to finish what He has started because “He ever liveth" —death can never arrest Him. Man’s work can never be guaranteed as complete. His purposes are all broken off. Because Christ ever liveth there can be no question of His power to carry out what He has undertaken. Every Lord’s Day, therefore, should renew our joy in the fact that He is risen. ate ate The Resurrection Hope A PRECIOUS hope for the believer is that set forth in Phil. 3 :20, 21, which assures him that when the Lord jesus returns, the body of our humiliation will be changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body. This earthly body is but a frail tenement in which a spirit sojourns for a little time. It is the soon wearied companion of a spirit that is ever eager, hence the body returns to dust and the spirit to God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7). . , , In this body there are the.seeds of decay, pain, death. Itr is always limiting us in what we desire to do. It becomes so fatigued at times that it impedes spiritual development. The nature within if is prone to rebel against God. Let us not forget, however, that this very body, accord ing to Scripture teaching, is reserved for a higher destiny. Resurrection has to do with the body. The spirit never
“He Ever Liveth” Heb. 7:25 f UPPOSE the silence of the tomb in which the ^ crucified Lord was laid had never to this hour been broken—no angelic message, no meeting m with the glorified Christ, no Pentecost, no evi- W dence that His death was more availing for sin 1 than that of any other man! Suppose that we could make pilgrimages to the sacred tomb and look upon the mummified form in which so great a Spirit had lived! What tears 'of despair we might shed to think that this purest, noblest and mightiest of all souls had come to an end more terrible than any mortal ever experienced! Deeper than the darkness which settled over the crucifixion scene would be our spiritual darkness had the claim of Jesus to be the Lamb of God, the sin bearer, been met with utter silence from heaven. ,We little comprehend the depth of meaning in the words, “He is not here, He is risen Not only is it the Father’s acceptance of His sacrifice, and hence the basis of the believer’s justification—not only does it furnish pos itive assurance of life beyond—but it gives the child of God an Intercessor at the throne of God who guarantees the eternal security of all who have come unto God by Him. Have we rightly estimated the importance of the resurrection life of Christ ?
dies; it is not buried. In this decaying body there is s o m e surviving element, some indissoluble link that binds it to the coming res urrection day, no matter how far away that may be. As the beautiful plant springs from the rotted seed, so a glorious resurrec tion body shall rise out of these elements sown in cor ruption. If man’s art can produce so pure and white a fabric as paper from filthy rags, what can hinder God from giving His child a new body out of an old one? “In a moment ( “atamos” —a point of time so brief it cannot be cut) says Paul in 1 Cor. 15:52, this trans formation shall take place. A geologist of our acquaint ance has in his laboratory scores of human skeletons, yet there is not a bone that is not sealed for Christ at that coming day, provided they were joined to a saved spirit. Their passage from our friend’s laboratory will be as rapid as the twinkling of an eye.
It is possible to become lop-sided in relation to the cross. Saving faith rests not simply on the cross, but on Christ Himself, who ever lives to finish what He has started. The work of the cross, all sufficient and eternal as it was, is not ALL of His work. His presence at the throne, in view of the sacrifice He has made, brings down upon the believer the blessings which flow from that sac rifice. Do we stop to think that our salvation is not so secured by His death as to m a k e unnecessary H i s resurrection l i f e at t h e throne ? He died in our stead; He lives to he our life. Our salvation was not a thing completed at a given time. We are saved (if we have accepted Him) ; we are being saved; and even after His second com ing there must be a contin uous salvation which is His work. The glorious fact for us is that Christ can guarantee
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