are buried with him by baptism into death: that like a.s Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." These words indicate o. bond of connection between the spiritual life of the believer and the resurrection of Christ. The new life is, in fact, a participation in the risen life of the Saviour. I. QUIOKENED TOGETIIEB. WITH CHRIST. 1. Consider the natwre of this quickening. It implies a previous identification with Christ in his death. "We are buried with Christ by baptism into death." We have, in fact, died unto sin exactly as Christ died unto sin; for "in that hil died, he died unto sin once" (Rom. vi. 10). Christ died unto sin when he underwent death as the wages of sin and exhausted all the woe that sin entails as its punishment. H.e died for sin that he might become dead to sin; the parties having become dead to each other, taking their own path henceforth, never to meet or cross each other unto eternity again. And wo are dead unto sin in precisely the same sense iu which Christ is dead unto sin; for the apostle says, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin," because we are exempted from all its curse on the ground of its curse being already executed. How can this be, as we never suffered the curse of sin? Because we have been baptized into Christ. Mere water-baptism cannot accomplish this blessed result. It is the Holy Spirit who is the l3aptist, for he engrafts us into Christ and makes us one body with him (1 Cor. xii. 12, 13). We are united to Christ by faith. 2. Consider the effects of this quickening. Thie new position involves our seeing what the dead can never see. When we are quickened by the Spirit of God: (1) We see God: " Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." We see him as a Father, because we have seen Christ, for" he that hath seen me bath seen the Father." \Ve see a Father's power, love, and compas- sion. (2) \Ve see Christ in his person and in his work, as a sufficient Saviour, as a willing Saviour, as a loving Saviour, with a work accomplished on the grouud of which we shall be accepted and saved. (3) We see the sin that is in ourselves and the sin that is in the world. The dead see nothing. "They have no speculation in their eyes." Men of the world do not see sin as sin, but often as a source of profit or amuse- ment. " Fools make a mock at sin." But the quickened sinner sees the sin of the world as he sees the sin of his own heart, and mourns over it. (4) He sees heaven and hell. The eye of ruau sees many stars in the sky on a dark night, but there are many blank spaces in which no twinkling glories can be seen. Men of the world see heaven anu. hell as blank spaces, or, at best, as dim and shadowy. But the quickened see them as supreme and transcendent realities. '!'hey see heaven a.s the home of Jesus and the saints; they see hell as the place prepared for the devil and his angels. (5) He se"s the world in its true character. How different the view of the same city from two opposite standpoints I Not more different is the view of the world from the standpoint of eternity, for the saint sees it as a. doomed world at enmity with God, and is thus led to place his citizenship on high, "setting his affections on things above, not on things on the earth " (Col. iii. 2). II. RAISED TOGETHER WITH CHlUST. For as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. The connection between the believer's life and the Redeemer's resurrection is one not merely of certainty and similarity, but of participation, and thus we come to know the power of his resurrection (Phil. iii. 10). 'l'here was a change in Christ's own relation to God established by his resurrection; " for in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God "-in an entirely new relation to God, which shall endure for ever, for when he shall appear the second time, it will be without sin unto salvation. Formerly he was condemned, now is he justified in the Spirit; he liveth no,v to God with no curse to bear, no sacrifice to offer, no suffering to endure, no service to achieve; and therefore the God of peace, in token of the acceptance of the Surety, brings again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. So likewise we are to count ourselves "alive unto God through Jesus Christ," in that same relation of irreversible acceptance into which Jesus has entered. The apostle here not only_represents believers as ideally raised in Christ, but as actually raised just as Christ actually came forth from his sepulchre, leaving his grave-clothes behind him. Similarly we are not to be as "the living among the dead;" we are to caat from us our grave-clothes, which only impede the free movements of our spiritual life. 76 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. [OH, U. 1-22,
III. THE SESSION WITH CHRIST IN THE lIEAVENL'Y PLAOES. We are enthroned with Christ. Christ is already represented as "set at God's own right hand in the heavenly places" (eh. i. 20). We sit there rep, asentati vely, because our Head is there, and there- fore we are, though still on earth as ta our practical calling and life citizens of heaven (Phil. iii. 20). We are guided by the laws of heaven; our hearts'are cheered by the ho~ which, as an anchor, is fastened within the veil, and we now by faith enter the holiest o~ all_ by t?e blood <:>f Jesus. We a.re e:en ~ow" kings and priests "(Rev, i. 6). We are Justified m regard.mg our future glonficatlon as only a continuation of our present spiritual life. The guarsntee of both is alike in Christ. Meanwhile, though representatil-ely in heaven, we are person&lly and actually here. Sin is here ; we are t-0 watch and fight ~<'llinst it; but" our life is hid with Christ in God," only hereafter to be ma.niiested in full glory.-T. C.