The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 32

expressive of the wonderful eff'eot.s of this power. He places it side by side with the power manifested in the resnrrection and glorification of the Redeemer.-T. a. Vers. 19, 20.-The power of the Resurrection. "According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." The resurrection of Christ was at once an illustration and a pledge of our resurrection, spiritually and physically, with himself. It seems a strange thing to find an exercise of purely physical power compared with an exercise of purely spiritual power. The strangeness disappe.ars when we consider the place of the Resurrection in the scheme of Christian doctrine. The fact of Christ's resurrection is to us both doctrine and life -" the very pillar and ground" of Christianity. L IT IS THE CONSTITUTIVB ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, HISTORICALLY AND )[ORALLY. Stranss admits that "Christianity in the form in which Paul, in which all the apostles underst.and it, as it is presupposed in the confessions of all Christian Churches, falls v.:ith the resnrrection of Jesus." In this fundamental fact we have the concurrent Tit.ness of the apostles, of Paul in his gospel and his life, of the Gospels, of Jesus himself, of the belief of the disciples, of the attitude of Jewish enemies, of the found- ing of the Church among Jews and Gentiles. If the Resurrection is denied, Vinet's remark becomes true: "A new hist.ory is manufactured for us in the interest of a new theology." II. IT ~ GBXAT THEOLOGICAL VA.LUE; FOB IT 18 TBE SEAL A.ND CROWN OF CHRIST'S REDEEJmsG SACRIFICE. "He was raised a.,o-ain for our justification" (Rom. iv. 25). If he was not raised, we are yet in our sins. Ill. llis RESURRECTION SUPPLIES THE ll[A.GE AND THE GBOID.'D OF OUR RENEWAL INTO ms FELLOWSHIP. (Rom. vi.1-13; Col. ii.10-13; iii.1-10; Gal. ii. 20.) Jesus himself expressively blends together the historical and the moral constituents of our faith in the sublime sentence, "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead_, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shaH never die" (John xi. 25). It is not simply that resurrection is the truest description of the living personal experience of the believer from day to day, but by virtue of his oneness with Christ he is "quickened together with Christ, and raised up together with him, and made to sit together with him in heavenly places" (eh. ii. 5). Jesus' extinction of the penalty of sin, his breaking the seal of death, his recovery for man of the power of the Holy Spirit, all attested by the Resurrection, reveal it to us at the 111LII1e time as a source of moral light and power. This is "the power of the Resurrection" that the apostle prays for (Phil. iii. 10). IV. THE BESUBRECTION IS TBB PLEDGE TO UB OF PERSONAL IMMORTALITY, AND HIS BBSCIBRECTIO!i-BODY THE TYPE OF 'lXB FUTURE GLORIFIED llA.N, (Phil. iii. 21.) The apostle says, " If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead d"".ell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies thro~:• his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom. viii. 11). 'l'hus, first and last, the resurrection of Christ is more than a mere illustration of the power of God "to usward who believe; " it is a pledge of the continuance and consummation of all that is involved in the redemption of Christ.-'!'. C. • Vers. 20, 2L-The exaltation of (Jhrist. "And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." There was power both in the ~esurrecti~n and i!l the ~scension: of our Lord. As the Resurrection was the seal of his redeemmg sacrifice, his ascension was the seal of the Resurrection, usually linked with it in Bible allusions, but specially referred to by Peter (Acts ii. 33-36; 1 Pet. iii. 22). In John's Gospel the~e i~ au emphatic reference to the event: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world· aaain I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John xvi. 28). In the Epistle to the' H;bre;_,s it receives greater prominence than the Resurrection itself (Heb. ii. !) ; iv. 14, 19). It was a phrase in one of the earliest hymns of the Church-be was '· receiv€d up into glory" (1 Tim. iii. 16). The sitting at the right hand of God is the immediate and ner.A::SSary sequel of the ascension from the earth, ticvcral important facts are implioo in this l-,eavenly sei,sion. L Kn.GLY DIG:S-ITY. 'll,isaccrues to him from his obedience unto death (Phil. ii. 9-11), 1n,,i is n~nr r.:ferwl to Chri,,1, before his incarnation, but only to the God-Man after hia CB, I, 1-23.] THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 29