LIFE AND INCORRUPTIBILITY
I wanted, dear brethren, to draw attention to these words, “our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility …”. It is a great comfort to us on an occasion like this, and a great stimulation to our hearts, to think of our beloved Saviour and the greatness of His mighty work. It is a deeply solemn matter to find ourselves in the presence of death. Yet what a privilege that even in the presence of death, we should be in living touch with a blessed Man who is beyond it forever; One who has overcome every enemy, overcome every obstacle, and who has risen to the very highest place. He has “annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility”. He has brought those things to light. Those things were originally in the purpose of God for us. The verse speaks of God’s own purpose and grace which was given to us “in Christ Jesus before the ages of time”. This is one of those verses which indicate that there were communications between the Persons of the Godhead before the ages of time. It is a blessed thing to discover that it was the saints who were the subject of those communications. There were things which God gave to us “in Christ Jesus before the ages of time”.
As we bury our sister today, her earthly course having come to an end, we can say with confidence that God’s thoughts about her commenced before the ages of time. It is a tremendous thing that our sister, and all like her, were in the mind of God even then. He gave things to us “in Christ Jesus before the ages of time”, but now they have been “brought to light”. There was a good deal of obscurity with Old Testament saints as to what would happen to them, and where they would go, when they died. But we need not be left in any doubt about that at all, because one blessed Man has been into death and risen from it triumphant, and God has set out in Him all His thoughts of blessing and glory for us.
It says firstly that He “has annulled death”. Clearly that does not mean that believers will not die; rather that, as a result of the work of the Lord Jesus, the effects of death have been cancelled, have been made invalid. While we feel the loss of our sister, let us be comforted by reflecting on the greatness of what she has now gained, the blessedness of her present portion. The apostle Paul says that departure and being with Christ “is very much better”, Phil.1:23. Do we believe, dear brethren, that our sister’s present portion is “very much better” than anything she has known before? Let our hearts dwell on the greatness of what our sister has now gained through being in the immediate presence of our beloved Saviour. He has “annulled death” in that way.
Then it says that He has “brought to light life and incorruptibility”. That surely brings home to us the greatness of what the Lord Jesus has done. The corruptibility and frailty of the human condition were much in evidence in our sister, particularly in her closing days. But the next thing she will experience, as far as her body is concerned, is “immortality” and “incorruptibility”, 1 Cor.15:54. Oh, the glory of it, dear brethren! How it is to lead our hearts out to our beloved Saviour and the greatness of His triumph, that He should have accomplished that on His own, through His precious sufferings and death and rising again. He has secured for us “immortality” and “incorruptibility”. It is part of the glorious spoil, of which we have sung, that He will bring to God. There will be unnumbered hosts that will bear testimony to the glory of what has been secured by one blessed Man!
Then we have been taught that this matter of “life and incorruptibility” applies not only to our physical condition but has a moral bearing upon us even at the present time. What came on to view in the precious life of Jesus was an incorruptible order of manhood, something which had never been seen on the earth before. It is an aspect of things which particularly bears upon us at the present time. We are conscious that we are in the last days, and the apostle says a little later in this epistle that “difficult times shall be there”, 2 Tim.3:1. It is a feature of the last days that they are difficult ones. Satan made the life of our Lord Jesus as difficult as he possibly could, subjecting Him to temptation and persecution, yet He never wavered, not for a moment. There was the manifestation in Him of incorruptible manhood, so that at the end of His life here He could say, “the ruler of this world comes, and in me he has nothing”, John 14:30. What a blessed contemplation for our hearts – “life and incorruptibility” set forth for us outstandingly in a blessed lowly Man here on earth.
But then we are also to see that those precious features are to be taken on by us in the power of the Holy Spirit, for God has placed what is incorruptible in the heart of every believer. The scripture says that we have been born again by incorruptible seed (1 Pet.1:23). We are to recognise that. We are to protect what is incorruptible in us and seek to nurture it. Peter speaks too of the “incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price”, 1 Pet.3:4. What must the value of a thing be if it is of great price to God Himself? Then the apostle Paul speaks of all those “that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”, Eph.6:24. We are in difficult times. How much corruption has come into the Christian circle; what departure, what deterioration, alas! even in our closest associations. It is to cause us to value this feature of incorruptibility, and to love “our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”: no mixed motives, no other secret objects cherished, but undivided affection for Christ. Never has there been a day when this feature has been so much valued by God Himself, as loving our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.
May these holy features of “life and incorruptibility” be increasingly coveted by us. As taking account of them set forth so outstandingly in our beloved Lord, may we be exercised in our measure to take them on ourselves while we wait for His coming and the full realisation of our heavenly part.
Word at a burial at East Finchley
15 March 2018
Richard M Brown