discovers under the mask of death. It sees, that though its appearance be terrific, yet in Christ it has lost its sting. It is like the phantom walking on the sea which approached to the terrified disciples, but it was Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour. If unknown evils that may happen in death be apprehended, the believer remembers that the very hairs of his head are all numbered. Jesus who is with him he knows will not abandon him. He will not permit him to be tempted above what he is able to bear, for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." The nature, then, of death, is changed to believers by Jesus Christ, so that "the day of their death is better than the day of their birth." Death to them is no more a curse, but a blessing, which puts an end to their sins and troubles, causing them to pass to perfect holiness and happiness, and from being absent from the Lord to carry them into his presence in paradise. From being strangers on the earth, it introduces them into their heavenly inheritance. From their wanderings and agitations here below, it brings them into the haven of everlasting rest. If the children of Israel when they arrived at the river Jordan were dismayed at the overflowings of its waters, had they not reason to rejoice when they beheld on the other side that fertile land which God had promised them, and into which they were about to enter to enjoy its fruits? But, above all, had they not cause of encouragement when they saw that the ark of the covenant was in the midst of Jordan? Death is the passage of Jordan by which believers enter the heavenly Canaan. In order that its waves may not overwhelm them in passing, Jesus Christ arrests them, since he is in his people, VOL. II. 0 and consequently with them. This was David's support, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil; for thou art with me." When the devouring lion roars around his people, ready to destroy them, Jesus himself is still nearer to defend them; and he commands his angels to encamp about them, who have in charge to bear their spirits to the paradise of God. But the spirit is life.-To the fact that the body is dead, the Apostle here opposes, as a ground of comfort, the consideration that our souls are life. The life here spoken of is the life of God in the soul; it is the new and eternal life which his Spirit communicates in regeneration. The souls of believers are possessed of this spiritual life, of which the Scriptures inform us when they say that God hath "quickened us together with Christ." "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." It is life and eternal life already possessed, and the commencement of that glorious life which shall be enjoyed in heaven. It is the blessing which the Lord commands, even life for evermore." This life, which, being borne down by so many incumbrances here, is still feeble and but imperfectly enjoyed, shall, in the world to come, flourish in full vigour and without any abatement. It is the life of our Lord and Saviour, subsisting in him and derived from him. In him his people shall rise, and live, and live for ever. He himself hath said, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die." 66 In the verse before us, we have a remarkable example of the accuracy with which the Scriptures are written. The Apostle does not say that the body is dead, and the Spirit alive or living; or that the body is death, and the spirit life. Either of these would have formed the natural contrast; but neither would have conveyed the important sense of this passage, but, on the contrary, a false one. He says the body is dead, and the spirit is life. The body is not death, that is, in a state of everlasting death. It is only dead, and shall live again. On the other hand, the spirit is not merely said to be alive, which it might be, although under sentence of death, afterwards to be inflicted; but it is life, in the sense of that declaration of our Lord, "He that hath the Son hath life." The body is dead on account of sin; that is, the body is not only mortal, but may, in some sense, be said to be already dead, being under sentence of death, and in constant progress towards dissolution. It remains with its infirmities unaltered. There is no difference between the body of the wicked man and the body of the believer. ceive a difference in their minds. is dead because of sin, according to the original sentence, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." But the spirit is life-possessed of life eternal, in virtue of its union with him who is "the life." Every one may per- Because of righteousness. Here a great difficulty is removed; for it may be said, if our bodies are dead because of sin, how is it that our souls are life, since they are stained with sin, and that it is on account of their sinfulness that our bodies are infected with the same malady? The Apostle, in answer, brings into view the righteousness of him who is in us, and shows that it is on account of his righteousness that our souls are life. And this necessarily follows; for if we have such union with our Lord and Saviour, that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, that we are his members, and if he and we are one, his righteousness must be ours; for where there is one body, there is one righteousness. On the other hand, through the same union our sins have been transferred to him, as is said by the Prophet Isaiah, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all." And the Apostle Peter says, that he "bore our sins in his own body on the tree ;" he bore their punishment. "He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." An exchange, then, of sin and righteousness has taken place. By imputation he has been made sin, and by imputation we also are made righteousness. Jesus Christ, as being the Surety of the new covenant, has appeared before God for us, and consequently his righteousness is ours. In the verse before us we have an undeniable proof of the imputation to us of righteousness, for otherwise it would be a manifest contradiction to say that we die on account of our sins, and that we have life on account of our righteousness; for what is sin but the opposite of righteousness? Whoever, then, dies on account of the sin that is in him, cannot obtain life by his own righteousness. Now, if all men die on account of sin, as the Apostle here teaches; then no man can have life by his own righteousness. V. 11.-But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. The Apostle here obviates a difficulty which might present itself from what he had said in the preceding verse, of the bodies of believers being dead though their souls have life. He now assures them that if the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in them, God will also raise up their bodies, though at present mortal. Thus he sets before them, first the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and next their own resurrection, as being his members; for he deduces their resurrection from his resurrection. Their Head has conquered death and the grave, and with him they shall overcome. Their freedom, then, from death, he rests on the same foundation on which he had already shown that their freedom from sin was secured-on Jesus Christ, the Surety of God's gracious covenant. The Apostle elsewhere proves the resurrection of the bodies of believers by comparing Jesus Christ with Adam, saying "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," 1 Cor. xv. 22. Showing that if we do not rise by virtue of Jesus Christ our Lord, Christ would be inferior to Adam. For could the sin and death of Adam have more power to subject those who were in him to death, than the righteousness and resurrection of Jesus Christ to deliver those who are in him from death? The Apostle also declares that Jesus Christ having risen from the dead has become the first fruits of them that slept, and adds "every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming." This he does for the purpose of showing that as the first fruits of the ground precede the harvest, so the first fruits of the resurrection of Christ will be followed by that great harvest, in which the bodies of believers sown in the earth after having died like grain cast into it, shall be revived and raised up. The life which has been communicated to our souls, will at the glorious resurrection be also communicated to our bodies. All |