April 9

I will raise him up at the last day. - John 6:44.

OBSERVE first the specialty of the privilege. For it may be asked-“Will he not raise all at the last day? He will; but that cannot be considered a deliverance which raises a man from a bad state and consigns him to a worse; which takes him from worms and casts him into flames. The wicked are not raised hereafter from the same principle as the righteous, nor are they raised under the same kind of dispensation. They are to be raised as criminals, not to be set free, but to be judged, and punished for the deeds done in the body. So that though the resurrection be a universal event, it is a special and limited privilege. Unquestionably the privilege is to be taken exclusively, that in comprehending all that precedes it, and subserves it, and that is necessary to it, it takes in the perseverance of believers to the end of life, their victory over all Spiritual enemies, and the raising up the body at the resurrection. The resurrection is not only apart of this blessedness, but it is the completeness of it, the principal part. We see how far the Redeemer carries his concern on behalf of his people. As he will lose no one of them, so he will lose no part of them. He has ransomed the body as well as the soul, and he will reclaim them; and “the temple of the Holy Ghost,” though demolished for a time, he will re-edify; it will be raised infinitely improved. The same body, but oh, how superior; not after the model of Adam’s body when he came from his Maker’s hands in Paradise, but “after the image of the heavenly.” This is the privilege.

Observe also the Author of it. He is not only the model of the resurrection of his people, but the accomplisher of it. And in his humiliation he knew this sublime destination, he knew that his voice was to awaken all the dead, that he was to raise them up, and judge them all, and to assign them their proper portions. The Apostle, therefore, fixes upon the ability, which it is necessary for us to recognise here- We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it maybe fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself .” Then, finally, the certainty of the privilege, “I will raise him up at the last day.” It is, moreover, as sure as it can be made. As his power renders him able, as his love makes him willing, so his word has bound him down, for though we could not bind him, he has condescended to bind himself. And his people can depend upon him as a faithful and true witness, especially as they know that there is such a union between him and his people that he cannot be complete without them, that where he is there shall also his servants be, that where the head is there must the members be.

And he has said, “Because I live ye shall live also.”