THE POWER OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
John C Gray
Philippians 3: 9-11
These matters that Paul writes to the dear saints at Philippi are very telling. First of all, righteousness “which is by faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God” is the basis on which every believer has access to Christ and to God: how wonderful that is. As we sang in our hymn (Hymn 375), through the shedding of the blood of Christ we have a ready way through - through the grace and love of God. That is a matter for all of us to lay hold of because the righteousness of God has been revealed at the cross and the power of resurrection, as it speaks of here, is the witness that God is satisfied with what has been done. Our sister was in the light of all that. It is a wonderful thing that through what has come by the righteousness of God revealed we have a settled, peaceful condition in our souls forever, and that is very reassuring. Our sister had that.
I draw attention particularly to these three things, “to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings”. First of all, “to know him”, that we might be “growing by the true knowledge of God”, Col 1: 10. The true knowledge of God is learned through our relationships with Jesus Christ. He has come into manhood that we might know Him. He is God, Jesus Christ the Son of God, He is God Himself, and so we know God through Him . “He is the true God and eternal life”, John says in 1 John 5: 20. We should know Him, and the question is, ‘How do we know Him, and do we know Him well enough?’. Our sister knew Him for many long years. How wonderful it is to take account of, and it is an important matter for us that we should have relationships with the Lord Jesus so that we can know who He is, not only in the way of our salvation but in relation to our present circumstances that He draws near and brings in the comfort and the help that is needed in every stage. We may have difficulties, we may have worries and we may have problems but to know Him is a reassurance. It is like a rock, it is a place of anchor in which we can place our confidence forever.
This matter of “the power of His resurrection”, which our brother referred to in His prayer, is a great matter: the resurrection of Christ. There was the precious body of the Lord Jesus lying in that sepulchre, and you might wonder what is going to happen, and suddenly He rises from death. “It was not possible that he should be held by its power”, the scripture says (Acts 2: 24); He could not be held by the power of death. He rose from among the dead and the Father was involved in it, “Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom 6: 4. You think of the quickening power of divine Persons operating in relation to that body: what a wonderful thing it was. If God can raise one Person, if the Lord Jesus can rise from the dead, believers who are trusting in Him will be raised from the dead. So in “the power of his resurrection”, there will be thousands, millions of persons who will rise from the dead at the first resurrection to be with Christ. The two resurrections are well known to most here. The first one will be to life, the second one to judgment after the reign of Christ for one thousand years, but the first one is the one in which we will have a part as believing in the Lord Jesus.
How fine to be in the light of the power of His resurrection. Think of persons like Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob whose bodies have been in the grave for thousands of years. You may say, ‘How will God do it?’. We underestimate the power of God. Dear friends, what a thing it is to be in the light of the power of His resurrection, and Paul says, “if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead”. That means that currently he was not only in the light of it, but in the joy of it, and in the quickening power of it, that something had happened in his life which was not natural. It takes everyone above what we were as natural sinful persons, and brings us into new life. It brings us into quickening power. How is that? It is by the power of the Spirit; the power of the Spirit of God brings us into new life, and brings us into that which God has always had in mind, that He should have persons in suitable conditions in His presence. But we are in the joy of that now. We experience that as we gather together, and our gatherings together are important because the Lord Jesus has delight in that, and in the greatness and glory of what the assembly is.
So then it says, “the fellowship of his sufferings”. That is the reproach of the Christ; we have to bear that. The Lord Jesus has been cast out of this world, crucified on the cross, and that is the last that men generally saw of Him. But believers know that something different has taken place, and so we bear the reproach of the Christ. It is a wonderful matter to take account of that. You think of our sister being among the company of the saints in assembly privileges, moving in relation to everything that was precious to God and precious to Him, and so it is a worthy matter that we have “fellowship of his sufferings”. That is, that we understand the feelings that entered into what the Lord went through on the cross when He was faced with the awfulness of being made sin on our account.
May we be encouraged to see that our sister has had a life in which she knew Him “and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death”; that is, she was among the persons who are moving in the light that this world has nothing to offer and that there is a new world, a new and living way. May we be helped and blest in it. For His Name’s sake.
Grangemouth
12th February 2018
(At the meeting for the burial of Miss L Ashton)