(2) But there was another sense in which men were said to be " risen with Christ." When He came forth from the tomb, it was not as a single instance of Divine power over life and death ; it was to show the purpose of God in respect to all mankind. He came forth from the grave to prove that there was immortality for all God's children. The bursting open of His tomb was a prophecy of the opening of every grave, and of the resurrection of all flesh. To St. Paul, Christ crucified was the great sacrifice for sin, but Christ risen was the pledge of the glorious destiny of every believer in Him. Men rose with Him in faith, in hope, and in assurance, to the heavenly mansions of the Father's house.
Our Lord's resurrection from the grave is no greater miracle than His being man, and yet absolutely sinless. His power over sin and His power over death are, like the heat and light of the sun, two radiations of the self-same energy — either of them containing evidence of the presence of the other, either of them justifying His own claim to be the very God, the central source alike of holiness and of immortality. And because He is divinely, creatively holy and immortal, He can and will make His people holy and immortal too. But while in Him the two attributes are in reality but one, in us the creatures of time there lies a lifelong day between them. First we hear His voice saying, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," and afterwards " Arise and walk." Once to have heard the first voice is a pledge that we shall hear the second. For once to have felt within us the victory over sin is a proof — an infinitely stronger proof than any philosophic speculation ever gave — that we already possess the quickening, immortalizing Spirit that will not suffer His holy ones to see corruption. " If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth iu
486 RISEN WITH CHRIST
you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you." It is this confidence that makes St. Paul view our two resurrec- tions so closely together that he speaks of them in places as virtually one, and addresses Christians as already risen with Christ, that is, not like Christ, but in, and through, and by, the actual presence of Christ within them.
^ In an address which he gave at the West London Mission, he said, " I hope I shall not soon forget the resurrection sweetness that I instantly knew when I felt that I had really died to self. It seemed so proper a foretaste of the passage into the world which is to come . . . How wonderfully small a thing death may he ; not a river, but a rill, scarce ankle-deep, across which we may step into the Glory-land beyond." ^
What lies beyond?
I have but little care —
Since Christ is there —
Himself the deathless bond,
For ever binding me
Unto the Home where I would be —
Himself its temple, and its light,
Of more than noonday radiance bright —
Himself the Eest where I would dwell —
The Haven where my anchor soon shall fall —
Himself my All in all.
I cannot tell
Of glory that awaits
Within the gates:
A little while I walk with vision dim,
But 0, I know that He is there,
All-glorious, All-fair,
And I shall be with Him.^
II.
A Pkize.
1. The prize is " the things that are above." When St. Paul speaks of the things above, and the things below, he is not
^ J. Rendel Harris, Life of F. W. Crossley, 212. 2 E. H. Divall, A Believer's Rest, 15.
COLOSSIANS III. I 487
setting in contrast the abode of the blessed and our present dwelling-place. The contrast is rather between the good and the evil, the fleshly and the spiritual, Christ's way of looking at things, and the ordinary earthly way. There is a way of measuring and estimating things as if we were merely human ; not only so, but as if we were just educated animals with bodily affections and feelings, short-lived and perishable, like all the material things around us. And there is another way of surveying and judging them, which is the way of elevated, immortal, and spiritual creatures, creatures who are akin to Christ, and look with Christ's eyes. And this higher way is what we are to aspire to. Christ has enthroned certain qualities with Himself at the right hand of God — certain qualities and thoughts, ways of thinking, and ways of judging. He has exalted them with Himself. He has made them supremely beautiful. They are the Divine, all-attractive, all-victorious things, and we are to prize them above all things and to set our affections on them. Think of all things as Christ thinks of them, judge and weigh all things as Christ judges them. Eead His meaning into all things. You are risen with Him ; let your thoughts and affections move on His high level.
0 glorious Head, Thou livest now !
Let us Thy members share Thy life; Canst Thou behold their need, nor bow