- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE GLORY OF HIS RESURRECTION.
By Marcus Rainsford
“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6 v4).
The phrase, “Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father” is remarkable and it gives us an amazing view of our Father. It is not only the mercy of God that raised Christ from the dead, it was His glory. Nothing made God more happy than when the salvation work for sinners was accomplished. The glory that was present during the resurrection of Jesus was unparalleled in any other period of history. In Matthew 28, we read, “there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men” (v2-4).
The guards outside remind us that death and hell were watching too. Satan and all his armies would try to keep Him in the grave, but they might as well have tried to roll the stone over the sun to stop it rising than to stop the Lord Jesus Christ rising. He rose from the dead by the glory of His Father, and His work was gloriously finished. Everything about the resurrection of Jesus Christ was stamped with glory. Remember, He said before His death, “glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You” (John 17 v1). He meant His rising from the dead, His bursting the chains of the law, judgement, death and hell, and gaining liberty from all condemnation. He glorified Himself that He may glorify the Father by bringing all the redeemed to His heavenly throne. In Hebrews we are told that Christ in His resurrection entered into the priesthood, this was His glory. “In the same way, Christ did not take on Himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to Him, ‘You are My Son, today I have become Your Father’” (Hebrews 5 v5). This refers to the resurrection, and to the fact that the Father glorified Him. Also, it was the glorifying of Him when He took the position of our priest in which He lives forever to intercede for us, and for all those who come to God through Him.
There is another beautiful passage where you will find the reason why God raised Him from the death. He, “was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God” (1 Peter 1 v20-21). If you are a believer, listen to this, “through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God”.
May you trust on Him, in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2 v9). From this fullness the believer draws grace for forgiveness, instruction, comfort, living, dying, resurrection, judgement and for glory. We need vessels to draw with, the well is deep and the supply is limited only by the littleness of our faith. Our souls are often occupied with other things, our minds are full of the world, cares, worries and vanity, instead of being filled with Jesus Christ. May the Lord increase our faith so that we will live more upon His fullness, and as we live in Him, we shall walk in newness of life.
The Lord again teaches us wonderful truths in Romans 6, verse 5. We have baptism to teach us about our union with Him by the Spirit, that we are immersed into Him, incorporated into Him, hidden in Him and our natural selves are gone. Baptism teaches us that we have gone down into death and come up into life, and that we are identified with Him evermore. Truly this is a wonderful picture of union with Christ, for it is written, “if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (v5).
Union in Christ can be illustrated as the idea of being planted with Him in His death. The Lord says in John 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (v5). One plant made up of one root and many branches, in this case the root is Christ and the branches are you and I grafted in, when we believe. The Plant, like a root out of dry ground, had no beauty or majesty to attract us (Isaiah 53 v2). He made Himself nothing and emptied Himself of all His glory, becoming a withered plant and went down into death that we might be planted in the same ground and in the same grave. For example, in winter a plant is put into the ground but it has no appearance of life, there are no buds, blossoms or fruit. But if it is not put into the ground there will never be any buds, blossoms or fruit. So He was crucified in weakness, and fulfilled His own words, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12 v24). Here we have the planting of the Tree of Life, which springing up in the resurrection, bears twelve crops of fruit, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22 v2). We are planted in union with Him, and united with Him in a resurrection like His. When the spring comes, and the light and water of God operates upon the plant, we know that this results in beautiful buds, leaves, blossoms and fruit growing. The branches that are planted with the root in winter are the same branches which contain its fragrance and beauty in summer. It was winter with Jesus when He was buried, but spring and summer are coming when the Tree of Life shall produce its fruit, and we shall be like Him with a resurrected body.
It is a great thing to see our union with Christ. He is the root, the life, the fullness, and the supply. Grace and glory are also found in Him. As believers we should take much interest in this, because He puts His fullness into empty vessels. In winter the sap of a plant goes down into the root and the branches seem dry and dead. This is like us now, yet the life is all in the root. I believe that if God were to put His fullness into us while we are in this body, we would take all the credit ourselves. No, in Himself He keeps the grace and strength at His own disposal and gives it out little by little. Then when we get rid of this body of sin and death, there will be nothing to slow down the full flow of His grace and glory that are in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will place the crown on His head and not our own heads.
For the time being, let us seek to live in the knowledge that our life is in Him. Let us draw on Him daily for the supply of our needs, and learn to live the life we now live in the flesh by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Then, when we walk in darkness and have no light, we must trust in the name of the Lord, and when the light shines and the leaves are beautiful, and the blossom is sweet, we must give Him credit for the supply and blessing. And, “though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour” (Habakkuk 3 v17-18).
Please realise that our springs are in Him, and though the branches may seem to be withering, yet the root is strong, “for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6 v5).
From a sermon in 1870.