Christ the Believer's Life
He is the believer’s life, because he has redeemed himfrwn death. The sentence of death, eternal death, has gone forth against every sinner. “The wages of sin is death.77” Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.77 From this curse all believers are delivered by Christ, who endured the curse for them. To such “there is no condemnation ;77 and they are adopted into the family of God, and made heirs of eternal life. They stand completely justified on account of the perfect righteousness of their Surety. This exemption from death, and title to life, could in no other way be obtained than by Christ’s making a sacrifice of his own precious life. Christ is held forth as a Redeemer, and his great work as a redemption. The persons redeemed are condemned criminals, who can be released in no other way than by the payment of a ransom. This Christ has paid, satisfying, by his” obedience unto death/7 both law and justice. Thus the believer has life, not by virtue of his own obedience, but only through Christ. His union with Christ gives him a title to the life which he has procured.
Again, Christ is the source of spiritual life to the believer. By nature all men are dead in trespasses and sins. Spiritual life was lost to the whole human race by the transgression of Adam. If there were only a spark of life in the human soul, it might be cherished, and by assiduous culture, might grow to maturity. But in man’s corrupt nature there dwelleth no good thing. All the thoughts and imaginations of his heart are “only evil continually.” To introduce life into the depraved soul, as much requires the exertion of omnipotence as to create man at first. God, who caused light to shine out of darkness, must shine into the heart. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which Christ sends forth, the soul is united to Christ, and from him derives life. Just as the branch derives nutriment from the vine, so the believer receives from Christ, his spiritual head, vital influences, by which he lives. This communication of life is called regeneration, or the new birth. Persons who experience this change are “born of the Spirit,” “born from above.”
And as Christ is the author of this life in its commencement, so he is the cause of its preservation and growth. Every kind of life requires nourishment; and this spiritual principle, called by the apostle “the new man,” must be fed. Christians are compared to “new-born babes,” who naturally thirst for the pure milk of the word, that they may grow thereby. Their growth depends very much on their increase in knowledge; the word of God, therefore, is the means of the believer’s advancement in the divine life. By the Spirit of Christ the word is made effectual; and Christ himself is the sum and substance of the word. The word testifies of him. The word exhibits Christ as “the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” As the body is supported and made to grow by bread, which is called “the staff of life,” so Christ is “the bread that came down from heaven.” The believer eats his flesh and drinks his blood, “not after a corporeal and carnal manner, but by faith.” “The flesh profiteth nothing.” Christ guards against any gross interpretation of his words by saying, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Spiritual life cannot be nourished by flesh.
Another respect in which Christ is the life of the believer, is the resurrection of the body. “I am,” says he, “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.” “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The bodies of believers are united to Christ as well as their souls. The saints do therefore wait and hope for “the redemption of the body,” and they shall not be disappointed. For we “look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
Finally, Christ will be the source of the believer’s life through eternity. The union between Christ and his members shall never be dissolved. He will for ever be the fountain from which their happiness flows. “He that hath the Son, hath life.” “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” How emphatically may it then be said, that Christ is the believer’s life. He is indeed “all in all.” And they who have received the Lord Jesus, possess every thing which they can really need. They are complete in him; for “of God, he is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” “All things are theirs, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are theirs: and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” A. A.
answer to prayer long deferred.
Half a century past, the writer was accustomed to frequent places of worship where the houses were situated in a grove, or rather in the midst of the trees of a dense forest, and far from any human habitation. Although the meeting-houses, as they were then called, were frequently unfurnished — a mere shell without ceiling — yet there was a solemnity in these places of worship which was better adapted to promote devotion, than all the most splendid achievements of architecture. No sombre light let in through painted windows ever affected my mind like the solemn shade and stillness of the natural growth of the forest.
On a certain occasion, when the Lord’s supper was about to be solemnized in one of these humble churches, I went early, that I might avoid the conversation and dust of the multitude on the road, and might have an opportunity of solitary meditation under the venerable trees which encompassed the house of prayer. I thought surely that I should be first on the ground; but I was mistaken. I saw an elderly gentleman, who had just secured his horse to a bough of a tree, coming towards the house to meet me; and upon his nearing me, I recognized an old acquaintance, at whose house I had lodged in my journeyings more than once. He had formerly been an elder in a Presbyterian church of some note, but had removed into a neighborhood where there were then scarcely any Presbyterians. Travelling ministers, however, often called upon him and preached in his house, or at some place in his vicinity. As I believed him to be a very pious man, well informed and zealous for the truth, I was pleased to meet with him and hold communion with him.
After some general remarks, we got upon the subject of the efficacy of prayer; and as I was young, and he was aged and experienced, I was glad to throw the burden of the conversation on him, and he was not unwilling to speak on a subject which seemed to lie near his heart. In the course of conversation, he related to me a piece of his own experience. He said that his oldest son, who was a lawyer of some eminence, had as unblemished a moral character as any man in the land; and yet, though respectful to religion, he never had manifested any serious concern about his own salvation. “But/7 said he, “I have had such nearness to God, and such liberty in prayer for his conversion, that I believe those prayers will be answered in due time, whether I live to see it or