdom is all there. All He has to do is reveal it, and it is ready to be revealed. We just need to finish that little training! Just so. That will all be over when we are taken away.
It does not matter how long we have been here, and will be here yet, we will always be in school.
It is the school of the Father’s discipline God’s discipline. We get restless under it sometimes. It is no use. I often think of Mr. Darby in this connection. He once said, “You had better give up, God won’t.”
(To be continued)