January 28
"And has raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."--Ephesians 2:6 There is a distinction between being quickened together
with Christ and being raised up together with him. Is not this true in the
experience of God's people? To be quickened into divine life, to be
convinced of sin, to have the fear of God planted deeply in the soul, is the
commencement of a work of grace. But this is not a deliverance, not a being
raised up out of darkness, bondage, doubt, guilt, and fear. This is not a
knowledge of Christ, and the power of his resurrection; this is not a full
coming out of the dark and silent tomb into the glorious light and warmth of
day. But here is the great blessedness of a mystical union
with the Lord Jesus Christ that, as by virtue of interest in him there is a
partaking of the benefit and power of his having been quickened, so there is
a partaking in the benefit and power of his having been raised up. God does
not quicken a soul into divine life to let it remain in the dark tomb of
doubt, fear, guilt, and bondage. In raising up Christ there was not only a
pledge of the spiritual, but a virtual resurrection of the members of his
body. Liberty, then, the liberty of the gospel, deliverance from all doubt
and fear, the manifestation of pardon and peace, the shedding abroad of the
love of God in the heart, are blessings as much assured to the members of
Christ's mystical body as their first quickening into spiritual life, and
both are equally assured them in Christ their covenant Head. |