April 6

If ye then he risen with Christ. - Colossians 3:1.

HERE is a privilege supposed. It is that of a believer being risen with Christ. This is to be understood four ways. Observe, First, Christians are risen with Christ professedly. By joining his church and coming to the table of the Lord, they “show forth the Lord’s death until he come.”

Secondly, Representatively. There is a union subsisting between Christ and his people which is both vital and federal,-a union which no distance of time can affect, and which no power can alter. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” So, then, when he died they died, when he arose they arose also. He both died and rose as the Head and Representative of all his people. Hence the apostle speaks of them as being “quickened together with Christ,” and “raised up together with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Thirdly, Spiritually. This regards the soul only, and is accomplished by divine agency. As says the apostle, “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Every resurrection necessarily supposes a previous death. The widow who had been living in pleasure the apostle declared to be dead while she lived; that is, morally and spiritually dead. This is the condition of all men before conversion. They are dead; they have no spiritual life; they perform no spiritual actions. But some are delivered from this state. “Likewise,” saith the apostle, “reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Through his raising them from the death of sin, they live a life of righteousness, a holy, a divine life, a life of faith, a life of dedication to his service and to his glory.

Fourthly, Believers are risen with Christ by anticipation. Though the souls of departed saints are living in a separate state, that state is not final nor perfect; only one part of the Christian is living, and therefore a separate state cannot but be an imperfect one. The body is an essential part of human nature, and was purchased by the Saviour as well as the soul. Therefore, when the Scriptures speak of the Christian in complete and perfect blessedness, they pass on at once to the resurrection. “I will raise him up,” says our Lord, four times in one chapter,- “I will raise him up at the last day.” Now, our Saviour’s body is the model of our resurrection-body, and he is able and engaged to conform us to it; therefore “we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, by the working wherewith he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

This state of glorification with Christ is not only assured to the Christian, but is even at present commenced; they have pledges of it, and earnests of it, and the first-fruits of it; they have foretastes of the glory which shall be fully and completely revealed in them hereafter.

“The men of grace have found

Glory begun below;

Celestial fruits on earthly ground

From faith and hope may grow.

The hill of Zion yields

A thousand sacred sweets

Before we reach the heavenly field

Or walk the golden streets.”