_Second_ thing I was to speak to, is, Whether we have experimentally known the power of his resurrection; that is, Whether or not we have received the Holy Ghost, and by his powerful operations on our hearts have been raised from the death of sin, to a life of righteousness and true holiness.
It was this, the great apostle was chiefly desirous to know. The resurrection of CHRIST’s body he was satisfied would avail him nothing, unless he experienced the power of it in raising his dead soul.
For another, and that a chief end of our blessed LORD’s rising from the dead, was to enter heaven as our representative, and to send down the Holy Ghost to apply that redemption he had finished on the cross, to our hearts, by working an entire change in them.
Without this, CHRIST would have died in vain. For it would have done us no service to have had his outward righteousness imputed to us, unless we had an inward inherent righteousness wrought in us. Because, being altogether conceived and born in sin, and consequently unfit to hold communion with an infinitely pure and holy GOD, we cannot possibly be made meet to see or enjoy him, till a thorough renovation has passed upon our hearts.
Without this, we leave out the Holy Ghost in the great work of our redemption. But as we were made by the joint concurrence and consultation of the blessed trinity; and as we were baptized in their name, so must all of them concur in our salvation: As the Father made, and the Son redeemed, so must the Holy Ghost sanctify and seal us, or otherwise we have believed in vain.
This then is what the apostle means by the “Power of CHRIST’s resurrection,” and this is what we are as much concerned experimentally to know, as that He rose at all.
Without this, though we may be moralists, though we may be civilized, good-natured people, yet we are no christians. For he is not a true christian, who is only one outwardly; nor have we therefore a right, because we daily profess to believe that CHRIST rose again the third day from the dead. But he is a true christian who is one inwardly; and then only can we be stiled true believers, when we not only profess to believe, but have felt the power of our blessed LORD’s rising from the dead, by being quickened and raised by his Spirit, when dead in trespasses and sins, to a thorough newness both of heart and life.
The devils themselves cannot but believe the doctrine of the resurrection, and tremble; but yet they continue devils, because the benefits of this resurrection have not been applied to them, nor have they received a renovating power from it, to change and put off their diabolical nature. And so, unless we not only profess to know, but also feel that CHRIST is risen indeed, by being born again from above, we shall be as far from the kingdom of GOD as they: our faith will be as ineffectual as the faith of devils.
Nothing has done more harm to the christian world, nothing has rendered the cross of CHRIST of less effect, than a vain supposition, that religion is something without us. Whereas we should consider, that every thing that CHRIST did outwardly, must be done over again in our souls; or otherwise, the believing there was such a divine person once on earth, who triumphed over hell and the grave, will profit us no more, than believing there was once such a person as _Alexander_, who conquered the world.
As CHRIST was born of the Virgin’s womb, so must he be spiritually formed in our hearts. As he died for sin, so must we die to sin. And as he rose again from the dead, so must we also rise to a divine life.
None but those who have followed him in this regeneration, or new-birth, shall sit on thrones as approvers of his sentence, when he shall come in terrible majesty to judge the twelve tribes of _Israel_.
It is true, as for the outward work of our redemption, it was a transient act, and was certainly finished on the cross, but the application of that redemption to our hearts, is a work that will continue always, even unto the end of the world.
So long as there is an elect man breathing on the earth, who is naturally engendred of the offspring of the first _Adam_, so long must the quickning spirit, which was purchased by the resurrection of the second _Adam_, that LORD from heaven, be breathing upon his soul.
For though we may exist by CHRIST, yet we cannot be said to exist in him, till we are united to him by one spirit, and enter into a new state of things, as certainly as he entered into a new state of things, after that he rose from the dead.
We may throng and crowd round about CHRIST, and call him “Lord, Lord,” when we come to worship before his footstool; but we have not effectually touched him, till by a lively faith in his resurrection, we perceive a divine virtue coming out of him, to renew and purify our souls.