"For if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10. Many act and
talk as if Christ was dead, and irrecoverably dead. Yes, He died;
but He rose again, and lives forevermore. Christ is not in Joseph's
new tomb. We have a risen Saviour. What does the death of Christ
do for us?--Reconciles us to God. He died, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God. Now mark! It is the death of Christ
that brings us to God; what is it that keeps us there?--It is
the life of Christ. We are saved by His life. Now hold these words
in your minds: "Being reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life."
Why was the life of Christ given? "God
so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Then Christ gave His life that we might have life. Where is that
life? and where can we get it? In John 1:4, we read, "In
Him was life; and the life was the light of men." He alone
has life, and He gives that life to as many as will accept it.
John 17:2. Then Christ has the life, and He is the only one who
has it, and He is willing to give it to us. Now what is that life?
Verse 3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know
Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."
Has a person
who knows Christ eternal life?--That is what
the Word of God says.
Again He says in John 3:36: "He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." These are the
words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. How do we know that we have this
life? This is an important question. "We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love
the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
hosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."
Says one, "We know that we will get
eternal life by and by." Yes, that is true, but there is
something better than
that; we get it now. This is not a mere theory,
it is the Word of God. Let me illustrate: Here are two
men--brothers--to all appearances they are
alike. But one is a Christian, and the other is not. Now the one
that is a
Christian, although there is nothing in his
external appearance to indicate it, has a life that the other
has not. He has passed from death--the state in which the other
one is--to life. He has something that the other has not, and
that something is eternal life. The words, "No murderer hath
eternal life abiding in him," would mean nothing if nobody
else had eternal life abiding in him.
"He that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made
Him a liar;
because he believeth not the record that God
gave of His Son." 1 John 5:10. God cannot lie, and so when
we say
that the words of God are not so, we make liars
of ourselves. Now, according to this Scripture, we make God a
liar, if we believe not the record that God gave of His Son. What,
then, must we believe in order to clear ourselves of that charge,--of
not believing this record and thus making God a liar? The next
verse explains it: "And this is the record, that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
We are to believe that God has given to
us eternal life in Christ. As long as we have the Son of God,
we have
eternal life. By our faith in the Word of God
we bring Christ into our hearts.
When Jesus went to Bethany, He said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life." We have already read about passing from death unto life; how was that done?--Only by a resurrection. In Christ we have a resurrection to a new life. Note the following: Paul prays that he may know Him, and the "power of His resurrection." What is the power of that resurrection? In Eph. 2:4-7 we read: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us [made us alive] together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)."
Notice, He hath done this, and He "hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in
Christ Jesus." We were dead, we are quickened,
and we are raised up to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
We must have, and we can have, the life of
Christ today; for when He comes, He will change our vile bodies
by
the same power by which He has changed our
hearts. The heart must be changed now. It cannot be changed
except by the life of Christ coming in and
abiding in it. But when Christ is in the heart, we can live the
life of
Christ, and then when He comes, the glory will
be revealed. He was Christ when He was here upon earth,
although He did not have a retinue of angels
and glory visible about Him. He was Christ when He was the Man
of Sorrows. Then, when He ascended, the glory was revealed. So
with us. Christ must dwell in our hearts now, and when He comes
and changes these bodies, then the glory will be revealed.
In Heb. 5:2 we learn that the work of the
high priest was to be one of compassion. "Wherefore in all
things it
behooved Him [Christ] to be made like unto
His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest
in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people." Heb. 2:17. What is done by the
compassion of Christ?--Strength is given to
us. What benefit is the compassion of Christ to us?--He knows
the
strength we need. He knows what we need, when
we need it, and how we need it. So the work of Christ as priest
is for one thing,--to deliver us from sin.
What is the power of Christ's priesthood?--He is made priest,
"not after
the law of a carnal commandment, but after
the power of an endless life." That is the power by which
Christ
delivers you and me from sin this day, and
this hour, and every moment that we believe in Him.
No one could take life away from Christ.
The wicked had no power to kill Him. He laid His life down. But
God
raised Him up, "having loosed the pains
of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden
of it." He
had power in His life that defied death. He
laid life down, and took death upon Himself, that He might show
His
power over death; and when the time came for
Him to do so, He took His life again. Why was it that death could
not hold Him?--Because He was sinless. Sin
had spent all its force on Him, and had not marred Him in the
least. It
had not made a single blot upon His character.
His was a sinless life, and therefore the grave could have no
power over Him. We have that same life when
we believe on the Son of God. There is victory in that thought.
We
can have it by believing on the Son of God.
Give your sins to the Lord, and take that sinless life in their
place.
The life of Christ is divine power. In the time of temptation the victory is won beforehand. When Christ is abiding in us, we are justified by faith, and we have His life abiding in us. But in that life He gained the victory over all sin, so the victory is ours before the temptation comes. When Satan comes with his temptation, he has no power, for we have the life of Christ, and that in us wards him off every time. Oh, the glory of the thought, that there is life in Christ, and that we may have it!
The just shall live by faith, because Christ
lives in them. "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless
I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me; and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved
me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. 2:20.
