In Christ - Our Covenant Head
"And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus."
-EPHESIANS
2:6 [KJV]
There
is a distinction between being quickened together with Christ and
being raised up together with Him. Is not this true in the experience
of God's people? To be quickened into divine life, to be convinced of
sin, to have the fear of God planted deeply in the soul, is the
commencement of a work of grace. But this is not a deliverance, not a
being raised up out of darkness, bondage, doubt, guilt, and fear.
This is not a knowledge of Christ, and the power of His resurrection;
this is not a full coming out of the dark and silent tomb into the
glorious light and warmth of day.
But
here is the great blessedness of a mystical union with the Lord Jesus
Christ that, as by virtue of interest in Him
there is a partaking of the benefit and power of his
having been quickened, so there is a partaking in the benefit and
power of his having been raised up. God does not quicken a soul into
divine life to let it remain in the dark tomb of doubt, fear, guilt,
and bondage. In raising up Christ there was not only a pledge of the
spiritual, but a virtual resurrection of the members of His
body. Liberty, then, the liberty of the gospel, deliverance from all
doubt and fear, the manifestation of pardon and peace, the shedding
abroad of the love of God in the heart, are blessings as much assured
to the members of Christ's mystical body as their first quickening
into spiritual life, and both are equally assured them in Christ
their covenant Head.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
January
28th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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