HE IS THE BEGINNING, FIRSTBORN FROM AMONG THE DEAD
There is something very impressive, dear brethren, as in the presence of death, to take account of Christ as “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”, so that the light of victory is in our souls at once, and not only the light of victory, but the light of the immensity of the world of glory and blessing, of which Christ is the beginning as risen from among the dead. All that God has had in mind to bring in for the blessing of His saints, and the satisfaction of His own heart, is all the other side of death, and the Lord has come in in order to open up the way to it.
We remember what Martha said in the moment of her sorrow, when challenged by the Lord; she said, “Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world”. It is the light of Christ that has been much before us in recent times, His glory as having come in on God’s behalf, the glory of His Person, great enough to charge Himself with the whole extent of the most precious and glorious thoughts of God, to bring them to pass; first coming into manhood, for those thoughts involve man, and then going into death to accomplish redemption, and rising out of it triumphantly.
We think of death as the limit of man’s powers; it is also the limit of Satan’s power. As the Lord said, “Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do”, Luke 12: 4. So that death is the limit of man’s power and the limit of Satan’s power, and at that point God has wrought in Christ and brought in resurrection; and He is “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”, the glorious pledge of the bringing in of a world of life and glory, patterned after Himself, having its origin in the thoughts of God, and ministering to the pleasure of God; and we ourselves, and our beloved brother amongst us, have been called to have part in it.
We are to have our hearts filled with the light of that world—that world, and the resurrection from among the dead, as the Lord Himself speaks of it. Not that it makes us unfeeling in regard to the sorrows of the moment. These words that we have quoted, which Martha uttered, were given in response to the words of the Lord Jesus, and He certainly on that occasion was not unfeeling. That chapter, John 11, is a most precious chapter, setting before us the reality and depth of the feelings and sympathy and tenderness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and each one of those who felt the sorrow was the subject of His care; first Martha, and then Mary, and then Lazarus, all felt the touch of His sympathy and power.
The Lord was far from unfeeling. We thank God for that chapter and for those incidents, because they give us in a real way what the feelings of the heart of Christ are in the presence of bereavement, feelings of which in a sense we all partake in our measure. I am sure our beloved sisters in sorrow, and those who sorrow with them, are conscious of the feelings of the brethren, even as they are conscious of the feelings of Christ, and we rejoice that the One who had such feelings and uttered those words is available to them for their companionship and their support day by day. But now it says that He must have the first place in all things. What a word that is to us! He must in all things have the first place. We might fain have retained our brother with us here, but the Lord has the right to have the first place and the first word as to how long he should remain and as to when he should be taken. As has been expressed in prayer, the Lord has put in His claim and has asserted His right. None of us would deny Him that. Surely we would not wish otherwise than that our beloved brother should have the joy that is now his, and that Christ should have the joy that is now His in having another of His ransomed ones with Himself. But then I think we can say, without exaggeration and without flattery, that Christ had the first place with our dear brother. That was evidenced by the way he served the saints. He served the saints untiringly. Nothing that needed to be done for them was too much for him to do, and every activity of his in devoted service to the saints was but the expression of Christ having that place in his heart. As the Lord says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me”. How much more so when it was done to the assembly, which is so near to the heart of Christ!
Our brother has been one of the outstanding servants of the assembly in devoted love to Christ, and now, as our brother has expressed in prayer, it is for us who remain to see how far we can take on and follow the example that he has left. He certainly had no thought of being anything other than just a servant of the assembly, but at the same time he has left behind him a fragrance of devoted love, learned from Christ, which we may all covet to take on. There is plenty to be done in the short time that remains, and I believe the Lord at this time would call upon us all to see that the example of devoted love to the assembly, set by our dear brother, is not allowed to lapse, but is taken up by others. He had natural ability, natural energy, but all that was harnessed to the service of the saints.
But now this further thought of the beginning. He is “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”. How much glory awaits us! How near at hand it is! The whole world of resurrection is near at hand. We think of Abel, we think of Enoch, we think of Noah, and we think of Abraham; we think of all the Old Testament saints, and of all those who have fallen asleep in this present dispensation. None of them are dead, they all live to God. God has them all in His safe keeping, as He has our beloved brother in His safe keeping. They all live to God. There is a world of life, unseen by us at the moment, but in reserve, ready to be brought in in a moment, in Christ the firstborn from among the dead.
Resurrection is no longer a mere belief to us. It is an actuality in Christ, and He is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, and our hearts may well expand as we get some impression of the glory of the world in resurrection, of which Christ is the beginning, and which is so soon to be brought out, and that, too, in the twinkling of an eye. The Lord Himself has said, “This is the will of him that has sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day”, John 6: 39.
The whole extent of the work of God in the saints, whether in past dispensations or in this one, in all the wonder of it, speaking of Christ in wondrous variety and blessedness under God’s eye, is all safe in the hands of Christ, and all will be brought forth in a moment.
Well now, dear brethren, let these things be a comfort to us. He is “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things”. A happening such as has taken place in the ordering of the Lord is, I believe, intended specially to impress us with the reality of what lies the other side of death. We have sung to-day—
… Thou remainest, blessèd Lord!
How our hearts have entered into it! How we rejoice in the sense of it! And may our dear sisters who mourn, and those who feel the loss of our brother—and indeed we all do in this city as the saints do elsewhere also—may we be greatly comforted in the sense of the glory of Christ and of His present love and sympathy, and in the light of the glory that awaits us, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
LONDON
4th May 1962
From Ministry of the Word, 1962
At the burial meeting for Mr Kenneth F Price
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