The First Resurrection

 •  8 min. read  •  grade level: 10
W. Trotter
There is perhaps no point on which the Church at large has more widely departed from those habits of thought, feeling, and expression which characterized apostolic Christianity than that of the place given to death on the one hand, and to resurrection on the other. With the apostles and with Christians of their day, death was, so to speak, left behind. Resurrection, or rather the coming of Him whom they knew as "the Resurrection and the Life," was the one object of their joyful, triumphant hope.
What makes death really terrible is the fact of its being God's righteous sentence upon mankind as sinners, and also its connection with that eternal death which for unbelievers it is both the type and portal, and its import as the expression of slavery to Satan who "had the power of death" against all who were his slaves.
The first Christians knew how death had been borne for them by Christ and so had been robbed of all its terrors. The sentence against their sins had been executed on Jesus; the entrance to eternal death had thus been closed against them by Him whom they knew as their deliverer from "the wrath to come." As to Satan, the resurrection of Christ was to them the demonstration that through death He had vanquished him that had the power of death.
Death was thus regarded by these Christians as a conquered foe. They were accustomed to speak of Jesus as the One "who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality [incorruptibility] to light through the gospel." 2 Tim. 1:1010But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10). Consciously partakers of the risen life of Christ—Christ risen being, in fact, their life—they looked back to His death for them as having discharged every claim upon them, whether of the law, or of divine justice, or of Satan, or of death. Being thus one with Christ in His life and partaking of His victory, they joyfully sought to manifest "the power of His resurrection" in dying practically to themselves, sin, the world, and all hopes or thoughts of any rest or portion here.
Did sin present its baits? How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Did the flesh plead for indulgence? "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." Rom. 8:1212Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (Romans 8:12). From where is this inference drawn? From the statement which immediately precedes it: "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Did the world invite to an easier path? The cross of Christ was that in which they alone gloried, and by it they were crucified to the world, and the world to them. Was the danger contemplated of nullified ordinances resuming their power over the mind?
“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" Col. 2:2020Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Colossians 2:20).
In brief, their whole position and walk was that of dead and risen men. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When
They were still on earth, it is true, and they had evil propensities which needed to be mortified. God in his grace having identified them in life and glory with Christ Himself, as risen and ascended, it became their privilege to mind those things only to which they were thus introduced, reckoning themselves dead to all besides. This led necessarily to a path of self-renunciation which seemed madness to those who were not in the secret of their resurrection hopes. Indeed, the Apostle himself says, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." But resurrection was their hope. Christ, the firstfruits, had risen, and they knew that they should not always be left here.
It was not that they calculated with certainty on death in the literal sense. "We shall not all sleep," says the Apostle, "but we shall all [that is, whether asleep or awake] be changed." Resurrection was what they counted upon. They might fall asleep as some of their brethren had done already, but whether or not, the world was to them already stamped with the character of death. That for which they looked was the communication to their bodies of the life already enjoyed by their souls in their oneness with the risen and ascended Christ.
They waited for the appearing of Christ, the Resurrection and the Life, when mortality would be swallowed up of life. They knew it was for Him that their departed brethren were waiting. And though the apostles and early Christians esteemed it better to depart and to be with Christ, absent from the body and present with the Lord, they did not look upon death, and their individual happiness after death, as the object of their hopes. Much less could it be the object of their fears.
Death was theirs, and they so knew this that instead of regarding death as an officer of justice having absolute power over them, they were able to view it as a servant which might be employed by their Lord to withdraw them from the conflicts and sorrows of the present scene, and to rest with Himself till the moment of His appearing. But it was for that moment they looked and waited. It was to see Him and be perfectly conformed to Him, in body as well as in spirit, that He might be thus, according to God's eternal purpose, the firstborn among many brethren.
It was this living expectation that made the apostles and early Christians what they were. It was by this they were inspired with courage, armed with fortitude, endued with meekness, and made glad to lose what others lived to obtain. It enabled them to rejoice with exceeding joy amid afflictions the bare enumeration of which is enough to cause the natural heart to faint. They had the sentence of death in themselves that they should not trust in themselves, but in God who raises the dead.
Why does the Christianity of the present day so little resemble theirs? Why the uncertainty and lack of confidence of which almost universal complaint is made? Why the fear of death, the shrinking from the cross, the love of pleasure and of ease, and dread even of the world's censure, which so characterizes us in these days? No doubt there has been a great departure from the simplicity of Christ. The Holy Spirit being grieved, the general tone of Christian character and experience is impaired, and the power of divine truth as a whole greatly diminished. There exists a solemn need for self-scrutiny and self-abasement in all these respects.
While admitting this, and praying that it may please God to press the sense of it on our souls, may we not also inquire whether the truths by which the first Christians were so powerfully influenced are held by us? Or if undoubtedly they are held as to the general theory, whether they are held by us in the same relations and proportions as by the apostles and their fellow-Christians of that day?
The Church has its existence by virtue of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The life by which it is animated is His life, as risen from the death He underwent for our sins, by the infinite efficacy of which death those sins are put away. In Eph. 1 and 2, where the Holy Spirit unfolds a truth beyond even this, this truth is most strikingly developed. The truth there specially revealed, and which does pass beyond the subject of our present meditations, is that of the association of the Church with Christ, not as risen only, but as ascended also. But ascension implies resurrection, and our participation in Christ's resurrection is, moreover, expressly declared.
“The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe" is "according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." Eph. 1:19, 2019And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:19‑20). "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Chapter 2:4-6.
Thus even now is the Church partaker of the resurrection-life, as well as of the heavenly exaltation of Jesus. The life has not yet been communicated to our bodies and therefore it is in spirit, not as yet actually that we are in heavenly places. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." The resurrection of our bodies will place us actually where our oneness with Christ by the Holy Spirit now places us spiritually—in the heavenly places whither our risen Lord has ascended and where He has sat down.
It is surely of all importance to have such a testimony that the resurrection of the Church is on a principle common with that of her glorified Head. And it is by virtue of her association with Him in life, in inheritance, and in glory!