John 14:19

Life In Christ; Sharing Christ's Life

Life In Christ

January 1, 1871

by

C. H. SPURGEON

(1834-1892)

"Because I live, ye shall live also."-John 14:19

This world saw our Lord Jesus for a very little time, but now it seeth him no

more. It only saw him with the outward eye and after a carnal sort, so that

when the clouds received him and concealed him from bodily vision, this

spiritually blind world lost sight of him altogether. Here and there,

however, among the crowds of the sightless there were a few chosen men who

had received spiritual sight; Christ had been light to them, he had opened

their blind eyes, and they had seen him as the world had not seen him. In a

high and full sense they could say, "We have seen the Lord," for they had in

some degree perceived his Godhead, discerned his mission, and learned his

spiritual presence of its object, those persons who had seen Jesus

spiritually, saw him after he had gone out of the world unto the Father. We

who have the same sight still see him. Read carefully the words of the verse

before us: "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see

me." It is a distinguishing mark of a true follower of Jesus that he sees his

Lord and Master when he is not to be seen by the bodily eye; he sees him

intelligently and spiritually; he knows his Lord, discerns his character,

apprehends him by faith, gazes upon him with admiration as our first sight of

Christ brought us into spiritual life, for we looked unto him and were saved,

so it is by the continuance of this spiritual sight of Christ that our

spiritual life is consciously maintained. We lived by looking, we live still

by looking. Faith is still the medium by which life comes to us from the

life-giving Lord. It is not only upon the first day of the Christian's life

that he must needs look to Jesus only, but every day of that life, even until

the last, his motto must be, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of

our faith." The world sees him no more, for it never saw him aright; but ye

have seen him and lived, and now, through continuing still to see him, you

remain in life. Let us ever remember the intimate connection between faith

and spiritual life. Faith is the life-look. we must never think that we live

by works, by feelings, or by ceremonies. "The just shall live by faith." We

dare not preach to the ungodly sinner a way of obtaining life by the works of

the law, neither dare we hold up to the most advanced believer a way of

sustaining life by legal means. We should in such a case expect to hear the

apostle's expostulation, "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are

ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Our glorifying is that our life is not

dependent on ourselves, but is safe in our Lord, as saith the apostle, "I am

crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in

me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son

of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Because he lives, we live,

and shall live for ever. God grant that our eye may ever be clear towards

Jesus, our life. May we have no confidence but in our Redeemer; may our eyes

be fixed upon him, that no other object may in any measure or degree shut out

our view of him as our all in all.

The text contains in it very much of weighty truth, far more than we shall be

able to bring forth from it this morning. First, we see in it a life;

secondly, that life preserved; and thirdly, the reason for the preservation

of that life: "Because I live, ye shall live also."

I. First, we have LIFE here spoken of.

We must not confound this with existence. It were indeed to reduce a very

rich text to a poverty-stricken sentence if we read it, "Because I exist, ye

shall exist also." We could not say of such a use of words that the water of

ordinary speech was turned to wine, but rather that the wine was turned to

water. Before the disciples believed in Jesus they existed, and altogether

apart from him as their spiritual life their existence would have been

continued; it was something far other and higher than immortal existence

which our Lord was here dealing with.

Life, what is it? We know practically, but we cannot tell in words. We know

it, however, to be a mystery of different degrees. As all flesh is not the

same flesh, so all life is not the same life. There is the life of the

vegetable, the cedar of Lebanon, the hyssop on the wall. There is a

considerable advance when we come to animal life-the eagle or the ox. Animal

life moves in quite a different world from that in which the plant vegetates-

sensation, appetite, instinct, are things to which plants are dead, though

they may possess some imitation of them, for one life mimics another. Animal

life rises far above the experience and apprehension of the flower of the

field. Then there is mental life, which we all of us possess, which

introduces us into quite another realm from that which is inhabited by the

mere beast. To judge, to foresee, to imagine, to invent, to perform moral

acts, are not these new functions which the ox hath not? Now, let it be clear

to you, that far above mental life there is another form of life of which the

mere carnal man can form no more idea than the plant of the animal, or the

animal of the poet. The carnal mind knoweth not spiritual things, because it

has no spiritual capacities. As the beast cannot comprehend the pursuits of

the philosopher, so the man who is but a natural man cannot comprehend the

experience of the spiritually minded. Thus saith the Scripture: "The natural

man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness

unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no

man." There is in believers a life which is not to be found in other men-

nobler, diviner for education cannot raise the natural man into it, neither

can refinement reach it; for at its best, "that which is born of the flesh is

flesh," and to all must the humbling truth be spoken, "Ye must be born

again."

It is to be remarked concerning our life in Christ, that it is the removal of

the penalty which fell upon our race for Adam's sin. "In the day that thou

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was the Lord's threatening to our

first parent, who was the representative of the race. He did eat of the

fruit, and since God is true, and his word never fails, we may be sure of

this, that in that selfsame day Adam died. It is true that he did not cease

to exist, but that is quite another thing from dying. The threatening was not

that he should ultimately die, but "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt

surely die;" and it is beyond all doubt that the Lord kept his word to the

letter. If the first threatening was not carried out we might take liberty to

trifle with all others. Rest assured, then, that the threat was on the spot

fulfilled. The spiritual life departed from Adam; he was no longer at one

with God, no more able to live and breathe in the same sphere as the Lord. He

fell from his first estate; he had need if he should enter into spiritual

life to be born again, even as you and I must be. As he hides himself from

his Maker, and uttersvain excuses before his God, you see that he is dead to

the life of God, dead in trespasses and sins. We also, being heirs of wrath

even as others, are through the fall dead, dead in trespasses and sins; and

if ever we are to possess spiritual life, it must be said of us, "And you

hath he quickened." We must be as "those that are alive from the dead." The

world is the valley of dry bones, and grace raises the chosen into newness of

life. The fall brought universal death, in the deep spiritual sense of that

word, over all mankind; and Jesus delivers us from the consequences of the

fall by implanting in us a spiritual life. By no other means can this death

be removed: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that

believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on

him." The work of regeneration, in which the new life is implanted,

effectually restores the ruin of the fall, for we are born again, "not of

corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and

abideth for ever." But you remind me that still sin remains in us after we

have received the divine life. I know it does, and it is called "the body of

this death;" and this it is which rages within, between the power of the

death in the first Adam, and the power of the life in the second Adam; but

the heavenly life will ultimately overcome the deadly energy of sin. Even to-

day our inner life groans after deliverance, but with its groan of "O

wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" it

mingles the thankful song, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This life is of a purely spiritual kind. We find analogies and resemblances

of it in the common mental life, but they are only analogies, the spiritual

life is far and high above the carnal life, and altogether out of sight of

the fleshly mind. Scarce are there words in which it can be described. To

know this life you must have it; it must pulsate within your own bosom, for

no explanations of others can tell you what this life is; it is one of the

secrets of the Lord. It would not be possible for us with the greatest skill

to communicate to a horse any conception of what imagination is; neither

could we by the most diligent use of words, communicate to carnal minds what

it is to be joined unto the Lord so as to be one spirit. One thing we know of

it, namely, that the spiritual life is intimately connected with the

indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul. When he comes we are "born again

from above," "born of the Spirit." While he works in us mightily our life is

active and powerful if he withdraws his active operations our new life

becomes faint and sickly. Christ is our life, but he works in us through his

Holy Spirit, who dwelleth in us evermore.

Further, we know that this life very much consists in union with God. "For to

be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the

law of God, neither again can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot

please God." Death as to the body consists in the body being separated from

the soul; the death of the soul lies mainly in the soul's being separated

form its God. For the soul to be in union with God is the soul's highest

life; in his presence it unfolds itself like an opening flower; away from him

it pines, and loses all its beauty and excellence, till it is as a thing

destroyed. Let the soul obey God, let it be holy, pure, gracious, then is it

happy, an truly living; but a soul saundered from God is a soul blasted,

killed, destroyed; it exists in a dreadful death; all its true peace,

dignity, and glory, are gone; it is a hideous ruin, the mere corpse of

manhood. The new life brings us near to God, makes us think of him, makes us

love him, and ultimately makes us like him. My brethren, it is in proportion

as you get near to God that you enter into the full enjoyment of life-that

life which Jesus Christ gives you, and which Jesus Christ preserves in you.

"In his favour is life." Psalms 30:5 . "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of

life." Proverbs 14:27 . To turn to God is "repentance unto life." To forget God

is for a man to be "dead whilst he liveth." To believe the witness of God is

to possess the faith which overcometh the world. "He that believeth on the

Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made

him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And

this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is

in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of

God hath not life."

This life within the soul bears fruit on earth in righteousness and true

holiness. It blooms with sweetest of flowers of fellowship with God below,

and it is made perfect in the presence of God in heaven. The life of

glorified spirits above is but the life of justified men here below; it is

the same life, only it is delivered from encumbrances, and has come to the

fullness of its strength. The life of heaven is in every believer even now.

The moment a sinner believes in Jesus he receives from God that selfsame life

which shall look down serenely upon the conflagration of earth, and the

passing away of those lower skies. Blessed is that man who hath everlasting

life, who is made a partaker of the divine nature, who is born again from

above, who is born of God by a seed which remaineth in him, for he is the man

upon whom the second death hath no power, who shall enjoy life eternal when

the wicked go away into everlasting punishment.

Thus much concerning this life. We have now to ask each of you whether you

have received it. Have you been born, not of blood, nor of the will of the

flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God? Was there a time with you when you

passed from death unto life, or are you abiding in death? Have you the

witness in yourself that you have been operated upon by a divinely spiritual

power? Is there something in you which was not once there, not a faculty

developed by education, but a life implanted by God himself? Do you feel an

inward craving unknown to carnal minds, a longing desire which this world

could neither excite nor gratify? Is there a strange sighing for a land as

yet unseen, of which it is a native, and for which it yearns? Do you walk

among the sons of men as a being of another race, not of the world, even as

Christ was not of the world? Can you say, with the favoured apostle, "We know

that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may

know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus

Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." Oh! then, thank God for

this, and thank God yet more that you have an infallible guarantee for this,

and thank God yet more that you have an infallible guarantee that your life

shall be continued and perfected, for so saith the text, "Because I live, ye

shall live also."

II. Our second head treats of LIFE PRESERVED. "Because I life, ye shall live

also." There stands the promise, " Ye shall live also. This heavenly life of

yours which ye have received shall be preserved to you.

Concerning this sentence, let me draw your attention, first of all, to its

fullness: "Ye shall live." I think I see in that much more than lies upon the

surface. Whatever is meant by living shall be ours. All the degree of life

which is secured in the covenant of grace, believers shall have. Moreover,

all your new nature shall live, shall thoroughly live, shall eternally live.

By this word it is secured that the eternal life implanted at regeneration

shall never die out. As our Lord said so shall it be. "Whosoever drinketh of

the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I

shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting

life." We may not view this precious word as referring to all the essential

spiritual graces which make up the new man? Not even, in part, shall the new

man die. "Ye shall live," applies to all the parts of our new-born nature. If

there be any believer here who has not lived to the full extent he might have

done, let him lay hold upon this promise; and seeing that it secures the

preservation of all his new nature, let him have courage to seek a higher

degree of health. "I am come," saith Christ, "that ye might have life, and

have it more abundantly." There is no reason, Christian, why your love to

Jesus should not become flaming, ardent, conquering; for it lives, and ever

must live. As to your faith, it also has immortal vitality in it, and even

though it be just now weak, and staggering, lift up the hands that hang down

and confirm the feeble knees, for your faith shall not die out. Here in your

Lord's promise the abiding nature of the vital faculties of your spirit is

guaranteed. There is no stint in the fullness of Christian life. Beneath the

skies I would labour to attain it, but herein is my joy , that it shall be

most surely mine, for this word is faithful and true. As surely as I have

this day eternal life by reason of faith in Christ Jesus, so surely shall I

reach its fullness when Christ who is my life shall appear. Even here on

earth I have the permit to seek for the fullest development of this life; nay

I have a precept in this promise bidding me to seek after it. "Ye shall

live," means that the new life shall not be destroyed-no, not as to any of

its essentials. All the members of the spiritual man shall be safe; we may

say of it as of the Lord himself, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." The

shield of Christ's own life covers all the faculties of our spiritual nature.

We shall not enter into life halt or maimed; but he will present us faultless

before the presence of his glory, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such

thing, much less nay dead limbs or decayed faculties. It is a grand promise,

and covers the spiritual nature as with the wings of God, so that we may

apply to it the words of David, in the ninety-first Psalm: "Surely he shall

deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:

his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the

terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence

that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A

thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it

shall not come nigh thee."

The text secures that the death-penalty of the law shall never fall upon

believers. The quickened man shall never fall back into the old death from

which he has escaped; He shall not be numbered with the dead, and condemned

either in this life or the next. Never shall the spiritually living become

dead again in sin. As Jesus being raised form the dead dieth no more, death

hath no more dominion over him; even so sin shall not have dominion over us

again. Once, through the offense of one, death reigned in us; but now having

received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we shall reign

in life by one, Christ Jesus. Romans 5:17 . "For if, when we were enemies, we

were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled,

we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:10 .

We are united to Christ this day by bands of spiritual life which neither

things present nor things to come can separate. Our union to Jesus is

eternal. It may be assailed; but it shall never be destroyed. The old body of

this death may for awhile prevail, and like Herod it may seek the young

child's life, but it cannot die. Who shall condemn to death that which is not

under the law? Who shall slay that which abides under the shadow of the

Almighty? Even as sin reigned unto death, even so must grace reign unto

eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Remark carefully the continuance insisted upon in this verse. Continuance is

indeed the main element of this promise-"Ye shall live." It means certainly

that during our abode in this body we shall live. We shall not be again

reduced to our death-state during our sojourn here. Ten thousand attempts

will be made to bring us under dominion to the law of sin and death, but this

one word baffles all. Your soul may be so assailed that it shall seem as if

you could not keep your hold on Christ, but Christ shall keep his hold on

you. The incorruptible seed may be crushed, bruised, buried, but the life

within it shall not extinguished, it shall yet arise. "Ye shall live." When

ye see all around you ten thousand elements of death, think ye believers, how

grand is this word, "Ye shall live." No falling from grace for you, no being

cast out of the covenant, no being driven from the Father's house and left to

perish. "Ye shall live."

Nor is this all, for when the natural death comes, which indeed to us is no

longer death, our inner life shall suffer no hurt whatsoever; it will not

even be suspended for a moment. It is not a thing which can be touched by

death. The shafts of the last enemy can have no more effect upon the

spiritual, than a javelin upon a cloud. Even in the very crisis, when the

soul is separated from the body, no damage shall be done to the spiritual

nature. And in the awful future, when the judgment comes, when the thrones

are set, and the multitudes are gathered, and to the right the righteous, and

to the left the wicked, let what may of terror and of horror come frothy, the

begotten of God shall live. Onward through eternity, whatever may be the

changes which yet are to be disclosed, nothing shall affect our God-given

life. Like the life of God himself-eternal, and ever-blessed, it shall

continue. Should all things else be swept away, the righteous must live on; I

mean not merely that they shall exist, but they shall live in all the

fullness of that far-reaching, much-comprehending word "life." Bearing the

nature of God as far as the creature can participate in it, the begotten from

the dead shall prove the sureness of the promise, "Ye shall live."

Let me further call to your notice that the fact here stated is univeral, in

application to all spiritual life. The promise is, "Ye shall live," that is

to say, every child of God shall live. Every one who sees Christ, as the

world sees him not, is living and shall live. I can understand such a

promised given to eminent saints who live near to God, but my soul would

prostrate herself before the throne in reverent loving wonder when she hears

this word spoken to the very least and meanest of the saints, "Ye shall

live." Thou art not exempted, thou whose faith is but as a smoking flax, thou

shalt live. The Lord bestows security upon the least of his people as well as

upon the greatest. It is plain that the reason given for the preservation of

the new life is as applicable to one saint as another. If it had been said,

"Because your faith is strong, ye shall live" then weak faith would have

perished; but when it is written, "Because I live," the argument is as

powerful in the one case as in the other. Take it home to thyself, my

brother, however heavy thy heart, or dim thy bone, Jesus lives, and you shall

live.

Remark yet again that this text is exceeding broad. Mark its breadth and see

how it meets everything to the contrary, and overturns all the hopes of the

adversary. "Ye shall live." Then the inbred corruption which rides within us

shall not stifle the new creature. Chained as the spirit seem to be to the

loathsome and corrupt body of this death, it shall live in spite of its

hideous companionship. Though besetting sins may be as arrows, and fleshly

lusts like drawn swords, yet grace shall not be slain. Neither the fever of

hasty passion, nor the palsy of timorousness, nor the leprosy of

covetousness, nor any other disease of sin, shall so break forth in the old

nature as to destroy the new. Nor shall outward circumstances overthrow the

inner life. "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in

all thy ways." They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy

foot against a stone. If providence should cast you into a godless family,

where you dwell as in a sepulcher, and the air you breathe is laden with the

miasma of death, yet shall you live. Evil example shall not poison your

spirit, you shall drink this deadly thing and it shall not hurt you, you

shall be kept from giving way to evil. You shall not be decoyed by fair

temptation, you shall not be cowed by fierce persecution: mightier is he that

is in you than he which is in the world. Satan will attack you, and his

weapons are deadly, but you shall foil him at all points. To you is it given

to tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shall you

trample under foot. If God should allow you for awhile to be sorely tried, as

he did his servant Job, and if the devil should have all the world to help

him in his attempt to destroy your spiritual life, yet even on the dunghill

of poverty, and in the wretchedness of sickness, your spirit shall still

maintain its holy life, and you shall prove it so by blessing and magnifying

God, notwithstanding all. We little dream what may be reserved for us; we may

have to climb steeps of prosperity, slippery and dangerous, but we shall

live; we may be called to sink into the dark waters of adversity, all God's

waves and billows may go over us, but we shall live. WE may traverse

persilent swamps of error, or burning dewerts of unbelief, but the divine

life shall live amid the domains of death. Let the future be bright or black,

we need not wish to turn the page; that which we prize best, namely, our

spiritual life, is hid with Christ in God, beyond the reach of harm, and we

shall live. If old age shall be our portion, and our crown shall be delayed

till we have fought a long and weary battle, yet nevertheless we shall live;

or if sudden death should cut short the time of our trial here, yet we shall

have lived in the fullness of that word.

III. Our third point is, THE REASON FOR THE SECURITY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

The reason assigned is this, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Christ has

life essentially as God. Christ, as man, having fulfilled his life-work,

having offered full atonement for human sin, dieth no more, death hath no

more dominion over him. His life is communicated to us, and becomes the

guarantee to us that we shall live also.

Observe, first, that this is the sole reason of the believer's spiritual

life. "Because I live, ye shall live also." The means by which the soul is

pardoned is found in the precious blood of Jesus; the cause of its obtaining

spiritual life at first is found in Christ's finished work; and the only

reason why the Christian continues still to live after he is quickened, lies

in Jesus Christ, who liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore. When I

first come to Christ, I know I must find all in him, for I feel I have

nothing of my own; but all my life long I am to acknowledge the same absolute

dependence; I am still to look for everything to him. " I am the vine, ye are

the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth

much fruit: for without me, yet can do nothing." the temptation is after we

have looked to Jesus and found life there, to fancy that in future time we

are to sustain ourselves in spiritual existence by some means within

ourselves, or by supplies extra and apart from Christ. But it must not be so;

all for the future as well as all for the past is wrapped up in the person

and the work of the Lord Jesus. Because he died, ye are pardoned; because he

lives, ye live; all your life still lies in him who is the way, the truth,

and the life. Does not the Christian's life depend upon his prayerfulness?

Could he be a Christian if he ceased to pray? We reply, the Christian's

spiritual health depends upon his prayerfulness, but that prayerfulness

depends on something else. The reason why the hands of the clock move may be

found first in a certain wheel which operates upon them, but if you go to the

primary cause of all, you reach the main-spring, or the weight, which is the

source of all the motion. Many secondary causes tend to sustain spiritual

life; but the primary cause, the first and foremost, is because Jesus Christ

lives. "All my fresh springs are in thee." While Jesus lives, he sends the

Spirit; the Spirit being sent, we pray; our payer becomes the evidence of our

spiritual life. "But are not good works essential to the maintenance of the

spiritual life?" Certainly, if there be no good works, we have no evidence of

spiritual life. In its season the tree must bring forth its fruit and its

leaves; if there be no outward sign we suspect that there is no motion of the

sap within. Still, to the tree the fruit is not the cause of life, but the

result of it, and to the life of the Christian, good works bear the same

relationship, they are its outgrowth, not its root. If then my spiritual life

is low, what am I to look to? I am not to look to my prayers, I am not to

find comfort in my works. I may from these discover how declining I am; but

if I want my life to be renovated, I must fly to the fountain of my life,

even Jesus, for there, and there only, shall I find restoration. Do let us

recollect this, that we are not saved because of anything that we are, or

anything that we do; and that we do not remain saved because of anything we

are or can be. A man is saved because Christ died for him he continues saved

because Christ lives for him. The sole reason why the spiritual life abides

is because Jesus lives. This is to get upon a rock, above the fogs which

cover all things down below. If my life rests on something within me, then

to-day I live, and to-morrow I die; but if my spiritual life rests in Christ,

then in my darkest frames-ay, and when sin has most raged against my spirit-

still I live in the ever-living One, whose life never changes.

Secondly, it is a sufficient cause for my life. "Because I live, ye shall

live also." It must be enough to make believers live that Christ lives; for

first, Christ's life is a proof that his work has accomplished the absolution

of his people from their sins. He would have been in the tomb to this hour

had he not made a complete satisfaction for their sins, but his rising again

from the dead is the testimony of God that he has accepted the atonement of

his dear Son; his resurrection is our full acquittal. Then if the living

Christ be our acquittal, how can God condemn us to die for sins which he has

by the fact of Christ's resurrection declared to be for ever blotted out? If

Jesus lives, how can we die? Shall there be two deaths for one sin, the death

of Christ and the death of those for whom he died? God forbid that there

should be any such injustice with the Most High. The very fact that Jesus

lives, proves that our sin has been atoned for, that we are absolved, and

therefore cannot die.

Jesus is the representative of those for whom he is the federal head. Shall

the representative live, and yet those represented die? How shall the living

represent the dead? But in his life I see my own life, for as Levi was in the

loins of Abraham, so is every saint in the loins of Christ, and the life of

Christ is representatively the life of all his people.

Moreover, he is the surety for his people, under bonds and pledges to bring

his redeemed safely home. His own declaration is, "I give unto my sheep

eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out

of my hands." Will he break his covenant bonds? Shall his suretyship be cast

to the winds? It cannot be. The fact that if any of his people for whom he

died, to whom he has given spiritual life, should after all die, Christ would

be disappointed of his intent, which supposition involves the grossest

blasphemy. What so many shall he have for his reward? The purchase-price

shall not be given in vain; a redemption so marvelous as that which he has

presented upon the tree, shall never in any degree become a failure. His

life, which proves his labour to be over, guarantees to people. Know ye not,

my brethren, that if one of those to whom Christ has given spiritual life

should after all fall from it and die, it would argue either that he had a

want of power to keep them, or a want of will to do so. Shall we conceive him

to be devoid of power? Then how he is mighty God? Is he devoid of will to

keep his people- is that conceivable? Cast out the traitorous thought! He

must be as willing as he is able, and as able as he is willing. While he was

in this world, he kept his people; having loved his own, he loved them to the

end; he is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," he will not suffer one

of these little ones to perish.

Recollect, and this perhaps will cheer you most of all, that all who have

spiritual life are one with Christ Jesus. Jesus is the head of the mystical

body, they are the members. Suppose one of the members of the mystical body

of Christ should die, then from that moment, with reverence be it spoken,

Christ is not a complete Christ. What were the head without the body? A most

ghastly sight. What were the head with only a part of the members? Certainly

not perfect. There must be every member present to make a complete body.

Therefore we gather that you, brother, though you think yourself the meanest

part of the body, are nevertheless, essential to its perfection; and you,

sister, though you fancy yourself to be one of the uncomely portions of the

body, yet you must be there, or else the body cannot be perfect, and Christ

cannot be a complete Christ. From him, the head, the life streams into all

the members and while that head lives as a perfect head of a perfect body,

all members must live also. As we have often said, as long as a man's head is

above water you cannot drown his limbs; as long as our head is above the

reach of spiritual death we also are the same-no weapons can hurt, no poison

can destroy, not all hell's fires could burn, nor all earth's floods could

drown, the spiritual life within us: it must be safe because it is

indissolubly one with Jesus Christ the Lord. What comfort, then, lies in

this, the sole but sufficient reason for the eternal maintenance of the new-

born life within us, is this, "Because I live, ye shall live also."

And be it remembered, that this reason is an abiding reason-"Because I live,

ye shall live also"-a reason which has as much force at one time as another.

From causes variable the effects are variable; but remaining causes produce

permanent effects. Now Jesus always lives. Yesterday, dear brother you were

exalted in fellowship with him, and stood upon the mountain top; then your

heart was glad, and your spirit rejoiced, and you could say, "I live in

Christ." To-day darkness has intervened, you do not feel the motions of the

inner life as you did yesterday, but do not therefore conclude that the life

is not there. What is to be your sign; what is to be the rainbow of the

covenant to you? Why, that Jesus lives. Do you doubt that he lives? You dare

not. You trust him, doubt not then that you live, for your life is as sure as

his. Believe also that you shall live, for that also is as sure as the fact

that he lives. God gave to Noah, a token that he would not destroy the earth-

it was the rainbow: but then the rainbow is not often seen; there are

peculiar circumstances before the bow is placed in the cloud. You, brother,

you have a token of God's covenant given you in the text which can always be

seen, neither sun nor shower are needful to its appearance. The living Christ

is the token that you live too. God gave to David the token of the sun and

the moon; he said if the ordinances of day and night should be changed, then

would he cast off the seed of David. But there are times when neither sun nor

moon appear, but your token is plain when these are hidden. Christ at all

times lives. When you are lowest, when you cannot pray, when you can hardly

groan, when you do not seem to have spiritual life enough even to heave a

desire, still if you cling to Jesus this life is as surely in you as there is

life in Christ himself at the right hand of the Father.

And lastly, it is a most instructive cause. It instructs us in many ways: let

us hint at three. It instructs us to admire the condescension of Christ. Look

at the two pronouns, "ye" and "I"; shall they ever come into contact? yes,

here they stand in close connection with each other. "I"-the I AM the

Infinite; "ye" the creatures of an hour; yet I, the Infinite, come into union

with you, the finite; I the Eternal, take up you the fleeting, and I make you

live because I live. What? Is there such a bond between me and Christ? Is

there such a link between his life and mine? Blessed be his name! Adored be

his infinite condescension!

It demands of us next abundance of gratitude. Apart from Christ we are dead

in trespasses and sins; look at the depth of our degradation! But in Christ

we live, live with his own life. Look at the height of our exaltation, and

let our thankfulness be proportioned to this infinity of mercy. Measure if

you can from the lowest hell to the highest heaven, and so great let your

thankfulness be to him who has lifted you from death to life.

Let the last lesson be see the all-importance of close communion with Jesus.

Union with Christ makes you live; keep up your enjoyment of that union, that

you may clearly perceive and enjoy your life. Begin this year with the

prayer, "Nearer to thee, my Lord, nearer to thee." Think much of the

spiritual life and less of this poor carnal life, which will be soon be over.

Go to the source of life for an increase of spiritual life. Go to Jesus.

Think of him more than you have done, pray to him more; use his name more

believingly in your supplications. Serve him better, and seek to grow up into

his likeness in all things. Make an advance this year. Life is a growing

thing. Your life only grows by getting nearer to Christ; therefore, get under

the beams of the Sun of the Righteousness. Time brings you nearer to him, you

will soon be where he is in heaven; let grace bring you nearer also. You

taste more of his love as fresh mercies come, give him more of your love,

more of your fellowship. Abide in him, and may his word abide in you

henceforth and for ever, and all shall be to his glory. Amen.

Sharing Christ's Life

December 1st, 1867 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also." John 14:19 .

This was, and is, the mark of the true believer, that he see Jesus. When Jesus was here among men, the world saw him in a certain sense, but yet in truth it did not see him at all. The world's eye saw the outside of Christ the flesh of the man Christ, but the true Christ the ungodly eye could not discern. They could not perceive those wonderful attributes of character, those delightful graces and charms, which made up the true spiritual Christ. They saw but the husk, and not the kernel; they saw the quartz of the golden nugget, but not the pure gold which that quartz contained. They saw but the external man; the real, spiritual Christ they could not see. But unto as many as God had chosen, Christ manifested himself as he did not unto the world. There were some to whom he said, "The world seeth me not, but ye see me." Some there were whose eyes were anointed with the heavenly eye-salve, so that they saw in the "the man Christ Jesus," the God, the glorious Saviour, the King of kings, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The blind world said of him that he was a root out of a dry ground, and when they saw him there was no beauty in him that they should desire him; he was despised and rejected of men. But these men saw him as God over all blessed for ever, descending to tabernacle among men, and to take upon himself man's imperfect nature, that so he might redeem him from all iniquity and save him. Now, to this hour, this is the mark of the true Christian: this is to be of the elect: this is the very badge and symbol of the faithful they see Jesus. They look beyond the clouds. Other men see the cloud and the darkness, and they wist not what it is; but these men with more than eagle eye pierce through the clouds of mere sensual impressions, and they see the glory that was always his, even the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Beloved, have you ever seen Jesus with the eye of faith? Have you ever perceived the glory of his person, and the beauty of his character? Have you so perceived Jesus as to trust in him? Have you been so enamoured of him as to have yielded yourselves to be his servants for ever? Do you take up his cross? Do you avow yourselves to be his followers, come what may? If so, then are ye saved; but if ye see not Christ with your spirit, neither do ye know him, nor shall ye enjoy a portion with him. Blessed be God, there is this to be said, that he who has once seen Christ shall always see him. The eye may sometimes gather dimness, but the light shall yet return. Where Christ hath opened a blind eye, blindness comes not back again. He take the cataract totally away. He does not give a transient gleam of spiritual sight, and then permit the soul to go back into the darkness of its grave; but the sight which he gives is the sight of things eternal, a sight which shall strengthen and grow until at the last, when death shall take away every barrier which parts us from the unseen world, we shall know even as we are know, and see even as we are seen. To see Jesus! 'Tis heaven begun! And heaven consummated is but to see Jesus, no longer through a glass darkly, but face to face still it is to see Jesus, to behold the King in his beauty. This, I say, is the sum and substance of life eternal, and it is true life here below. And now our Lord, speaking to those who had seen him, seen him truly and in spiritual recognition, talks to them concerning life. Sometimes it is ours to speak to you of death, not necessarily with gloom, for it is to the Christian illuminated with rays of heavenly light; but here and now we desire to speak of life, the best and divinest life; we will forget the raven with its dusky wing, and see only the tender, gentle dove, bearing for each one of us the olive-branch of peace and victory. We shall speak of life life of the highest possible degree: not the life which gladdens our eyes in the sunlight when we behold the flowers of the field opening their cups: this is vegetable life. Nor the life of the young lambs as they frisk, and caper, and dance for very gladness in the spring sunbeams. This is but animal life. Nor even the life that enables men to think and speak upon common themes of interest, and perform the ordinary duties of their different calling: this is but mental and social life. We reach to something higher still spiritual life, life in Christ Jesus; a life twice created; a life which is grafted, and is an advance upon the first life which we have when we are born, surpassing far the life of the flesh, because that shall by-and-bye expire; but this is a life which springs from incorruptible seed, and which liveth and abideth for ever. The text, in talking to us about life, gives us, first the assurance that Jesus lives; it the promises us that his people shall live; and it clearly states that there is a link of connection between the two things that because Jesus lives, his people shall live also. First, then: I. JESUS LIVES. He always lived. There never was a time when he was not. "Before the hills were brought forth I was there," saith he. The eternal Wisdom of God is from everlasting. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God." The life, however, which we think is intended in the text, is not his divine life, his life as Deity, but his life as man, his life as Mediator between God and man. In that life he lives. We needed not to be assured of his divine life: but seeing that, as a Mediator he died, it was necessary to assure us that as a Mediator he descended into the tomb; it is well for us to be assured that as a Mediator he rose again from his grave, and now lives at the right hand of the Father, no more to bleed and die. Jesus Christ at this time lives in his proper manhood. He lives as to his soul: his human soul is as it was on earth. He lives as to his human body. He is a man before the throne; and I have no doubt that he wears the symbol, of course, mightily glorified, of his sufferings.

"Looks like a Lamb that had been slain. And wears his priesthood still."

That very Christ, who did once as a babe lie upon his mother's breast, and who afterwards trod the waves of Gennesaret: who, after his resurrection, ate apiece of broiled fish and of honeycomb that very Christ is now before the eternal throne. In very soul and body the man Christ Jesus is there. He lives. He lives a real life. We are so very apt to mystify and becloud everything, and to suppose that Christ lives by his influence only, or lives by his Spirit. Brethren, he lives, the very man that died, as surely as he bled upon the tree, and in his own proper person, from five actual wounds poured out the warm life-torrents of his heart, so surely does he actually live at this present moment in the midst of unnumbered hearts that sound his praise the delightful object of the vision of the myriads of spirits who continually adore him. He actually lives; he really and truly lives, as he lived here below. He lives, also, actively not in some wondrous sleep of quiet and sacred repose. He is as busy now as he was when here. He proposed to himself when he went away a certain work. "I go to prepare a place for you," said he. He is preparing that place for us still. He intercedes, also, daily for his people. Oh! if your faith is strong enough, even now you can see him distinctly standing before the throne of God, pleading his glorious merits. I think I see him now as clearly as ever the Jews saw Aaron when he stood with his breast-plate on before the mercy-seat, for remember, the Jew never did see Aaron at all there, for the curtain was dropped, and Aaron was within the veil, and therefore, the Jew could only see him in his fancy. But I say I see him as clearly as that, for I see my Lord, not by fancy, but by faith. There, where the veil is rent, so that he is not hidden from my soul's gaze. I see him with my name and yours upon his breast, pleading before God. Why, gaze awhile and you may think you see him now. Just as the Jew saw Aaron, waving the censer, standing between the living and the dead, and staying the plague, even so is Christ standing at this hour between the living and the dead, and so moving the whole Deity to spare the guilty yet a little longer, whilst he makes intercession for them that they may live. And then comes his higher intercession for them that they may live. And then comes his higher intercession for his elect, of whom he says, "I pray for them; I pray not for the world." He lives, then, an actual life, of which you and I reap the daily fruits. Not a life of slumber and stillness, but an active, busy life, by which he continually dispenses gifts to us. For this reason it is well to remind you, that, therefore, Jesus can only lives as a man in one place. When we speak of Christ being found in every assembly of his people, we understand that of his presence in his Godhead and by his Holy Spirit, who rules on earth in this dispensation of the Spirit. But the man Christ can be but in one place, and he is now at the right hand of the Majesty on high. It is absurd, it is horrible both to faith and to reason, to say the Christ's body is eaten, and that his blood is drunk in tens of thousands of places wherever priests choose to offer what they call "the mass." A "mass" of profanity, indeed, it is! Our Lord Jesus Christ, as to his real, positive, corporeal presence, is not here. As to his flesh and his blood, he is not, and cannot be, here. He will be here one day, when he shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the trump of the archangel and the voice of God, but in his real person, he is now where his saints are before the throne, whence by-and-bye he will descend. Meanwhile, his spiritual presence is our joy and our gladness, but his corporeal presence a doctrine which our faith grasps and lays hold of his corporeal presence is before the throne of God, and there he lives in proper flesh and blood as the Son of Man. Brethren and sisters, listen to a brief sketch of the biography of Christ's life in glory. When the holy women and godly men wrapped him in spices, and laid him in the tomb, Jesus was dead. There for parts of three days and nights he tarried. He saw no corruption, but yet he was in the place of corruption. No worm could assail that holy thing which no sin had tainted, and yet he laid in the place where death seemed sovereign. A while he slept, and the Church mourned, but blessed was the day when, at the first rosy dawn of the light, the Saviour rose. Then could he say, "I live." His body, instinct with life, rose from its slumber, and began at once to put off the grave-clothes. He unwound the winding-sheets and the fine white linen, and laid them carefully down, and left them there, for you and me, that we might have our bed well sheeted when we come to lie in it at the last. As for the napkin, he unwound it, and laid it by itself, as though that were for us who are living, to wipe our eyes when our dear ones are taken away, since we have no cause to sorrow as they do who have no hope. And when this was done, an angel rolled away the stone, and forth came the Saviour glorious, no doubt, but so much like other men that Mary "supposed him to have been the gardener," so that there could have been no very supernatural splendour surrounding his person. He revealed himself to many of his disciples sometimes to as many as five hundred at once. He ate with them; he drank with them; he was a man among men with them, till, when forty days had passed, he gathered them all at Olivet, the mountain from which he had so often addressed them, and took his final leave. While he was blessing them, his hands outstretched in benediction, a cloud received him out of their sight. And since then he hath sat down at the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. He is tarrying there yet a little while longer. When the fulness of time shall come if I may go on with his biography he will come again. "This same Jesus," said the angels, "which is taken up from you heaven, shall so come in a like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." He will, therefore, come in proper person a second time, without a sin offering, unto salvation. Then will he gather his saints together who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice. Then shall they reign with him. Then shall the earth be covered with his glory. All nations shall bow before him, and all people shall call him blessed. And then shall come the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and God shall be all in all. But Christ shall still live, for he hath received a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, without beginning of days, or end of years a priest for ever. When suns and moons shall grow dim with age, and the round world shall all dissolve, like the morning hoar-frost, and time shall be rolled up like a vesture, and all the ages shall have been trodden out like sparks beneath the foot of the Eternal God, then shall Jesus Christ live on still, world without end. Thus have we spoken concerning Christ as living. But now, in the next place: II. LIFE IS PROMISED TO CHRIST'S PEOPLE. This does not mean their natural existence. That they have received from Adam, and, through their sin, it has become a curse to them, rather than a blessing. Should they remain unpardoned, the fact of continued existence will become to them the dreadful of calamities, since it must be an existence in God's holy abhorrence of sin for ever; driven from every glimpse or hope of forgiveness. The life which comes to us through Christ is of this sort I trust you know it in your own hearts it is life spiritual, given to us in regeneration. When the Holy Spirit quickens a dead soul, that dead soul then receives the life of Christ. No man is alive unto God spiritually, except through Christ. Because Christ lives, we live. When a dead soul gets into living contact with the living Saviour by the power of the Spirit, then it is that spiritual life begins. The very first evidence of spiritual life is trusting in Jesus, which shows that s the first symptom is alliance to Christ, the cause of the life must be somewhere here, namely, union with Christ. One of the very first outward signs is prayer prayer to Christ, and that, again, rises from the fact that Christ gives us of his life, and then that life goes back again to him. Brethren, if you seek the life of other souls, and desire to see them brought to God, preach Christ to them. Do you not see, "Because I live, ye shall live"? Then no sinner ever will live spiritually apart from Christ. Though you and I cannot quicken them, yet we can preach the gospel to them, and faith cometh by hearing, and where faith is, there life is. It is no use trying to raise the dead by preaching the law to them. That is only covering them up fairly with a lie in their right hand; but preach of dying love and of rising power, to tell of pardons bought with blood, and to declare that Christ died a substitute for sinners this is the hopeful way of bringing life to the dead. IT is by such instrumentality that souls are brought to life eternal. Because Christ is alive, his elect in due time receive spiritual life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and, although once they were dead in sin, they begin to live unto righteousness. Further, this spiritual life is preserved in us by Christ still living. "Because I continue to live, ye shall continue to live also." The text clearly means that: it bears that paraphrase. Oh! dear friends! when we once get spiritual life into us, what a thousand enemies there are who try to put it out! Many and many a time has it seemed to go hard with my soul as to whether I really had a spark of life within my spirit. Temptation after temptation have I endured until it appeared as if I must yield my hold on Christ and give up my hope. There has been conflict upon conflict, and struggle upon struggle, until at last the enemy has got his foot upon the neck, and my whole being has trembled, and had it not been for Christ's promise, "Because I live, ye shall live also," it might have gone harder with me, and I might have despaired, and given up all hope, and laid down to die. The assurance, then, that the spiritual life of the Christian must be maintained because Christ lives, was the only power to get me the victory. Let it teach us, then, this practical lesson. Whenever our spiritual life is very weak, and we want it to grow stronger, let us get to the living Christ for the supply of his strength. When you feel you are ready to die spiritually, go to the Saviour for revived life. The text is like a hand that points us to the storehouse. You who are in the desert, there is a secret spring under your feet, and you know not where it is; this is the mysterious finger which points you to the spot. Contemplate Christ; believe in Christ; draw yourselves by faith nearer and nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, and so shall your life receive a divine impetus which it has not known for many a day. "Because I live, ye shall live also." And further, brethren, we get from Christ an educated life. Any man may be spiritually alive, and yet he may not know much about the higher life. There is in spiritual life a scale of degree. One man is just alive unto God; another man may bee vigorous; another may be rapturously consecrated. I hope you and I will anxiously desire to get the highest form of spiritual life that is known. We do not wish to beggars in the kingdom of Christ, but, if we can, to take our place in the House of Peers, to be princes through Jesus Christ. We need not be poor; Christ is willing to enrich us. We are not straitened in him; we are straitened in ourselves. Now, Christ gives the promise, "Because I live," saith he, "the highest life, far above all principalities and powers, ye shall live also this higher life with me." You may have it; you may obtain it, but brethren, if you want to get it, never go to Moses for it; never go to yourselves for it. Do not seek to school yourselves by rules, and regulations, and resolutions, or by a morbid asceticism, such as some men delight in; but go the living Saviour, and in the living liberty which you will enjoy in communion with him , your soul will take unto itself wings, and mount into a clearer atmosphere: your spirit will be braced to a higher degree of robust devotion: you will draw nearer to heaven, because you have got nearer to Christ, who is the Lord of heaven. "Because I live, ye shall have life: ye shall have that life continued, and ye shall have that life yet more abundantly: I am come, not only that ye may have life, but more abundantly." There are your Master's words; plead them before your Master's throne. And now, brethren, we will go a little further. We will suppose that you are well acquainted with these forms of life, and now there comes a jerk, as it were. You are travelling along the iron road of th railway, and there comes a sudden jerk, and you stop. What is it? It is the thought of death. Well, but Jesus tells us here that that is of no consequence. It is an item in the great world of life that to you who are in him is scarcely worth consideration, because the text over-rides that, and swallows it up, as it is written "death is swallowed up in victory": it is made as though it did not exist. "Because I live, ye shall live also." Your continued life of happiness, of holiness, of spirituality, of consecration, and of obedience which, indeed is your only life worth having is guaranteed to you in the text. Death cannot interfere with it, not even by the space of a single second nay,. I tell you not even by the space of the ticking of a clock. What, a Christian die? "Because I live, ye shall live also," is never suspended. There is not time for it to be suspended in. Do you know what death really is? Does it take long to die? I have heard of men who have been said to be weeks in dying. Not so; they were weeks living; the dying occupied no space; that was done at once, and immediately. And so with the believer. To him death is so slight a jerk that he still keeps on upon the same line. He still lives, only there is this difference, that it is as though the railway had hitherto been running through a tunnel, and he now comes out of it into the open plain. His life below was the train in the tunnel, but when he dies, as we call it, there is a jerk, and then it comes right out of the tunnel into the fair, open, champaign country of heaven, where all is clear and bright, where all the birds are singing, and the darkness is over, and the mist and fogs are gone, and his soul is for ever blessed. "Because I live a life that cannot be suspended," Christ seems to say, "ye shall live also." At the bottom of every man's heart there is, I suppose, a fear of ceasing to be. Some infidels seem to find comfort in the thought of being annihilated, but that thought is, perhaps, the most abhorrent that ever crossed the human mind. There is a something which makes us hope we are, and shrink with loathing from the idea of being annihilated. Now, at that point comes in our text, and it says, "What! Annihilated! You who believe in Jesus cannot be: you shall live also, live with that higher life which you have received a life of beauty, a life of excellence, of holiness, and of God-likeness: that new life implanted within you shall never be suspended." Nay, never by the space of a single tick, for "Because I live, ye shall live also." Further, brethren, our text is such a wide on that we have a hold of the fact that we are to continue to live as to our spirits and our souls. The text beneath its sheltering wings, like a hen gathering her brood, gathers many precious truths, and the next one is that this very body of ours is to live, too. It must take its time for that. It must abide in the earth, whereon it has dwelt. It is so decreed that there it should lie, unless Christ should come before that time. But concerning this very body, there is no decree of annihilation. It will smoulder away. It may be taken up by the spade of the careless sexton, and scattered to the winds of heaven may all the atoms of the body be. But there is a life-germ within it which no human power can destroy, and over which the divine eye perpetually watches; and when that mysterious and long-expects sound of the angelic trump shall ring o'er land and sea, through heaven and earth, and the graves shall all be opened, then shall my soul find my body yet again fashioned after a more beautiful form; more fit for the spirit than aforetime; more elastic; altogether free from weakness; no longer such as shall be subject to pain, to sickness, to accident, to decay, to ultimate corruption; but a spiritual body, raised in power, in glory, and in immortality; not raised in the likeness of the first Adam in the garden, but in the likeness of the second Adam in the everlasting Paradise of God. Courage, my eyes, courage! Ye shall be closed for a while, but ye shall not be so for ever, for ye, even ye, shall strike the strings of those celestial harps that pour forth his praise. Courage, all ye members of my body, which have been sanctified to be members of Christ, and made to be parts of the Holy Spirit's temple! Ye shall all take your part in the grand triumphal entry of Christ, when he shall descend to take possession of his kingdom. "Though worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall behold for myself, and not another." So go to thy bed in the earth, poor body, and sleep there awhile. Bathe thyself like her who bathed herself in spices to make herself ready for the King, so go and get thyself prepared to meet thy Lord. Put off thy word-day dress, and put on thy Sabbath garments, thy bridal array, and then shalt thou come to the King and see him in his beauty, and crown him with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the days of his espousals. Yea, because he lives in the body which he bore, his body shall live again, also. And so, beloved, the text amounts to this, that in body and soul, the Christian shall be immortal, like his Master. When our reign on earth whether it shall last a thousand years, or a thousand ages (we know not what the Word of God intends) but when that glorified state on earth, which I do most assuredly believe in, shall be over, and it shall be said:

"Now Jehovah's banner's furled, Sheathed his sword because 'tis done";

when the drama of the mediatorial reign shall all be closed, and we shall dwell under the immediate sovereignty of God once again, then, beloved, every believer shall be with Christ, eternally glorified, for here stand the irrevocable decree and the divine mandate of creation's Lord, who is also the redeeming Lamb, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Reel, ye pillars of earth! Be shaken, ye arches of the starry heavens! Pass away, O Time, and you ye rolling worlds, dissolve into your native nothingness! But the believer must live on, because Jesus lives, and until the Lord's Christ can bow his head, till he who hath immortality can expire, till God himself can cease to be, no soul that believed in Jesus can lose the life incorruptible which God's own Spirit hath put within it. I want to sing, brethren, rather than to talk with you. These are words and thoughts fit for some ancient bard, or for the spirit of some inspired prophet sent from heaven. I do but lisp where even seraphs might find their loudest songs fail in the them. Let your hearts mount! Let your souls exult! Let your spirits be glad! Do you

"Long for evening to undress, That you may rest with God,"

and enter into his heaven? Long for the evening of death, when your toil shall be over, and the hour of your bliss shall have come. I shall have no time, I fear, for the third and last point, and, therefore, must only give a few hints of what I would have said. III. THIS LIFE IS LINKED WITH CHRIST'S LIFE. Immortal, all glorious, promised to true believers, it is bound up with the life of our immortal Lord. Why is this? First, because Christ leads a justified life. I scarcely know how to express my meaning. You understand that so long as Jesus was here he lay under the charge of our sins. Whilst he was in the world, his Father had made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all. But when he died, his death discharged all the liabilities of his elect. The handwriting of ordinances that was against us was then taken away. When he went to Calvary as our Surety, the sins of all his people were his debts: he had taken them upon himself. But when he rose from the dead in the garden that first Easter morning he had no debts of ours: he had no longer any substitutional engagement or liability. All the debts which he had taken upon himself as our Redeemer he had fully and completely discharged. No officer can arrest a man for debt who has none, and Christ now lives, therefore, as a justified person. And,. brethren, no officer of justice can arrest any of the people for whom Christ paid their debts. How, then, shall death have any dominion over those whose debts are all discharged? How shall they be laid in prison for whom Christ was laid in prison? How shall they suffer death, which is the penalty of sin, for whom Christ has already suffered all the penalties which just ice could have demanded? Because he lives the life of one who has discharged the debts of his people, they must, in justice, live. Secondly, Christ lives a representative life . He is no longer Christ for himself. As the Member of Parliament represents a town, so Jesus Christ represents all the people who are in him, and as long as he lives they live. He is their Covenant Head. As long as Adam stands, his race shall stand; when Adam falls, the human race falls. While, therefore, Christ lives, the Christly ones, who are in him, live through his representation. In the next place, Christ lives a perfect life. Perhaps you do no see how this is a link between his living and your living, but it is, because we are a part of Christ. According to the Word of Scripture, every believer is a member of Christ's body. Now, a man who lives perfectly has not lost his finger, of his arm, or his hand. A man may be alive with many of his limbs taken away, but you can scarcely call him a perfect-living man. But I cannot imagine a maimed Christ. I have never been able to conceive in my soul, of Christ lacking any of his members. Such a thing was never seen on earth. The barbarous cruelty of the Jews could not effect that, and, by the Providence of God, Pilate's officers were not permitted to cause such a thing. "Not a bone of him shall be broken," was the ancient prophecy. They brake the legs of the first and second thief, but when they came to the matchless Lord they saw he was already dead, so they brake not his legs. Even in his earthly body, which was the type of his spiritual body, he must suffer no maiming injury. Therefore, my brethren, because Christ lives as a perfect Christ, everyone that is one with him must live also. Then, fourthly, Christ lives a blessed life a life of perfect blessedness, and, therefore, we must live also. "Why?" say you. Why, look you: there is a mother here. She is alive: she is in good health, but she is not perfectly happy, for she is a Rachel weeping for her children, and will not be comforted, because they are not. Time will heal her wounds, it is true: for the most affectionate heart cannot be always mourning; but our Lord Jesus Christ in that infinitely affectionate heart of his would not only mourn over one of his children if lost, but he would mourn for ever over it. I cannot conceive of Christ being happy and losing one of his dear children. I cannot conceive Christ to be personally blessed, and yet on of the members of his own person cast into the "outer darkness." Because he lives in perfect happiness, I conceive that all who are dear to him will be round about him. It shall not be said that he lost one of them, nor shall one of the family be missing, but:

"All the chosen seed Shall meet around the throne, To bless the conduct of his grace, And make his wonders known."

And, lastly, Christ leads a triumphant life, and, therefore, ye shall live also. You say again, "How is that?" Why, brethren, the triumph of Christ concerns us. This is the triumph of Christ, "Of all those whom thou hast given me, I have lost none" Now, suppose there to be heard a whisper from the infernal pit, "aha! Aha! Thou liest! There is one here whom the Father gave thee, but who thou didst lose" why, Christ would never be able to speak again by way of triumph! He could never boast any more. Then might he put down his crown. If it were but to happen in that one case, at any rate, the enemy would have got the advantage over him, and he would hot have been the Conqueror all along the line. But, glory be to God! he who trod the winepress with none for his assistant, came forth out of the crimson conflict, having smitten all his foes, and won a complete victory. There shall not be in the whole campaign a single point over which Satan shall be able to boast. Christ has brought many sons to glory as the Captain of their salvation, and never yet has he failed, and he never shall in any point, neither the least nor the greatest, neither the strongest nor the weakest. This is essential, dear friends. It is essential to the acclamations of heaven, that every soul that believes in Jesus should live for ever. It is essential to the everlasting harmony and to the joy of Christ throughout Eternity, that all who trust in him should be preserved and kept safe, even until the end. Therefore, says the text, "Because I live, ye shall live also." So I leave this truth with you, only praying that those who have no part in this matter may seek Christ at this very time, and be led by the Spirit to cry mightily to him, and his promise is, "They that seek me early shall find me." Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found, call ye upon him whilst he is near." God bless you, for Christ's sake. Amen.