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THE KING’S BUSINESS
the spirit. Whether the old Puritan notion is to be accepted or not, that Jesus poured out His blood on Can- vary, and that in His resurrection body there was no blood, He was quick ened by the Spirit, and He ate the honeycomb and fish just to show them that His was a real body, not because He needed them. I would not be dog matic about that, but I am sure of this, that the spiritual body means that the spirit has the mastery, that the carnal, the fleshly, the anti-Christian, that which opposes the nature of Jesus, has been entirely removed, and the risen body of the Christian shall be like the resurrection body of our Lord. That resurrection body did not have to walk, did not have to open doors, but just willed and went. Oh, I shall be glad when I get my resurrection body, and do not have to cross the Atlantic Ocean by a steamer or an aeroplane ! I will just will 'and go, mastered by the Spirit, the resurrection body mas tered by the Lord God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have not time for a further study, and we have just touched the rim of things, suggesting a thousand questions ; but all of them can be ans wered in the light of God’s Word. Let me say this in closing: Paul, as he was standing in the vestibule of the glory, sat down with the manacles on his hand and wrote: “The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” We tried to give you the meaning of that word “departure” the other day, a lifting anchor and spread ing sail, and going out of the land locked harbor into the open sea. That was Paul’s thought even of death. He
tng.” And you remember that phrase, “punished with everlasting destruc tion from the presence of the Lord.” That is the destruction, banishment from the presence of the Lord. That does not mean annihilation. Eternal death is eternal banishment from God’s presence. That is the opposite of the restoration, eyes lost restored by a touch, nerves lost restored by the power of Christ, hearing lost restored, muscles lost restored by His will, life at its lowest and that restored. That is .the restoration of all things in Christ. But for the wicked, for those who- refuse to accept life in Christ, there is no restoration, so far as I can see. You will be raised from the dead just as you die. “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of destruction” ; that is, separation from the sources of life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But at the Second Coming of our Lord this restoration of all things means the resurrection of the body into the glorified image of our Mas ter. Have you ever thought of that phrase, “the children of the resurrec tion” ? “Equal to the angels,” “chil dren of the resurrection” ! The Chris tian is the child of the Crucifixion; he is the child of the Cross right now. But when his body shall be raised from the dead, he will be a child of the res urrection. What does that mean? Jesus came out of the grave with a spiritual body, a body. “Handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.” It was a real body, but a spiritual body. We shall be sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body; not a spiritual spirit, oh, no ! but a body, a body mastered by the spirit, a body con trolled by the spirit, a body used by
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