RESURRECTION—GOD’S VICTORY OVER DEATH
Genesis 3: 14-15; 1 John 3: 3-8; Romans 5: 12, 6: 23;
It is before us, beloved, as the Lord may help us—and I am very conscious of my need of His help—to say a few words on the subject of resurrection. I read the verses in Genesis 3 just to bring this point before you—that the entrance of sin and death into this world was the work of the devil. Jehovah-God had spoken to the man and to the woman. He then speaks to Satan, and what He says is this: “Because thou hast done this”, etc. These are the words of the Lord God; He attributes what has just taken place (the entrance of sin into the world) to Satan.
Then I read the scripture in 1 John in connection with this in Genesis to call your attention to this fact. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil”. The works of the devil were undone in man’s heart by the knowledge of God which came to light in the Son of God, and the resurrection is the culmination of the purpose for which the Son of God was manifested. In resurrection the works of the devil are completely undone, for that was God’s victory over death, and hence the connection with resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15: 54: “then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory”. That ‘saying’ is written in Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death in victory”.
We have often been reminded that 1 Corinthians 15 is that wonderful chapter on resurrection which emphasises the victory of God—death swallowed up in victory. There was the allusion to it in type in the rod of Aaron, Heb 9: 4 or Num 17: 8. All the apparent victory that death has attained for the last six thousand years is wiped out in resurrection. It is a triumphant word, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
Satan was accused by God of having done this; he brought about sin, distrust of God and death, and of this Jehovah said, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel”. Genesis 1 and 2 up to vv 1-14 is purely creation—there is nothing of responsibility in them; it is the putting forth of God’s creative power. He looks over His creation, takes account of it all, and pronounces it “very good”. In chapter 2 we have the introduction of human responsibility, God having put man under responsibility by His divine command. We find God deals with man according to the responsibility he has been placed under in relation to God. “By one man”—the devil is not mentioned there—“by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin”; that is, sin and death have been brought in by one man—brought in in connection with his breakdown and failure in responsibility. “And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. The necessity for resurrection lies in the fact of man—one man—having brought in sin and death, and the whole race has been involved in the consequence, “The wages of sin”—not sins; if you put in the ‘s’ there, you cannot account for the death of infants; fifty per cent of the human race born into the world die in childhood. Death is “the wages of sin”—God has a fixed, righteous estimate and judgment of sin. The necessity of resurrection lies in the fact that one man brought in sin and death, death being connected with sin as the just judgment of God upon sin; and let me say here, in the most simple way possible, when death takes place that ends for God and for eternity the question of sin. If you could conceive the most wicked man dying tonight, his death settles for ever the question of sin. There remains the question of individual responsibility, but that is never connected with “sin”, and, with that in view, scripture says, “after death, the judgment”—but not judgment in regard to sin. The necessity for resurrection is found in the entrance and the consequence of sin—death. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, “by man came death”—the first man, Adam; “by man also the resurrection of those that are dead”. The first man was out of the earth, made of dust, and his origin fixes his order; for origin and order in scripture always go together. It is a man made out of dust that is the earthly man. The second man is out of heaven. That is the Man who has brought in resurrection of those that are dead. Scripture is very simple but very comprehensive. We need believing hearts to understand it. There is the first man out of earth; all the question of sin and death is attributed to that man in scripture, “by man came also the resurrection of the dead”. How has this second heavenly Man brought in resurrection of those who are dead? In the first place He bore the judgment of God, which was due to the sin which He took upon Him, and then He died. By the grace of God He tasted death for every man. He died for all. He is the propitiation for the sin of all the world. “He gave himself a ransom for all”. He answered to God for the totality of sin. He glorified God in all the question of sin, and so He has answered to God; He has maintained all that was due to God. He has put away sin—not anybody’s sins, but sin, by the sacrifice of Himself. That side has been met, and now God has raised Him from the dead and has brought in resurrection of those that are dead. Let me say, He has brought in resurrection for every human being. His death, on the one hand, has covered the question of sin before God; His resurrection is equally wide, “by man came also resurrection of the dead”. I am not saying there is no difference in resurrection. In His death God has been glorified for the totality of sin. “He gave himself a ransom for all” 1 Tim 2: 6. He includes every man, He died for all, and the resurrection brought in by the second man out of heaven is just as wide and extensive in its bearing as His death. “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 damnation”, John 5: 28-29. From Abel down through all the intervening centuries down to the end of time, all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth. There is scripture supporting all that I have said in connection with the second Man—the heavenly Man.
1 Corinthians 15 is addressed to those who are really Christians, to those “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (chap 1: 2)—constituted saints by divine calling, and it takes a divine call to make a saint. He says, “with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord”. 1 Corinthians is addressed to Christians, and I do not see that we should depart from that when we come to chapter 15. In connection with this I read in Romans, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. What I want to show you is that in scripture eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death, and my reason for pressing this point is that, being brought in in contrast to sin and death, it necessarily involves resurrection.
I note that in John, whether in the gospel or the epistles, eternal life is presented as a present thing. Every believer in the Son of God has a present title to it, and every believer is entitled to be conscious of it. These things have I written that ye may know. The word used in 1 John 5: 13 is the word for conscious knowledge—that ye may be conscious that ye have eternal life. John presents it in the present; but other scriptures present it in the future. Titus 3: 7: “that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”. What a man sees, he does not hope for. What then is the hope of eternal life? Where and how will that be reached? The end of 1 Corinthians 15 furnishes a complete answer to that. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”. That passage shows us when and where and how it will take place—that should be enough for us. By one man sin entered into the world—not into heaven. Where will resurrection take place? On earth! By resurrection or change we shall come into the reality of eternal life. “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” It is gone. God is going to bring us into resurrection down here. It is resurrection we have in this chapter, not the rapture.
There are several points of interest in this chapter, but I have not time to dwell upon them. First, there is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, relative to our justification. The apostle argues, “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain ... we are found false witnesses ... ye are yet in your sins”. I want to trace as completely as my time will allow me, resurrection and its bearing upon us. Romans 6 does not speak of our resurrection; it speaks of Christ’s death and His life, and that involves resurrection on His part. “In that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”, v 10. And He “was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, v 4. We are said to be buried with Him by baptism—to have part in His death; and if we have been planted with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. He argues also that we respond by walking in newness of life and reckoning ourselves alive unto Jesus Christ. “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies”, Rom 8: 11. There is only one passage that gives a present bearing to resurrection. In Colossians 2: 12 we are said to be “raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”. There is a present moral application to Christians now; though of course not actual, it is through faith that we come into the good of it. His resurrection was actual, but we come into the present good of it through faith of the working of God who raised Him from among the dead. The resurrection will take place at that time when “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”, 1 Cor 15: 52. 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 do not say that after the resurrection the rapture will follow. We have no doubt that it will follow, but what 1 Corinthians 15 sets before us is the celebration of God’s victory in resurrection. What will it be when God brings in His victory over death! Think of all that death has done among the saints of God! Six thousand years the saints have been dying, and “in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye”, God will undo it all, 1 Corinthians 15: 52. God will have His victory in a moment, and that victory will be celebrated where death has taken place—on earth—in the very scene of our sorrows, right down here. He is going to have His victory celebrated in resurrection.
Let me now say a word about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to God. It has enabled God to lay actually the foundation of the accomplishment of His purposes. In the cross of Christ God has been glorified as He never will be anywhere else, not even in eternity. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the antitype of the sheaf of first-fruits in Israel. It was the pledge of the coming harvest. “Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming”, 1 Corinthians 15: 22. When you speak of the purposes of God in regard to man, they are twofold. They apply to man here, and they apply to this scene. I think we are inclined to overlook the fact that God made this scene, and made man for this scene. The first man fell, but the second Man has perfectly glorified God with regard to Himself. He had a perfect title to live here, and He went into death to earn a title for His people, and He has earned it for them. We say how glad we shall be to get out of this earth, but do not think that God has given up His rights to this earth. What God is going on with down here at the present time is the heavenly part—the assembly. That will be accomplished by-and-by, and then God will revert to the earthly side, and will bring His purposes as to it into accomplishment. Christians have a part in the earthly side. They have eternal life now, and you will find in scripture eternal life is connected with the earthly side of the purposes of God, not with heaven. It is never connected with heaven. In the resurrection we shall come into the actuality of it, but we shall come into it down here according to the end of 1 Corinthians 15. The rapture is connected with the heavenly side of the purposes of God, and the rapture applies to the assembly as such. It is the actuality. We get in Ephesians that the saints are raised up and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ. All that is true of the saints in Christ will be made actually true of them in the rapture. Caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The rapture belongs to the heavenly side of God’s purposes. “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. The earthly side is when all that is mortal shall be swallowed up of life. I am certain that God is going to have a celebration. He is to have a victory here, and He will celebrate it. In Isaiah 25 we find that God is going to destroy the covering that is over all nations. Look around, God has covered them all up with death. God is going to destroy the covering that has covered up the nations of the earth. The day is coming when He will remove the covering and bring in resurrection. The whole millennial earth will be established on the basis of resurrection, and maintained on that ground by divine power, see Ezekiel 37. God will cause the dry bones to live, and they will stand up in the principle and power of resurrection.
Resurrection—“risen with Christ”—is not actual but through faith. The quickening work of God in you is to enable you to act in all the light of your faith as not only having died with Him, been buried with Him in baptism, but raised with Him.