We do not agree with every point this author makes, but in general, we find it quite Biblical - ed.
It should ever be borne in mind that the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus are contemplated when he said to be "our life," to live in us, and to be a "quickening Spirit." He did not, in truth, obtain or become possessed of this communicable and spiritual life by means of his death and resurrection. For when he came from heaven, he had the same life in himself, and he had also communicated it to the children of faith before his death on the cross, yay, even from the days of Abel. But it was in resurrection that according to the counsel of God. He was formally constituted as the Head of Life, to his body, the church, the last atom, and the life-giving Spirit. Consequently, the life of Christ in his saints, which is essentially spiritual, is characteristically resurrection life.
The vital union subsisting between Christ and the members of his body are variously illustrated. The simile of the vine and its branches is full of interest and instruction.
All true figures are founded on real facts. The life of the vine is in the branches which are themselves the development of that same life, and by virtue of community of life, they are in the vine. The fruitfulness of the branches depends on their partaking of the fruit-bearing life and energy of the vine and it is by means of the branches that the life and fruitfulness of the root are manifested. Even so. It is purely by virtue of union and communion of life in Christ, and in his members that the life of Christ is now manifested in their mortal bodies, and that day as the children of God bring forth the "fruit of the Spirit fruit unto God." And thus do they practically show forth the praises of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.
By virtue also of this Union and the communion of life in Christ, All Saints have the Reality of union and community among themselves. For they are all one in him who is their living immortal head. In this, the desire of his own heart is now virtually, and shall hereafter be formally realized. That desire he expressed to the Father when he said: "That they all may be one, as you, father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. And again, "I in them, and you and me, "That they may be perfect in one." And when he had informed his disciples of his being about to appear to them immediately after, he should have risen from the dead, he said: "At that day you shall know that I am in my father, and you, in me, and I and you." Hereby we are assured, "That the knowledge of this spiritual perfect and indissoluble union and communion was committed to the church, on that evening of that day on which "the last Adam" was formerly constituted the Head of Life - the "quickening Spirit."
7. Spiritual life is essentially everlasting, eternal, endless life. John 6.57; 6.8; 10.; 7.16; I John 5. 11, 12.
Spiritual life has been already variously considered. As to its seminal principle, it is the "incorruptible seed" of "the incorruptible God." In its own essential nature, it "is spirit." In its radical constitution, it is the "new man" and the "inner man." As the new element and basis of a new and spiritual state and character of being, it is emphatically called "the spirit." And is considered in connection with Christ, the risen and immortal Head of the church, it is his own communicable life; and as identified with himself, even as he is declared to be that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to the faith of those to whom the Father had revealed him.
All who are in Christ's live by him. He lives in them, and because he lives, they also live. "For this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. He that has the son has life, and he that has not the son of God has not life. All, therefore, who had the son can never perish, never die, never see death, never taste of death.
Spiritual life, which is eternal life is frequently treated of in the scriptures as a present possession and also as a future and matured realization, even as "salvation" is regarded in one respect, as a present and personal fact and in another as a future and then consummated reality.
As a present and inward possession, eternal life is the germ of immortality, the commencement and incipient principle of an endless and incorruptible existence. As a future and then matured realization, it is a special object of divine promise and an inevitable object of good and blessed hope.
Those in whom this life now is are in various ways contrasted with the rest of mankind; but in no respect is this contrast more prominent than with regard to their immortality or endless life. As those who are in Christ Jesus and in whom he does truly perpetually live. Being born again of incorruptible seed, the seed of God, and being those also in whom the spirit of God does himself truly and eternally dwell. They are genuine and incorruptible offspring of the living and incorruptible God who only has immortality.
We have now obtained from the oracles of God a sevenfold answer to the question what is spiritual life?
But in order to complete the outline of the revealed doctrine of spiritual life, and thus of "the words of eternal life," It must be further stated:
A. That spiritual and eternal life is the free gift of God. And it's bestowed exclusively on the ground of perfect righteousness.
According to the laws and sanctions of the wise and Holy Government of God, while innocency and soulual life were conjoined in the state of man as created and made in the image of God. sin and death are conjoined in the state of man, as having by disobedience, depraved his being and disinherited himself, and (in himself) his posterity of, that life which in his primitive state of innocency was a life not subject to death.
So also, in the manifold wisdom of God according to his eternal purpose and grace in Christ Jesus. "According to the promise of life in Christ and the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began" Perfect righteousness and spiritual life are in like manner conjoined, "That as sin has reigned unto death, even so, my grace reigned through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord."
"By this disobedience of one man, many were made sinners." And by that one disobedience sin has in truth "reigned unto death." "But by the obedience of one shall be many be made righteous." "And if by one man's offense, death reigned by one more who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign." On life by one Jesus Christ. "For God has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be, made the righteousness of God in him." Redemption in the blood of Christ is the only ground and medium of the forgiveness of sins. By his blood and in his righteousness alone, the ransomed of the Lord are justified and accounted righteous before him who is glorious in holiness. That righteousness, the son of God, Jesus Christ, wrought out in our common and enfeebled human nature, and brought in by his death upon a cross, as the perfect title of his church to eternal life. He had assumed the reality and integrity of man's nature into personal union with this deity. But in him, that nature was unstained by human sinfulness, that he might do the will of his father, and in it, he finished the work which the father had given him to do. He, therefore, glorified his father on Earth, glorified him perfectly, infinitely, and forever in our redemption and the "gift of eternal life." "For by one offering, he has perfected forever those that are sanctified."
By his one obedience, he practically and entirely met and fulfilled the original claims of God on man the claims of the title of God, the creator to the perfect and supreme love, confidence, and elegance of man as his creature and subject. He, Jesus, the son of God, did also, and with unutterable sorrows estimate in his own soul the exceeding sinfulness and dark malignity of sin. Though "in him was no sin," yet his soul entered spontaneously and under the governmental hand of God his Holy Father, into a correct and perfect estimate of man's moral distance from God, and of the infinite oppositeness of divine holiness to human sin, and therefore of the demerit, guiltiness, and condemnation involved in that sin and in the moral relations of sinners to the holy Government of God. But this oppressive exercise of moral judgment, this afflictive estimate of the deep and intrinsic evil of sin was experimentally entered into by him as standing himself ever in perfect moral nearness of God. As ever, delighting in his Father's holiness and also in doing his will as being in the accepted position of redeeming service, and as consciously doing always the things that pleased his father as the beloved son in whom the father ever was and is well pleased. Yay as the "only begotten Son," who is in the bosom of the Father, even the elect of Jehovah, and in whom his soul delights with infinite complacency.
By his obedience "to death, even the death of the cross," the incarnate Son Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. His death upon the cross was to requisite vindication of the Holiness of God, considered in its absolute oppositeness to sin and to sinners, as identified with sin, and also in its relations to the exercise and manifestation of grace, in the justification of sinners and the gift of eternal life. In all these respects his death was an infinite vindication of the Holiness of God, and in his cross, the righteousness of God in the forgiveness of sins was fully and forever declared.
The atonement which Jesus made by his "one offering" is of eternal and infinite value and efficacy. This is the value of his blood, its own intrinsic worth. For the value of that precious blood depends upon, and arises from, the mysterious and glorious reality of who, and what he is in himself. The estimable value of that blood is in no sense the nature and extent of the revealed penalty of disobedience, the wages of sin. Neither is it dependent on the nature, character, and endless perpetuity of salvation. Nor is it dependent on the constituted and federal relations of his atonement to the moral government and the Holy Wrath of God. In a word, it is independent of everything and of every consideration extrinsic to himself. For it arises from, and depends alone upon the eternal and infinite, worth, dignity, and excellencies of his own mysterious person. The God-man, the Christ, the son of the living. And so it is written: "Feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood."
His "one offering" "the sacrifice of himself," is the only one possible or conceivable atonement for the sins of this and the souls of men. His vicarious blood-shedding upon the cross is the one only consistent and sufficient ground upon which God, the judge of all, ever could, or ever can say over the head of a sinner and the words of grace and truth: "Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more." As the federal head and substitute of the church, the Lord Jesus "himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree." The church was thus, in a judgment of God, identified with him in the death of the cross, and in the burial subsequent thereto. by this is substitutional death. He did for that church make an end to sins and brings in everlasting righteousness. And as the Head and representative of the church, he was raised from the dead and entered into the holiest of all by his own blood. And after he had there presented his church in himself, in the value of his blood and the perfection of his righteousness, he sat down at the right Hand of God, "being a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." His federal and imputed righteousness, even the righteousness of God, is accounted the righteousness of his body, the church, and this his federal title. To resurrection-life, and immortality is accounted that of his church, and on the ground of this righteous title the gift of spiritual and everlasting life bestowed on all who believe in Him; even on "as many as were ordained unto eternal life."
2. The perfect development in and mature realization of spiritual life, will be in the resurrection state of "the Sons of God."
By a process of forcible argument, the apostle Paul defended the doctrine of the future resurrection of the saints in spiritually, but really embodied life. In so doing, he represents their future, that is, their resurrection state in the light of contrast. This contrast is that subsisting between corruption and incorruption, dishonor and glory, weakness and power, and also between that which is soulual, and that which is spiritual. These contrasts are all founded in the existent and opposite facts of a soulual body and a spiritual body. And these opposite facts are attributed to the two opposite constitutions of the first man, Adam, and the last man, the first having been made a living soul and the last having been constituted "a life-giving spirit."
A soulual body is that constitution of embodied life that Adam possessed by creation. But which he forfeited or judicially lost by disobedience according to the laws and sanctions of the benevolent and righteous government of God.
"A spiritual body" is that constitution and state of existence in which the humanity of the risen and immortal son of God now is as being a constituent of his glorified person, who is God and man, in one person forever. It is very true and most necessary to be believed that when the Word was made flesh, he assumed a soulual nature into personal union with his deity. And that in and according to the same feeble nature, he here on Earth obeyed, and suffered, and died. It is also true that no change was visible in the state of his humanity either after his resurrection or at anytime previous to His ascension from the Mount of Olives. And further, it is true that he carried with him in his own person the integrity of his human nature to the right hand of the throne of God. But when he returned unto the father, and before he was glorified with the glory which he had with him before the world was his, humanity underwent a change, a great and glorious change. He had before condescended out of his divine mode of existence into that which is human and soulual, and thus. Adapted himself to the humiliation into which he came. And when he returned to enter into his glory, he changed the state of his humanity from that which is soulual to that which is spiritual, and thus adapted it to the proper glories of his person, and to his rightful place at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. The days of his flesh ended with the clothes of his history upon Earth. And therefore, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth, we know him no more.
The spiritual body of the saint. is his own body, as redeemed and by resurrection, or by an equivalent change, divested of all of its soulual characteristics, and as reconstituted according to, and also deriving its character from, that which is born of the Spirit and "is spirit." In the spiritual body or spiritually embodied, the saints shall be found to be perfectly conformed, said a glorified state of the "man Christ Jesus." In his own wisdom and love, God has from the beginning predestinated them to be conformed to the image of his son in a resurrection state of immortality. That he might be the firstborn among many brethren. "For as they have borne the image of the earthly man, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. Who at his coming again shall change their vile body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able even to subject all things to himself."
The resurrection of the sons of God is distinctively the resurrection-life. They shall rise by virtue of their real and spiritual union with him who has already risen. And who is the life, our life. Yay, the resurrection and the life. They will rise by virtue of their present and personal and incipient possession of spiritual internal life. And also by virtue of the present and perpetual indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And thus from these united these inward, spiritual, and divine causes, they will rise spiritual and not soulual. That which is not corruptible shall put on incorruption, and that which is now mortal shall put on immortality. Yay, the "mortal shall be swallowed up of life, and henceforth they cannot die anymore, for they are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection, and are essentially, one with Him who was made Priest "after the power of an endless life."
But the ungodly are not so. They are entirely soulual and in no sense spiritual. In, and according to this Constitution and state of being, they both live and die. They also die in their sins, and their souls, which in truth survive, are in Hades, the prison of the righteous judge until the judgment of the Great Day. They too shall in the end be raised by the power of Christ, "for all who are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth." They shall come forth. But they shall never see life. They shall come forth, but it shall be unto the resurrection of judgment and condemnation, even the judgment of the lake of fire, the second death, from which there is no resurrection and no possible escape for them. And on their behalf there is and can be no possible or conceivable atonement, no reconciliation for iniquity, no satisfaction for their life. They shall come forth unto indignation and wrath, tribulation, and anguish, according to their individual guiltiness and the distributive justice of God, and until the final infliction of the extreme sentence of death originally recorded against the Earth, the and disobedient man, according to the holy, just, and good laws and principles; the government of him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and in whose unlimited presence no evil of any kind shall abide.
To entertain the thought that those who are only "born of the flesh," and who are not in the spirit but in the flesh, who live and die soulual and not spiritual, and who die in their sins. To entertain the thought that they shall ever be raised spiritual is to confound every distinctive and distinguishable idea of inspired and Christian truth. And to entertain the belief that such a person shall ever be made subjects of the applied power of redemption and that they also, though at the end shall eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God, and thus live forever, is to entertain strong delusion, and to believe a lie, even the original lie of the great Deceiver, who with the Dragons daring, and serpents guile said unto the woman: "You shall not surely die." "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory."
3. The proper position and state of mature spiritual life are heaven and glory.
The present actings of spiritual life are all towards heaven and that which is heavenly. The place of present and conscious repose, and yet of active blessedness to the "spirits of just men, made perfect," is heaven. They are "absent from the body and present with the Lord." The appointed and wisely adapted inheritance of the first, the earthy man was the earth. And that place specially prepared for him was the Garden of Eden. That inheritance was enriched and beautified with all conceivable objects and appliances of innocent delight. And then it might be blessed and enjoyed, God gave the best and most precious gift of creative goodness, and that was life, intelligent and moral life, life in his own image and likeness, life by virtue of which man could enjoy all the resources of Eden and of the Earth and enjoy God in all. But that life was marred, depraved, and forfeited by disobedience, and with it, the earthly inheritance, with all its resources, was in like manner forfeited. And mere soulual humanity, together with its once appointed inheritance, are alike corruptible and defiled and shall fade away, be burnt up, and perish.
But spiritual humanity - which has its origin in heaven and God shall endure forever. The children of God are begotten to "a living hope," and to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading which is reserved in heaven for them and is ready to be revealed in the last time. This inheritance can never be forfeited for the life by virtue of which it shall be possessed and enjoyed is a spiritual, eternal, and unforgettable life, and the children of God shall inherit the things which God has prepared for them, that love him on the ground, entitle of their being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ Jesus.
The proper home of "the children" is in the "Father's house," and in the place where Jesus is gone to prepare for them - the place of peculiar nearness, honor and happiness. From that place, he will come again and receive his brethren to himself. That where he is there they may be also. And in the exalting fullness of his love, he will lead them along the ascending path of life and will present him before the presence of his Father's glory, faultless and with exceeding joy. For the proper condition and sphere of spiritual humanity is glory, and it is raised in glory, and it shall ascend into glory and into the glory which the Father has given unto his incarnate and risen Son, as the immortal Head of the heavenly family. And which the Son has given unto his many brethren for whom he now holds it in reserve until the resurrection power of their own immortality. Then shall they arise and ascend into that glory, and unto its eternal position and sphere, and so shall they "ever be with the Lord."
They are even now - as born of the Spirit, "the pure in heart," and then as re-embodied an entirely spiritual, "they shall see God." They shall behold the glory which Jesus had with the father before the world was. They shall walk amidst the delights of the paradise of God, and stand before the throne of eternity. They will then be capable of contemplating with tranquil, profound, and adoring delight, the incommunicable Excellencies of God, and also of sustaining and reflecting again upon himself, the ineffable luster of his incommunicable glory.
The spiritual intelligence of the Sons of God will then be in its nature perfect. No shade of error shall ever pass over their exalted understandings. They shall know even as they are known. But while their knowledge will be in its nature perfect, it will be in its character and history progressive, and will ever be enlarging those fear and resources of its acquisitions among the realities of eternity and in the midst of the eternal mysteries of God.
Even now the saints have the boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and they worship in spirit there. But then they shall bodily stand before the throne of God and of the Lamb as priests, a royal priesthood, and shall thus worship forever in the Temple of God in heaven, without weariness or imperfection. And with the endless gushings of spiritual and unutterable delight.
While here, in the soulual body, those who are inwardly and also in character spiritual, though in the endurance of manifold temptations and sorrows, rejoice in Christ Jesus with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And then also rejoice with unbounded and glorious joy, and a wave of gratulation and delight shall flow and circulate through the entire hosts of angelic minds, while they behold the ransomed of the Lord. the many sons of God brought unto their presence of the throne with exalting songs of Triumph, and with everlasting joys upon their heads.
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