Heart Reviving Subject!

"Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." -I Corinthians 15:20 [KJV]

 

One view more, my soul, while thou art meditating upon this delightful subject of thy Redeemer's triumph over death and the grave, and now look at Jesus's resurrection as a sure pledge and confirmation of thine own. Did Jesus's holy body arise? Then so shall thine, sinful and polluted as it now is, but then made a glorified body by virtue of thy union with Him. For so saith the Holy Ghost, by His servant the apostle "He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. For 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" [Philippians 3:21 Romans 8:11].  

 

Pause then, my soul, and rejoice in this glorious and transporting doctrine. As sure as Jesus arose, so sure shall all His people; for Jesus arose as the first fruits. Jesus arose not as a private person, but as the public Head. Never call to mind the resurrection of Jesus, but be sure to connect always with it this blessed view of the subject—every redeemed believer is part of Christ's body. And as we are by nature part of the first Adam, and die, from our union and connection, and being of the same nature with him; so, by grace, being part of Christ's mystical body, who is called in scripture, particularly on this account, the second Adam, His people are interested in all that concerns Him; and because He liveth, they must live also. Hence He is called the first fruits, the first-born from the dead. And as all the after fruits of the harvest follow the first fruits; so the saints, born again in God, follow the first-born from the dead to glory.  

 

Oh heart reviving subject! The eyes that now read these lines, and the hand that now writes them, is a part of Christ's mystical body by regeneration, must assuredly be a part in the resurrection. In the eye of the law they are one. Jesus is the head of His body the church: and how incomplete in glory would be that glorious Head without the whole and every individual member of His fair one, His spouse, which He hath betrothed to Himself for ever. Shout then, my soul, and shout aloud, and say with Job—"Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." My flesh shall moulder indeed, in the dust, and see corruption. And so would I have it to be. Vile and polluted as it now is, and fighting as it now doth against my soul's desires and affections, methinks I would not, if it were possible, take it with me to heaven as it now is. But when Jesus shall change this vile body, and have fashioned it like unto His glorious body, then it will be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; and then soul and body, united together in love, and both united to the Lord, will form one united object to praise and glorify God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to all eternity!  

 

My soul, dwell upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; and as thou believest that Jesus died and rose again, so equally believe also, that all they that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this the apostle had in commission from the Lord to tell all true believers, that when Jesus shall "descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall arise; and then they which remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord." Oh for grace to comfort one another with these words! 

 

-preacher Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)

April 20th, THE POOR MAN'S MORNING PORTION

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