1 CORINTHIANS 15 (FIRST READING)
1 CORINTHIANS 15 (FIRST READING)
CAC I thought we might consider what is going to be gathered up in resurrection, and the glory with which God is going to clothe His saints in that world. It would be a very good thing for us to have more faith of resurrection.
Ques Why do you emphasise [p. 105] the faith?
CAC We all believe, as Martha did, that the dead will be raised, but has the moral force and import of it got hold of our souls so as to exert an influence on our every-day lives? If so, we should be ordering our lives, not in view of this present world, but of the resurrection world. A great deal depends on whether we are living in view of this age, or the age to come. You cannot live for the age to come except in the faith of resurrection. Certainly one who is living a self-indulgent life has not the faith of resurrection; he is on the line of, “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die”. We may say, as all Christendom does, ‘I believe in the resurrection of the dead’, but it is quite another thing to have the faith of resurrection. Those who have that faith want to live on the line that there should be something God can raise for His world.
The Corinthians had not the faith of resurrection; they were living vain-glorious, self-indulgent lives, occupied with their own desires, ambitions and private objects. What the apostle brings before them as to resurrection was not merely to correct a doctrinal error, but to put them right in the centre of their moral being, to put the faith and light of resurrection in their souls, in order that they should live, not in view of this age, but in view of the coming age. It would transform the lives of the people of God if they had faith of resurrection.
Ques Would you say what there is to raise?
CAC Resurrection is presented in Scripture in a moral connection: that is to say, it is those who have done good who come forth to the resurrection unto life. They have so lived that, though they have gone down in death, it is impossible they should disappear. They must be raised for God’s world; there was a moral beauty and excellence about them that must come up for God’s world. We have been looking lately at the subject of incorruptibility. That which is morally incorruptible is [p. 106] suited to be clothed upon with incorruptibility, even as to bodily condition.
Ques Does the thought of resurrection refer to the body?
CAC It refers to saints viewed as having been buried, not as having gone to heaven; it is “all who are in the tombs”. We may look at the saints in two entirely different connections. When a brother or sister has departed this life, we say, ‘He (or she) is with the Lord; his spirit is with the Lord’. Then again we say we buried him. Sometimes we identify the person with his spirit and sometimes with his body. It was said of the Lord, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay”; it was His dead body, but it was the Lord. We read too that pious men buried Stephen, Acts 8: 2. The person is identified with his body; that is the key to the subject of resurrection. But there is another side of things; we are going to be clothed with our house from heaven; that comes down, not up.
The person, as identified with his body, is buried. But when you bury the body of a saint you bury something very wonderful, because you bury that which has been for years a temple of the Holy Spirit, a sanctified vessel, dedicated as a living sacrifice to God. When you bury a saint you sow a suitable seed for resurrection unto life, something has been identified with that body that is morally suitable for and indispensable to God’s world; and if God did not bring it up again and give it a place in His world, there would be a divine element missing in that world. Think what a powerful effect the consideration of this would have on us in our daily lives. Resurrection comes in on the moral line, in connection with all that God can approve in the life of His saints here, all the beautiful spiritual elements that God must have for His world. God’s grace produced them by divine teaching [p. 107] and formation, and such features have been brought about in the saints that they are worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from among the dead. We might well ask ourselves, Am I worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from among the dead? Nothing will go into that world but what is suitable, and my concern is that I should be acquiring now, and displaying morally, the qualities suitable to God’s world, so that if I come to be buried there might be something sown so suitable to God that He must bring it up in resurrection for His world.
Ques What is the house from heaven?
CAC That I should connect with the condition of purpose. We were singing just now about the Father as the spring and source of blessing, and how His purpose has taken form in a glorified Man. God has His purpose before Him in a glorified Man; and in His world He is going to clothe His saints with the blessedness of it. Resurrection is connected with what God is gathering up here to put in His world, but purpose is connected with what God is going to bring out of heaven and put on His saints. That is His purpose. There are these two lines; the moral line ends in resurrection, when all that has been wrought of God in His saints will be brought forth for His world.
It is inconceivable that what has been seen here in the saints who have lived during six thousand years, sorrowing, suffering, rejected and finally gone into the grave, should be lost! God is going to raise His saints and secure it all in resurrection for His world; it is too good for God to lose. Resurrection comes in on that line. We can understand the exercise of the apostle: he tells us in Philippians 3 how earnestly and untiringly he is seeking to arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.
[p. 108] Ques Did God give a testimony in those whose graves were opened?
CAC I think that was a testimony to the fact that the power of death was completely broken, and not only in Christ but in regard to saints. Wonderful things happened; the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom the moment Christ died — the course was clear for God to come out in the blessedness of His love to men. And as soon as Christ rose from the dead many of the saints who slept arose and went into the holy city and appeared to many. They were approved for God’s world. The moment Christ arose it came to light that He had companions. Christ was approved for God’s world; no one would have any difficulty about that. How could the preciousness seen in Christ be left in death! He could not be holden by death, it was all wanted for God’s world. But the same thing in principle was seen in application to saints. I do not think they ever died again.
There was no proper setting forth of resurrection in Scripture until Christ rose. That God had the power to raise was seen in the damsel brought to life, and in the young man and in Lazarus; it was resurrection power that did it, but they were not brought into the resurrection state, or incorruptibility, then. It was properly resuscitation rather than resurrection; but if God could bring back a dead man into his life of flesh and blood, it was clear proof that He could set aside the power of death; the power of God was there.
The Old Testament saints had the faith of resurrection: we are told of some that they were tormented, afflicted, and how they died not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Two things will eventually be brought together. What God effects by His grace in His saints, the moral fruits of His grace and working, are all suitable for His world. But [p. 109] there is something else — He is going to clothe His saints with the glory He has gathered up in a glorified Christ — that is on the line of His eternal purpose. He thought of that before ever sin came in. Resurrection stands in reference to that condition of things where death had come in; if death had not come in there would be no need to talk of resurrection.
Ques What about Moses and Elias in the transfiguration?
CAC The two were conspicuous examples of men who were approved for God’s world. It has often been said that Moses represents the dead — we know he died and God buried him, but he had to be raised for God’s world. Elijah represents the changed saints. He did not pass through death but was changed, taken to heaven in a whirlwind.
God will infallibly fulfil His purpose and clothe His saints with glory. In this chapter we get the thought of what is sown and what is raised; and then the thought of the heavenly One and our bearing His image. There is a heavenly character in what God brings out in His people through His working in their souls which leads them to live in the light of His world.
Ques Would not that dispel all natural thoughts of resurrection?
CAC Yes, we should have in our minds the thought of moral features. People lose sight of that and think of meeting their relatives in heaven, but in the sphere of spiritual things it is a question of moral kindred and likeness; we shall recognise the brethren by what they are morally, not by their photographs.
Ques What came out in the Lord could not possibly remain in death; so should we desire to be on that line?
CAC Yes, that is it. If we have faith of resurrection it would transform our practical lives. We should not want [p. 110] to cherish or maintain a single feature that God could not secure for His world. If there is that about me which is not suitable for God’s world, the sooner I drop it the better.
At the present time everything for God comes out in the bodies of the saints. The body of the saint is a vessel capable of being filled with divine light; one longs that the light should shine out.
Ques What is death swallowed up in victory?
CAC That is when every trace of the power of death has been removed, when saints are brought forth as invested with all that is glorious, death eternally annulled. Death is swallowed up — it is a remarkable word, “that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”, 2 Corinthians 5: 4. The apostle longed for that rather than for resurrection, “while yet we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”. The apostle had the most extraordinary sense of the blessedness of being here in his body, and he did not want to be removed from the scene of testimony until the whole company should go together. He had an extraordinary sense of the glory and dignity of occupying a body here in which what is delightful to God and that has the fragrance of Christ could be exhibited.
Ques What is the thought of Christ being magnified in the body, whether by life or death?
CAC There (Philippians 1) Paul is saying he does not know which to choose; whether to depart or remain; the only thing before him is Christ being magnified. He had been moving about the country preaching Christ to magnify Christ. He was the minister of Christ wherever he went, a sweet odour of Christ, but now he is locked up in prison, and he says, ‘I do not mind, the only thing I am set for is that Christ may be magnified. He was magnified when I [p. 111] was moving about preaching, and now when locked up in prison I desire that He should still be magnified’. Paul was living for God’s world.
Ques Has the weakest saint an opportunity to display this?
CAC Yes, it is a wonderful thing to have a vessel you can hold in honour and sanctification for God. The most gifted man in the world has not more than his body, and we each have one too.
Ques What is the power of His resurrection?
CAC The apostle was set to reach the spot Christ had reached, and to reach it the same way Christ had gone. Christ had trodden a pathway of suffering and death, and it had led in the power of resurrection to His being placed in glory, approved of God for His world. Paul says, ‘That is what I am after, I will go the same way’. The faith of resurrection puts you on the line of suffering and death instead of aiming at something high, honour and position in this world. We do not know much of this, but Paul did. I do not think the outward man in Paul perished in a natural way, but in the service of love. It was not merely that Paul was getting old, or the earthen vessel breaking up by inherent weaknesses, but his was a Christ-devoted life that caused even his body to bear the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus. If you had stripped the clothes off Paul you would have seen the marks he bore in his body of his devotion to Christ in the service of love here. The dying of Jesus was seen in the evidence there: you could see how he had expended himself in the service of love; that is the life of Jesus, a life of suffering love that goes down to death here, but that claims resurrection as its divine answer. It would be impossible for God to leave the moral elements of such a life out of His world. Death worked in Paul but life in the saints. Could a man be scourged and not bear the marks?
Ques The Lord’s visage was marred more than any man’s; is that the same thought?
CAC Yes, I think there is nothing more touching than people should say, “Thou hast not yet fifty years”. John 8: 57. That was said to One who was not much more than thirty years of age. His very Person carried the evidence of a suffering love that had never spared itself. That blessed One moved through this world at every step in the full light of God’s world. Psalm 16 is the divine portrait of the life in which that blessed One walked through this world — His trust was in God; He was separate from the idolatrous world; He loved the saints. He said, “Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life: thy countenance is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore”. Psalm 16: 10, 11. He moved in a path that was morally bound to end in resurrection; it was a necessity. Who can say that is not the path for the saint?
Ques Is there a connection between His sufferings and what we read in Revelation 5: 6, “A Lamb standing, as slain”?
CAC I think the marks on the Lamb will be the sweetest and most affecting feature of His glory forever. He will never lose in the eyes of His saints the attractiveness of what He suffered in the service of His love — it must all come out in resurrection. Nothing in the Lord Jesus could be missed from God’s world. He went into death, but all His excellence must be brought out of death. At the end of each gospel we find that God shows how the features that marked Him in the days of His flesh, the wonderful beauty, perfection and grace seen in Him, have been carried through into resurrection. It raises the question with me, ‘How much is there about me that it is absolutely necessary that God should carry through into resurrection for His world?’ To get that before us, and to keep it before us, would have a sound practical effect on our lives.
The apostle introduces in chapter 15 the thought of sowing. What is sown is only a bare grain, and God will give it a body as it pleases Him. Think of the saints as marked by the features of Christ — features coming out in sorrow, persecution and trial, until at last the saint dies and is buried. What have you sown? God has valued every feature of Christ that has come out in that saint. Sometimes we can tell the Lord with great pleasure, as we bury a saint, that we have seen imperishable features in that saint, features that it is not possible should be left out of God’s world. Outwardly there is a sowing in corruption, dishonour and weakness, but the saint is going to be raised in power and glory and incorruptibility. God is going to give that seed a body as it pleases Him. God is going to bring it up in all the splendour of His own appreciation of what came out in that body. God’s system of glory is a very diversified one; there is every kind of glory in that system. We see everywhere, even in God’s material universe, variety and diversity, some particular touch of glory about everything that God does. In a corresponding way we see some particular feature of glory about every saint. Saints are not duplicated; there is some distinctive feature of moral glory about every saint; it is all coming out for God’s world. The glory that comes out in the saints now is the shining of the features of Christ, and that renders resurrection necessary; we ought to think more of it. It raises an exercise as to whether we are living and moving and thinking and feeling in the light and faith of resurrection. If we were we should not want to cultivate the natural but the spiritual, because the natural will not appear in God’s world: those who appear there are the sons of God, the sons of resurrection. Let us [p. 114] cultivate the spiritual, and if we do even the natural will become the vehicle for the spiritual to come out, an opportunity for the will of God to be worked out so that there will be a moral element connected with the natural which God can treasure up for His world. I do not think you can bring out the features of Christ without overcoming the natural and carnal element that is opposed to them; every bit of victory for God means a conflict.
The power by which the saints live to God now is resurrection power; Romans 6 comes in there, the saints now live morally in resurrection power. They account themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, “We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life”. A saint walks in newness of life by resurrection power; it is the same power by which God will eventually raise the dead. As long as we are here we are in mortal bodies and subject to corruption, but by and by we shall be placed in incorruptible conditions. It is necessary the saints should be raised because in the mind of God they all live to Him — “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”, Luke 20: 37. The Sadducees might say, They have been dead hundreds of years, but God says, “I am the God ...”, not ‘I was’. They are living men for God. If they live for Him they must be raised, it is an absolute necessity. What had come out in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were necessary elements for God’s world. There was the calling of God in Abraham, leading to the refusal of the world, the breaking away from his country and kindred and father’s house. What a blessed feature for God’s world! Isaac was the child of resurrection; in him we see resurrection power by which everything for God is truly brought forth. In Jacob we see the result of God’s [p. 115] discipline. These three elements make up the life of faith: the call of God, resurrection power, and the fruit of the discipline of God in practically setting aside the crooked perversities of the flesh. When that is all secured the saints are brought to the point of worship — Jacob ends as a worshipper. When we get such features in saints we have what is necessary for God’s world, and He must raise it.
On the other hand God has His own eternal thoughts which have been His delight, treasured up in Christ before the foundation of the world. It was the greatest delight to God when Christ went back to Him in the condition of purpose; not as a risen Man only, but in the condition of purpose. That condition of man was before the heart of God before ever sin came into the universe. God has now that which was the delight of His purpose before the ages of time; He has it realised in His beloved Son as a risen and glorified Man; and He is going to clothe His saints with that.
There are the two lines: what God effects in the saints by His work, so that in result He raises them for His world; and that God brings down the glory of His eternal purpose, and clothes His saints with it for the satisfaction of His own love. It is beautiful to put the two together.