The Christian life as here manifested is even in its highest forms
manifestly incomplete. It is a reflected light, and like the reflected
light in the heavens, advances by imperceptible degrees to fill the
whole silver round. It may be 'e'en in its imperfections beautiful,' but
it assuredly has 'a ragged edge.' The hypothetical form of the last
words of our text does not so much imply a doubt of the possibility of
attaining the result as the recognition of the indispensable condition
of effort on the part of him who attains it. That effort forthcoming,
the attainment is certain.
The Revised Version makes a slight correction which involves a great
matter, in reading 'the resurrection _from_ the dead.' It is necessary
to insist on this change in rendering, not because it implies that only
saints are raised, but because Paul is thinking of that first
resurrection of which the New Testament habitually speaks. 'The dead in
Christ shall rise first' as he himself declared in his earliest epistle,
and the seer in the Apocalypse shed a benediction on 'him that hath part
in the first resurrection.' Our knowledge of that solemn future is so
fragmentary that we cannot venture to draw dogmatic inferences from the
little that has been declared to us, but we cannot forget the distinct
words of Jesus in which He not only plainly declares a universal
resurrection, but as plainly proclaims that it falls into two parts, one
a 'resurrection of life,' and one a 'resurrection of judgment.' The
former may well be the final aim of a Christian life: the latter is a
fate which one would think no sane man would deliberately provoke. Each
carries in its name its dominant characteristic, the one full of
attractiveness, the other partially unveiling depths of shame and
punitive retributions which might appal the stoutest heart.
This resurrection of life is the last result of the power of Christ's
Resurrection received into and working on the human spirit. It is plain
enough that if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in us there is no term to its operations until our mortal bodies
also are quickened by His Spirit that dwelleth in us. The ethical and
spiritual resurrection in the present life finds its completion in the
bodily resurrection in the future. It cannot be that the transformation
wrought in a human life shall be complete until it has flowed outwards
into and permeated the whole of manhood, body, soul, and spirit. The
three measures of meal have each to be influenced before 'the whole is
leavened.' If we duly consider the elements necessary to a perfect
realisation of the divine ideal of humanity, we shall discern that
redemption must have a gospel to bring to the body as well as to the
spirit. Whatever has been devastated by sin must be healed by Jesus. It
is not necessary to suppose that the body which dies is the body which
rises again, rather the Apostle's far-reaching series of antitheses
between that which is sown and that which is raised leads us to think
that the natural body, which has passed through corruption, and the
particles of which have been gathered into many different combinations,
does not become the spiritual body. The person who dies is the person
who lives through death, and who assumes the body of the resurrection,
and it is the person, not the elements which make up the personality,
who is spoken of as risen from the dead. The vesture may be different,
but the wearer is the same.
So that resurrection from the dead is the end of a supernatural life
begun here and destined to culminate hereafter. It is the last step in
the manifestation of our being in Christ, and so is being prepared for
here by every step in advance in gaining Jesus. It should ever be before
every Christian soul that participation in Christ hereafter is
conditioned by its progress in likeness to Him here. The Resurrection
from the dead is not a gift which can be bestowed apart from a man's
moral state. If he dies having had no knowledge by experience of the
power of Christ's Resurrection, there is nothing in the fact of death to
give him that knowledge, and it is impossible to bring 'any means' to
bear on him by which he will attain unto the 'resurrection from the
dead.' If God could give that gift irrespective of a man's relations to
Jesus, He would give it to all. Let us ask ourselves, then, is it not
worth making the dominant aim of our lives the same as that of Paul's?
How stands our account then? Are we not wise traders presenting a good
balance-sheet when we show entered on the one side the loss of all
things, and on the other the gaining of Christ, and the attaining the
resurrection from the dead, the perfect transformation of body, soul,
and spirit, into the perfect likeness of the perfect Lord? Does the
other balance-sheet show the man as equally solvent who enters on one
side the gain of a world, and on the other a Christless life, to be
followed by a resurrection in which is no joy, no advance, no life, but
which is a resurrection of judgment? May we all be found in Him, and
attain to the resurrection from the dead!