2. By no means are we simply to assent to the words of the doctrine.
Christ does not design that we be able merely to accept and speak
intelligently of it, but that its influence be manifest in our lives.
How is a dead man profited, however much life may be preached to him,
if that preaching does not make him live? Or of what use is it to
preach righteousness to a sinner if he remain in sin? or to an erring,
factious individual if he forsake not his error and his darkness? Even
so, it is not only useless but detrimental, even pernicious in effect,
to listen to the glorious, comforting and saving doctrine of the
resurrection if the heart has no experience of its truth; if it means
naught but a sound in the ears, a transitory word upon the tongue,
with no more effect upon the hearer than as if he had never heard.
According to Paul in the text, this nobly-wrought and precious
resurrection of Christ essentially must be, not an idle tale of fancy,
futile as a dead hewn-stone or painted-paper image, but a powerful
energy working in us a resurrection through faith--an experience he
calls being risen with Christ; in other words, it is dying unto sin,
being snatched from the power of death and hell and having life and
happiness in Christ. In the second chapter (verse 12), the apostle
puts it plainly, "buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also
raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him
from the dead."
3. If, Paul says, ye have apprehended by faith the resurrection of
Christ and have received its power and consolation, and so are risen
with him, that resurrection will surely be manifest in you; you will
feel its power, will be conscious of its working within. The doctrine
will be something more than words; it will be truth and life. For them
who do not thus apprehend the resurrection, Christ is not yet risen,
although his rising is none the less a fact; for there is not within
them the power represented by the words "being risen with Christ," the
power which renders them truly dead and truly risen men.
So Paul's intent is to make us aware that before we can become
Christians, this power must operate within us; otherwise, though we
may boast and fancy ourselves believing Christians, it will not be
true. The test is, are we risen in Christ--is his resurrection
effective in us? Is it merely a doctrine of words, or one of life and
operating power?
4. Now, what is the process of the life and death mentioned? How can
we be dead and at the same time risen? If we are Christians we must
have suffered death; yet the very fact that we are Christians implies
that we live. How is this paradox to be explained? Indeed, certain
false teachers of the apostles' time understood and explained the
words in a narrow sense making them mean that the resurrection of the
dead is a thing of the past according to Paul's words in Second
Timothy 1, 10, and that there is no future resurrection from temporal
death. The believer in Christ, they said, is already risen to life; in
all Christians the resurrection is accomplished in this earthly life.
They sought to prove their position by Paul's own words, thus
assailing the article of the resurrection.
5. But we will ignore these teachers as being condemned by Paul, and
interpret the words as he meant them, his remarks both preceding and
following making it clear and unquestionable that he refers to the
spiritual resurrection. This fact is certain: If we are, at the last
day, to rise bodily, in our flesh and blood, to eternal life, we must
have had a previous spiritual resurrection here on earth. Paul's words
in Romans 8, 11 are: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus
from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the
dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit
that dwelleth in you." In other words: God having quickened, justified
and saved you spiritually, he will not forget the body, the building
or tabernacle of the living spirit; the spirit being in this life
risen from sin and death, the tabernacle, or the corruptible
flesh-and-blood garment, must also be raised; it must emerge from the
dust of earth, since it is the dwelling-place of the saved and risen
spirit, that the two may be reunited unto life eternal.
6. The apostle, then, is not in this text referring to the future
resurrection of the body, but to the spiritual rising which entails
the former. He regards as one fact the resurrection of the Lord
Christ, who brought his body again from the grave and entered into
life eternal, and the resurrection of ourselves, who, by virtue of his
rising, shall likewise be raised: first, the soul, from a trivial and
guilty life shall rise into a true, divine and happy existence; and
second, from this sinful and mortal body shall rise out of the grave
an immortal, glorious one.
So Paul terms believing Christians both "dead" and "alive." They are
spiritually dead in this life and also spiritually alive.
Nevertheless, this sinful temporal life must yet come to an end in
physical death, for the destruction of the sin and death inherent
therein, that body and spirit may live forever. Therefore he says:
"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God."
7. In other words: Seek and strive after what is above--the things
divine, heavenly and eternal; not the terrestrial, perishable,
worldly. Make manifest the fact that you are now spiritually raised
and by the same power will later be raised bodily.
8. But does this mean that we, as Christians, are no more to eat and
drink, to till the ground, to attend to domestic or public duties, or
to engage in any kind of labor? Are we to live utterly idle,
practically dead? Is that what you mean, Paul, when you say we are not
to seek the things of earth, though all these are essentially incident
to life? What can you say to the fact that Christ the Lord is,
himself, with us on earth? for he said before his ascension to heaven
(Mt 28, 20): "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world"; and also the baptism which he commands, the sacrament and the
office of Gospel ministry whereby he governs his Church here--these
are things of earth.
9. Paul, however, explains in the succeeding verse what he means by
"things that are upon the earth" and "things that are above." He is
not telling us to despise earthly objects. He does not refer to God's
created things, all which are good, as God himself considered them;
nor has he reference to the Christian who, in his earthly life, must
deal with the things of creation. He has in mind the individual
without knowledge of God; who knows no more, and aims no further, than
reason teaches, that reason received from parents at physical birth;
who is an unbeliever, ignorant of God and the future life and caring
not for them; who follows only natural understanding and human desire
and seeks merely personal benefit, honor, pride and pleasure. The
apostle calls that a worldly life where the Word of God is lacking, or
at least is disregarded, and where the devil has rule, impelling to
all vices.
Paul would say: Ye must be dead to a worldly life of this sort, a life
striven after by the heathen, who disregard God's Word and suffer the
devil to have his way with them. Ye must prove the resurrection of
Christ in you to be something more than vain words. Ye must show there
is a living power manifest in you because ye are risen, a power which
makes you lead a different life, one in obedience to the Word and will
of God, and called the divine, heavenly life. Where this change does
not take place, it is a sign ye are not yet Christians but are
deceiving yourselves with vain fancies.
10. Under the phrase "things that are upon the earth"--worldly
things--Paul includes not only gross, outward vices, sins censurable
in the eyes of the world, but also greater immoralities; everything,
in fact, not in accordance with the pure Word of God, faith and true
Christian character.