Character of Jesus

The Second Birth

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit, the unbelieving life

If ye then be risen with Christ… – Colossians 3:1

All who believe in Christ are risen with Christ. Let us meditate on this Truth of God.

We were “dead in trespasses and sins,” but having believed in Christ we have been quickened by the Holy Spirit, and we are dead no longer! There we lay in the tomb, ready to become corrupt—yes, some of us were corrupt—the marks of the worm of sin were upon our character and the foul stench of actual sin arose from us. More or less, according to the length of time in which we abode in that death and according to the circumstances with which we were surrounded, death worked in us corruption. We lay in our death quite unable to raise ourselves. Ours were eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear; a heart that could not love and withered hands that could not be stretched out to give the touch of faith….We were, therefore, in a state of spiritual death of the most fearful kind. The Holy Spirit visited us and made us live. We remember the first sensation of life, some of us—how it seemed to tingle in our soul’s veins with sharp and bitter pain—just as drowning persons, when life is coming back to them, suffer great pain. Conviction was worked in us and confession of sin. A dread of judgment to come and a sense of present condemnation were present, but these were tokens of life and that life gradually deepened and opened up until the eyes were opened—we could see Christ! Our hands ceased to be withered and we stretched them out and touched His garment’s hem….Then the eyes, not content with only seeing, fell to weeping and afterwards, when the tears were wiped away, they flashed and sparkled with delight. And oh, my Brothers and Sisters, believers in Jesus, you were not spiritually dead any longer!..Now, Beloved, you are new creatures—the product of a second birth, begotten again in Christ Jesus unto newness of life! Christ is your life—such a life as you never knew before, nor could have known apart from Him. If you then are risen with Christ you walk in newness of life while the world abides in death!

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

The Resurrection Blessing

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. – Colossians 3:1

Important to the fact of the Resurrection is the doctrine of the federal headship of Christ and the unity of all His people with Him. It is because we are in Christ that we become partakers of everything that Christ did—we are circumcised with Him, dead with Him, buried with Him, risen with Him because we cannot be separated from Him. We are members of His body and not a bone of Him can be broken. Because that union is most intimate, continuous and indissoluble, therefore all that concerns Him concerns us and as He rose, so all His people have arisen in Him! They are risen in two ways.

First, representatively. All the elect rose in Christ in the day when He quit the tomb. He was justified or declared to be clear of all liabilities on account of our sins by being set free from the prison of the tomb. There was no reason for detaining Him in the sepulcher, for He had discharged the debts of His people by dying “unto sin once.” … “Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God.” (Romans 6:1,8,9)

Next to this representative resurrection comes our spiritual resurrection, which is ours as soon as we are led by faith to believe in Jesus Christ. Then it may be said of us, “And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) The resurrection blessing is to be perfected, by-and-by, at the appearing of our Lord and Savior, for then our bodies shall rise again if we fall asleep before His coming. He redeemed our manhood in its entirety—spirit, soul and body—and He will not be content until the resurrection which has passed upon our spirit shall pass upon our body, too. 

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

On the First Day of the Week

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3:1

Wake up any Lord’s-Day you please, whether in the depth of winter, or in the warmth of summer and you may sing—

“Today He rose and left the dead,
And Satan’s empire fell!
Today the saints
His triumph spread,
And all His wonders tell.”

We gather together on the first, rather than upon the seventh day of the week, because redemption is even a greater work than creation and more worthy of commemoration and because the rest which followed creation is far outdone by that which ensues upon the completion of redemption! Like the Apostles, we meet on the first day of the week and hope that Jesus may stand in our midst and say, “Peace be unto you.”

Our Lord has lifted the Sabbath from the old and rusted hinges whereon the Law had placed it long before and set it on the new golden hinges which His love has fashioned. He has placed our rest day, not at the end of a week of toil, but at the beginning of the rest which remains for the people of God. Every first day of the week we should meditate upon the rising of our Lord and seek to enter into fellowship with Him in His risen life. Never let us forget that all who are in Him rose from the dead in His rising.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

The Keystone of Our Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils…After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country…Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat… – Mark 16:9,12,14

The resurrection of our Divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might more accurately call it the keystone of the arch of Christianity, for if that fact could be disproved, the whole fabric of the Gospel would fall to the ground. If Jesus Christ is not risen, then is our preaching in vain and your faith is also in vain—you are yet in your sins. If Christ is not risen, then they which have fallen asleep in Christ have perished and we, ourselves, in missing so glorious a hope as that of Resurrection, are, of all men, the most miserable! Because of the great importance of His Resurrection, our Lord was pleased to give many infallible proofs of it, by appearing again and again in the midst of His followers.

These appearances were very varied. Sometimes He gave an interview to one alone, either to a man, as to Cephas, or to a woman, as to Magdalene. He conversed with two of His followers as they went to Emmaus and with the company of the Apostles by the sea. We find Him at one moment among the 11 when the doors were shut for fear of the Jews and at another time in the midst of an assembly of more than 500 brethren, who, years later, were, most of them, living witnesses to the fact.

They could not all have been deceived. It is not possible that any historical fact could have been placed upon a better basis of credibility than the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead. This is put beyond all dispute and question, and it was done on purpose because it is essential to the whole Christian system. For this same cause the Resurrection of Christ is commemorated frequently…and for this reason every Lord’s-Day is the memorial of our Lord’s Resurrection.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Openly Avow Your Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

And stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. – Luke 7:38

And he cried, saying, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. – Luke 18:38

The faith of the woman and the beggar was alike in being openly avowed. I will not say that the avowal took the same form in both, for it did not; but still it was equally open. There is the Saviour, and there comes the weeping penitent. She loves Him. Is she ashamed to say so? It may bring her reproach; it will certainly rake up the old reproaches against her, for she has been a sinner. Never mind what she has been, nor who may be present to see her. She loves her Lord, and she will show it…She avowed her faith.

And so did the blind man. He did not sit there and say, “I know He is the Son of David, but I must not say it.” They said, some of them contemptuously, and others indifferently, “It is Jesus of Nazareth.” But he will not have it so. “Thou Son of David,” saith he; and loud above their noise I hear him cry, like a herald proclaiming the King, “Son of David.” Why, sirs, it seems to me he was exalted to a high office: he became the herald of the King and proclaimed Him…The blind beggar showed great decision and courage. He cried in effect, “Son of David Thou art; Son of David I proclaim Thee; Son of David Thou shalt be proclaimed, whoever may gainsay it…

Are there any of you who have a faith in Christ which you are ashamed of? …so also, will Christ be ashamed of you when He cometh in the glory of His Father and all His holy angels with Him… If you love Him, say it. Put on your Master’s regimentals, enlist in His army, and come forward and declare, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

All True Faith is Opposed

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. – Luke 7:39

And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace… – Luke 18:39

The woman’s faith, and the blind man’s faith, was alike in defying and conquering opposition. Little do we know the inward struggles of the penitent as she crossed the threshold of Simon’s house. “He will repel thee,” the stern, cold Pharisee will say, “Get thee gone, thou strumpet; how darest thou defile the doors of honest men.” But whatever may happen she passes through the door, she comes to where the feet of the Saviour are stretched out towards the entrance as He is reclining at the table, and there she stands. Simon glanced at her: he thought the glance would wither her, but her love to Christ was too well rooted to be withered by him…Her Lord was there, and she felt safe. Timid as a dove, she trembled not while He was near; but she returned no defiant glances for Simon’s haughty looks; her eyes were occupied with weeping…Her Lord, her Lord, was all to her. She overcame through faith in Him, and held her ground, and did not leave the house till He dismissed her with “Go in peace.”

It was the same with the blind man. He said, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” They cried, “Hush! Why these clamours, blind beggar? His eloquence is music; do not interrupt Him. Never man spake as He is speaking. Every tone rings like the harps of the angels. Hush! How darest thou spoil His discourse?” But over and above them all went up the importunate prayer, “Son of David, have mercy upon me,” and he prevailed. All true faith is opposed…faith must wage war for its existence.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

Unworthy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God

And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. – Luke 7:37-38

And it came to pass, that as He was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging…And he cried, saying, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. – Luke 18:35,38-39

The faith of these two was alike in its confession of unworthiness. What meant her standing behind? What meant her tears, her ever flowing tears, but that she felt unworthy to draw near to Jesus? And what meant the beggar’s cry, “Have mercy on me?” Note the stress he lays upon it. “Have mercy on me.” He does not claim the cure by merit, nor ask it as a reward. To mercy he appealed. Now I care not whose faith it is, whether it be that of David in his bitter cries of the fifty-first Psalm, or whether it be that of Paul in his highest exaltation upon being without condemnation through Christ, there is always in connection with true faith a thorough and deep sense that it is mercy, mercy alone, which saves us from the wrath to come. Dear hearer, do not deceive yourself. Faith and boasting are as opposite to one another as the two poles. If you come before Christ with your righteousness in your hand, you come without faith; but if you come with faith, you must also come with confession of sin, for true faith always walks hand in hand with a deep sense of guiltiness before the Most High. This is so in every case.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon