Know ye not that as many as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death?
Christian baptism
I.What it is--
1. A sign of grace.
2. A mystery of faith.
3. A seal of the covenant.
II. What it requires. The death of the old man.
III. What it is intended to secure.
spiritual and eternal life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Christian baptism
I.Its significance and nature.--
1. It was no novelty. Pious lustrations had been practised for ages among the Hindoos, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The Jews also, in addition to the legal ablutions, baptised proselytes. John practised the same ceremony. And when Christ adopted this ordinance, it must have been with the same general significance, viz., initiation into a new mode of life. The past was to be renounced and forgotten, and a new, higher and holier career entered upon. Hence baptism was regarded among the philosophers and Rabbis as a new birth: not that it produced any real change of heart, but was a solemn and public separation from a former course of life, and a new start on a more hallowed career. Now, this is exactly the idea of baptism in the New Testament. It is like a Rubicon crossed: or a river which divides two continents occupied by hostile nations.
2. Such being the general idea of baptism, what is its specific meaning in the Christian system? Christian baptism generally is baptism into Christ. Just as one may be baptised into Hindooism, Judaism, or Mahometanism, so may a man be baptised into Christianity, or Christ. But Paul describes it as baptism into “Christ’s death”: and here we shall see how essentially it differs from baptism into any other form of religion. To be baptised into Moses or Mahomet would not signify to be baptised into his death, but only the acknowledgment of their authority. Baptism into Christ’s death is expressed four times, and by as many different phrases, in this passage.
(1) “Baptised into His death.” We think of the death of Christ as the central and most momentous event of His mediatorial mission. He was put to death by wicked men, the representatives of the world in its depraved condition; but He also died in the sinner’s stead, and for sin, that He might condemn and cancel it, and deliver His people from its curse. By it, therefore, we express our acquiescence in that death, both as a protest against the wickedness of the world, and as an atoning sacrifice for human sin. If so, we are expected to be dead to the world which slew Him; and to the sins for which He died.
(2) “Buried with Him by baptism.” The interment of Christ gave conclusive evidence of the reality of His death. The world had done with Him, and He with it. To denote therefore the absoluteness of our death in Christ, we are said to be buried with Him--as a man who is completely done with this life is said to be “dead and buried.”
(3) “Planted together in the likeness of His death.” The idea is that of growing together into one, as a new branch grafted into an old stock. Our death is entirely owing to the death of Christ; yet it is only in the likeness of His death that we die. There are points of difference as well as of resemblance. He died for sin, we die to sin; He died vicariously, we for ourselves. His death was to cover the guilt of sin; ours is to escape from its pollution and power; His death was physical, ours spiritual.
(4) “Our old man is crucified,” “that the body of sin might be destroyed.” By the old man we understand our unrenewed moral disposition (Eph_4:22-23); by “body of sin,” the fact that our lower animal nature is the great occasion and instrument of sin. Jesus died a death of slow, lingering torment and ignominy. And our death to sin is one of corresponding painfulness, difficulty, and seeming dishonour. So Paul, in the Galatians, twice declares that he is “crucified with Christ” (Gal_2:20; Gal_6:14). Indeed the whole idea of this passage is repeated in several others (see Col_2:11-13; 1Pe_3:18-22; 1Pe_4:1-6). How the world scoffs at a man who gives up his sins!
II. The subsequent state of the baptised as dead to sin. Now we are said to be dead to anything when we have ceased to be under its influence, and have become indifferent to it. Thus many a passion of human love or hate dies away, and the heart is perfectly unmoved by the presence of its once exciting object. Or a man utterly alters his studies and pursuits, and becomes callous to speculations or adventures which once had fired him with uncontrollable ambition. In like manner a converted man is dead to his former life of sin. He is a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away, and all things have become new (2Co_5:17).
1. He is indifferent to its pleasures (Gal_5:19-26).
2. He has renounced its principles and practices.
3. These things he has been enabled to do. “Dead to sin,” he is emancipated from its bondage. He is raised up from the death of sin, as Christ from the grave, by the glorious power of the Father, and so, filled with the Spirit, he is able to walk in newness of life.
Christian baptism
I.The moral significance of our baptism into Christ--our baptism into His death.
1. The forms of expression are elliptical. For just as Christ gave commandment to “baptise into the name of the Father,” etc., the meaning was that they were to be baptised into the faith and for the service of the Triune God; so here, to be baptised into Christ and His death is to be baptised into the faith of Christ crucified.
2. Regarded from its human side baptism is an act by which a man makes open profession of faith in Christ as his Saviour and Lord; an act in which he makes full renunciation of self and sin, and unites himself to the Church (1Co_12:12, etc.). It does not, however, constitute its subject a really living member; it is but a material act which cannot possibly of itself have any moral effect. Thus, though Simon bad been baptised, he had neither part nor lot in the Christian salvation. But the faith of which baptism is the profession does bring its possessor into living fellowship with Christ.
3. This faith is in Christ’s death, and really brings its possessor into union with Christ. Hence by our baptism into Christ’s death, we were buried with Him. It is very commonly supposed that there is here a reference to immersion: but the apostle does not say that we were buried in baptism, but that we were “buried together with Christ by means of the baptism into His death.” That is to say, if we have that faith of which baptism is the open profession, then are we brought into such legal and effective union with Christ as that we are treated by God as though we had been crucified when Christ was crucified, and buried when He was buried.
4. But there is yet a further moral significance in this act of faith, viz., a confession that the believer himself, because of his sins, deserves to die; that but for the death of his Divine Substitute he must himself have died; that he hates and renounces those sins which thus imperilled his own soul and caused such agony to his Redeemer; and that he thankfully and with all his heart avails himself of this provision of salvation from sin. It is not consistent with our profession of faith that we should continue in sin. For “how shall we that died to sin, live any longer therein?”
II. Its purpose--that like as Christ was raised, so we, being quickened together with Him, should walk in newness of life.
1. Though Jesus died, He does not continue dead. He died unto sin once. By that one death He satisfied the demand of the law, and having satisfied that demand, He could legally claim a complete justification from sin (verse 7). But, being so justified, death had no further dominion over Him. He was therefore raised on account of our justification by the glory of the Father, i.e., by His power, working out His will and purpose, according to the demands of His glory.
2. For the glory of the Father demanded the resurrection of His Son on two accounts.
(1) To clear Him from false accusations. The Jews condemned Him as a blasphemer, because that He had called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. No doubt the Jews were right, if the claim had not been true. But it was true. And to prove its truth, and vindicate His Son, the glory of the Father raised Him from the dead.
(2) To attest the sufficiency of His atoning death. Not according to man’s arrangement, but “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” Jesus was “delivered” to death to expiate sin. It was declared that His death should effectually accomplish this purpose. But, in proof thereof, it was needful that He should rise again. For how could we have trusted in Him for salvation, and how could it have been consistent with the glory of the Father, if the sinless One had continued under the power of death after the demands of justice had been fully satisfied? Therefore the glory of the Father could not suffer that Holy One to see corruption.
3. But we are baptised into Christ’s death, and by that baptism buried with Him, in order that we also might participate His restored and glorious life. For, as in our Representative, so also in us these things of necessity go together, namely--
(1) Death to sin and burial in death;
(2) Justification from sin in consequence of that death; and--
(3) Restoration to holy and prevailing life. If in Christ we have not been made alive to God, then it is quite certain that we have not been justified in Christ.
4. Thus it comes to pass that, both by profession and by privilege, Christian men are bound to renounce a life of sin, and to live a life of holiness. That we may do this effectually, we have but to attend to two things; namely--
(1) To be indeed what we profess ourselves to be, believers in the saving work and power of Jesus; and--
(2) To do, with resolute courage, what we are bidden to do, even to yield ourselves to the service of God as those who are alive from the dead. Doing these things, we shall no longer continue in sin, but shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ. (W. Tyson.)
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death.--
Baptism--a burial
1. Paul does not say that all unbelievers and hypocrites, etc., who are baptized, are baptized into our Lord’s death. He intends such as come to it with their hearts in a right state.
2. Nor does he intend to say that those who were rightly baptized have all of them entered into the fulness of its spiritual meaning; for he asks, “Know ye not?” Some perhaps saw in it only a washing, but had never discerned the burial. I question if any of us yet know the fulness of the meaning of either of Christ’s ordinances. Baptism sets forth the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and our participation therein. Its teaching is two fold. Consider--
I. Our representative union with Christ as a truth to be believed. Baptism as a burial with Christ signifies--
1. Acceptance of the death and burial of Christ as being for us. We are not baptized into His example, or His life, but into His death. We hereby confess that all our salvation lies in that which we accept as having been incurred on our account.
2. An acknowledgment of our own death in Christ. My burial with Christ means not only that He died for me, but that I died in Him, so that my death with Him needs a burial with Him. Suppose that a man has actually died for a certain crime, and now, by some wonderful work of God, he has been made to live again. Will he commit that crime again? But you reply, “We never did die so.” But that which Christ did for you comes to, and the Lord looks upon it as, the same thing. You have died in Christ’s death, and now by grace you are brought up again into newness of life. Can you, after that, turn back to the accursed thing which God hates?
3. Burial with a view to rising. If you are one with Christ at all, you must be one with Him all through. Since I am one with Christ I am what Christ is: as He is a living Christ, I am a living spirit. So far the doctrine: is it not a precious one? Shall the members of a generous, gracious Head be covetous and grasping? Shall the members of a glorious, pure, and perfect Head be defiled with the lusts of the flesh and the follies of a vain life? If believers are indeed so identified with Christ that they are His fulness, should they not be holiness itself?
II. Our realised union with Christ as a matter of experience. There is--
1. Death--
(1) To the dominion of sin. If sin commands us we will not obey, for we are dead to its authority. Sin cannot reign over us, though it may assail us and work us harm.
(2) To the desire of any such power. The law in the members would fain urge to sin, but the life of the heart constrains to holiness.
(3) To the pursuits and aims of the sinning life. We are in the world, and have to live as other men do, carrying on our ordinary business; but all this is subordinate, and held in as with bit and bridle.
(4) To the guidance of sin. Our text must have had a very forcible meaning in Paul’s time. An average Roman of that period was a man accustomed to the amphitheatre. Taught in such a school, he was cruel to the last degree, and ferocious in the indulgence of his passions. A depraved man was not regarded as being at all degraded; not only nobles and emperors, but the public teachers were impure. When those who were regarded as moral were corrupt, you may imagine what the immortal were. See here a Roman converted by the grace of God! What a change is in him! His neighbours say, “You were not at the amphitheatre this morning.” “No,” he says, “I am totally dead to it. If you were to force me to be there, I must shut my eyes, for I could not look on murder committed in sport!” The Christian did not resort to places of licentiousness; he was dead to such filthiness. The fashions of the age were such that Christians could not consent to them, and so they became dead to society.
2. Burial. This is--
(1) The seal of death, the certificate of decease. There have been instances of persons being buried alive, and I am afraid that the thing happens with sad frequency in baptism, but it is unnatural, and by no means the rule. But if I can say in very truth, “I was buried with Christ thirty years ago,” I must surely be dead.
(2) The displaying of death. When a funeral takes place, everybody knows of death. That is what baptism ought to be. The believer’s death to sin is at first a secret, but by an open confession he bids all men know that he is dead with Christ.
(3) The separateness of death. The dead man no longer remains in the house. A corpse is not welcome company. Such is the believer: he is poor company for worldlings, and they shun him as a damper upon their revelry.
(4) The settledness of death; for when a man is dead and buried you never expect to see him come home again. They tell me that spirits walk the earth; I have my doubts on the subject. In spiritual things, however, I am afraid that some are not so buried with Christ but that they walk a great deal among the tombs. The man in Christ cannot walk as a ghost, because he is alive somewhere else; he has received a new being, and therefore he cannot mutter and peep among the dead hypocrites around him.
3. Resurrection.
(1) This is a special work. All the dead are not raised, but our Lord Himself is “the first fruits of them that slept.” He is the First-begotten from among the dead. As to our soul and spirit, the resurrection has begun upon us, and will be complete as to our body at the appointed day.
(2) By Divine power. Christ is brought again “from the dead by the glory of the Father.” Why did it not say, “by the power of the Father”? Ah, glory is a grander word; for all the attributes of God are displayed here. There was the Lord’s faithfulness; for He had declared that His Holy One should not see corruption. His love. I am sure it was a delight to the heart of God to bring back life to the body of His dear Son. And so, when you and I are raised out of our death in sin, it is not merely God’s power, or God’s wisdom that is seen, it is “the glory of the Father.” If the tiniest spark of spiritual life has to be created by “the glory of the Father,” what will be the glory of that life when it comes into its full perfection, and we shall be like Christ, and see Him as He is!
(3) This resurrection life is--
(a) Entirely new. We are to “walk in newness of life.”
(b) Active. The Lord does not allow us to sit down contented with the mere fact that we live, nor allow us to spend our time in examining whether we are alive or no; but He gives us His battle to fight, His house to build, His farm to till, His children to nurse, and His sheep to feed.
(c) Unending. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.”
(d) Not under the law or under sin. Christ came under the law when He was here, and He had our sin laid on Him, and therefore died; but after He rose again there was no sin laid on Him. In His resurrection both the sinner and the Surety are free. What had Christ to do after His rising? To bear any more sin? No, but just to live unto God. That is where you and I are. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Buried alive
(Psa_31:12; Rom_8:6, and text):--The subject would perhaps suggest a terrible physical calamity, such as the closing of a coal pit upon toiling miners; or of an interment ere life was extinct. But there are other senses in which men are buried alive.
I. In an unfortunate sense. Men are often buried alive--
1. For the want of opportunities of mental development. How frequently we hear men say in certain spheres and conditions that they are buried alive! There is an amount of mental life in all men. But the development of that life requires certain external conditions and favourable opportunities. Sometimes, indeed, but rarely, we find men, through the force of genius, breaking through the most unfavourable circumstances; but the millions remain in the mental grave of thoughtlessness and ignorance. Englishmen have at last realised the magnitude of this calamity; the loss which it involves to commerce, literature, and moral influence.
2. Through the infirmities of age. Some, thirty or forty years ago, played prominent parts in the drama of public life; but where are they today? We are constantly reading of the death of an old Waterloo hero, or Trafalgar veteran, or distinguished statesman, or great scholar, who have not been heard of for years. This is a sad entombment, one that awaits us all if we live long enough.
3. Through the envy of their contemporaries. This was perhaps what David meant. Malice always wishes to murder, and to bury. Many a noble man in Church and State, who is too truthful to temporise, too independent to cringe, is kept in the background by envy. No invitation shall be given to him to take a prominent part in the movements of his party, no mention shall be made of his doings in the organs of their clique.
II. In a criminal sense (Rom_8:6). In the case of all unrenewed men, the soul, the conscience with all its Divine instincts and sympathies, is buried in the flesh, in the sense in which a slave is buried who has no liberty of action. Hence Paul speaks of it as “carnally sold under sin.” A man may be a merchant, artist, author; but, the inspiration of his business, the glow of his genius, the tinge and form of his thoughts, will be flesh rather than spirit. Nay, he may be a religionist, and that of the most orthodox stamp: but his creed and devotions will “be after the law of a carnal commandment,” and his Christ “known only after the flesh.”
III. In a virtuous sense. “We are buried with Him by baptism unto death.” Not the baptism of water, but of that holy fire that burns up all corrupt carnalties. What is buried here? Not the mental faculties, for these are quickened into action; not the conscience--no, this is brought out of its grave and put upon the throne. But the old man with its corruptions and lusts. Whilst this carnal “I” is buried, the moral “I” is quickened and raised. “Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Now, this is a virtuous burying alive. It means being dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto righteousness. As you must bury the seed in the earth before you can have the living plant, so you must bury the carnal nature before you have spiritual life. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Dead and buried with Christ
In the fourth century, when the Christian faith was preached in its power in Egypt, a young brother sought out the great Macarius. “Father,” said he, “what is the meaning of being dead and buried with Christ?” “My son,” answered Macarius, “you remember our dear brother who died, and was buried a short time since? Go now to his grave, and tell him all the unkind things you ever heard of him, and that we are glad he is dead, and thankful to be rid of him, for he was such a worry to us, and caused so much discomfort in the Church. Go, my son, and say that, and hear what he will answer.” The young man was surprised, and doubted whether he really understood; but Macarius only said, “Do as I bid you, my son, and come and tell me what our departed brother says.” The young man did as he was commanded, and returned. “Well, and what did our brother say?” asked Macarius. “Say, father!” he exclaimed; “how could he say anything? He is dead.” “Go now again, my son, and repeat every kind and flattering thing you have ever heard of him; tell him how much we miss him; how great a saint he was; what noble work he did; how the whole Church depended upon him; and come again and tell me what he says.” The young man began to see the lesson Macarius would teach him. He went again to the grave, and addressed many flattering things to the dead man, and then returned to Macarius. “He answers nothing, father; he is dead and buried.” “You know now, my son,” said the old father, “what it is to be dead with Christ. Praise and blame equally are nothing to him who is really dead and buried with Christ.”
That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.--
Christ’s resurrection and ours for the glory of God
It glorifies His omnipotence. For if creation required omnipotence, so does the new creation. It glorifies His wisdom; for what wisdom is required to “bring a clean thing out of an unclean”! To reconcile sinful man to a holy God. It glorifies His justice; for how could God have forgiven us, except at the expense of His justice, had He not received atonement in the person of Jesus; and how could He have given us any comfort in that atonement, if He had not raised Jesus from the dead, and thus show us that the price of our redemption was fully paid, and we were set free? It glorifies His truth; for God had said that it should be so, and we had to wait for the fulfilment of His promise, and in the fulness of time Jesus came, died, and rose again. (Bp. Montagu Villiers.)
Resurrection life
1. The chapter connects the historical resurrection of Christ with the spiritual resurrection of the heart by the golden link of “baptism.”
2. We have to consider what is the “newness of life” in which we are to “walk,” or “walk about,” the metaphor referring to our ordinary “walk” in the beaten track of everyday life; for this is “the newness of life” which God loves--not the striking out of some novel path, but the old path trodden every day with “new” affections and “new” attainments. And may we not all say that there has been now quite enough of old, dull, religious duties, enough of worldly-mindedness, enough of things which have done nothing else but disappoint us, enough of things that die? And could there be a better season than this Easter for starting afresh upon the journey of life? Look at this life as “new”--
I. In the method of its formation.
1. There is a natural life which we all obtain from our father and mother. It carries an entail from Adam--a stream of corruption and a carnal-mindedness. But Jesus took manhood, and did His mediatorial work, that He might become, like another Adam, the root of another pedigree. Our entrance into the lineage takes place by an act of spiritual union to Christ.
2. Now see the processes of that “life.” When Christ died on the Cross our nature died in Him. And now Christ, being the Head, rising, draws up the body. First, in this present life, our souls begin to be drawn up to ascending desires, to nearer communion, to loftier enjoyments, to a more heavenly-mindedness. Afterwards, at the resurrection, by the same process, our bodies will be raised up.
II. In its own constitution. God’s way of making a “new” thing is not man’s way. God uses up the “old” materials; but, by His using and moulding them, makes them “new.” Thus, “the new heavens and the new earth” will only make another heaven and earth formed out of the old materials. Or, take that expression, “a new heart.” God does not annihilate a man’s original temperament--remove his old habits, and tempers, and feelings, and make another man with him; but He restrains, sanctifies, and elevates the man’s primary character. The characteristic of his unconverted state is the characteristic of his converted condition; but “new” feelings have given “new” directions to old things; and “new” principles have given another development; and “new” grace has given “new” power: and so, though he is the “new man,” he is “the old man” still!
III. The “new” element thrown in to make a “new man.” Love. Of this command we read that it is “old” and “new.” St. John in a breath calls it both. “Old,” in the letter; “new,” in the spirit. “Old,” as an universal obligation; “new,” in the standard. “Old,” in the fact; “new,” in the motive. “As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Christ’s resurrection and our newness of life
I.The resurrection of our Lord was attended with glory. It was glorious--
1. In itself the most marvellous occurrence in history.
2. In contrast with Christ’s humiliation.
3. In its effects. He was raised--
(1) “For our justification.”
(2) To secure our own resurrection.
(3) That through His life of intercession He might save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.
4. As to its cause, for it was a display of the glory or power of the Father. But it was more than a miracle of power, for all the attributes of God united their glory in it, love, wisdom, justice, and mercy. The veil which concealed the sacred presence was rent from top to bottom; and the glory of the Lord was seen in the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
5. Because of its sequel in reference to our Lord. Once hath He suffered, but it is once for all. His victory is final. And now, therefore, to the child of God death furnishes a couch of rest, and is no longer a dark and noisome prison cell. The body is sown in corruption, but it is raised in incorruption and immortality.
II. The parallel in our experience is also full of glory. Partakers of His death, we are also partakers of His resurrection. This body of ours will have its share in it in due time. The spirit has its resurrection even now; but we are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
1. It is a blessed thing that we should be made alive in Christ.
2. This quickening is a needful part of sanctification. Sanctification, in its operation upon our character, consists of three things. First, Jesus strikes at the heart of evil. His death makes us die to sin. After this we are buried with Christ, and of this burial baptism is the type and token. To complete our actual sanctification we receive heavenly quickening, “for he that believeth in Him hath everlasting life.”
3. Being thus quickened you are partakers of a new life. You are not like Lazarus, who had the same life restored to him. True, you have that same life about you. But your true life has come to you by your being born again from above. In this there is a striking display of the glory of God. It is one of the highest displays of Divine power.
4. Thus we have a preeminent security for future perfection. If He raised us up when we were dead in sin, will He not keep us alive now that we live unto Him? This life springeth up unto eternal life. You shall surely behold His face whose life is already within your breast.
III. The life is emphatically new. I expect to read, “even so we also should be raised by the glory of the Father”; but it is not so. It is in Paul’s mind that we are raised together with Christ; but his thought has gone further, even to the activity which comes of life; and we read, “that we also should walk in newness of life.” As much as to say, “I need not tell you that you have been quickened as Christ was; but since you have been made alive, you must show it by your walk and conduct.” But he reminds us that this life has much newness about it. This new life is--
1. A life which we never before possessed--an exotic, a plant of another clime. It is not written, “You hath He fostered, who had the germs of dormant life”; but, “You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” You had no life, you had nothing out of which life could come. Eternal life is the gift of God.
2. New in its principles. The old life at its very best only said, “I must do right that I may win a reward.” Now you are moved by gratitude, now you serve not as a servant, but as a child. It is your joy to obey out of love, and not from slavish fear.
3. Swayed by new motives. You live now to please God; aforetime you lived to please yourself, or to please your neighbours.
4. One which has new objects. You aim higher; yea, at the highest of all; for you live for God’s glory.
5. One of new emotions. Your fears, hopes, sorrows, and your joys are new.
6. One of new hopes; we have a hope of immortality; a hope so glorious, that it causes us to purify ourselves in preparation for its realisation.
7. One of new possessions. God has made us “rich in faith.” Instead of groaning that life is not worth having, we bless God for our being, because of our well-being in Christ. We have peace like a river, and a secret joy which no man taketh from us. We drink of a well which none can dry up; we have bread to eat that the world knows not of.
8. One by which we are brought into a new world. I often compare myself to a chick, which aforetime was imprisoned in the shell. In that condition I neither knew myself, nor aught that was about me, but was in a chaos, as one unborn. When the shell was broken, like a young bird I was weak and full of wonderment at the life into which I had come. That young life felt its wings and tried them a little. It moved with trembling footsteps, essaying a new walk. It saw things it never dreamed of.
IV. The walk which comes out of this life is new.
1. The new life that God gives us is exceedingly active. I have never read that we are to lie down and sleep in the newness of life. I greatly question whether you have new life if you do not walk.
2. This activity of life induces progress. If we are really quickened we shall march on, going from strength to strength.
3. This walk is to be in newness of life. I see a Christian man coming back from a place of question amusement. Did he go there in newness of life? The old man used to go in that direction. When a man has made a bargain which will not bear the light; is that done in newness of life? When an employer grinds down the workman; is that done in newness of life? Put off the old man. If Christ has quickened you, walk in newness of life.
4. This life should be one of joyful vivacity. A healthy Christian is one of the liveliest creatures on earth. Newness of life means a soul aglow with love to God, and therefore earnest, zealous, happy. Come, my soul, if Christ has raised thee from the dead, do not live after the fashion of the dark grave which thou hast quitted. Live a God-like life; let the divine in thee sit on the throne, and tread the animal beneath its feet. “It is easier said than done,” cries one. That depends upon the life within. Life is full of power. I have seen an iron bar bent by the growth of a tree. Have you never heard of great paving stones being lifted by fungi, which had pushed up beneath them? If you choose to contract your souls by a sort of spiritual tight lacing, or if you choose to bend yourselves down in a sorrow which never looks up, you may hinder your life and its walk; but give your life full scope, and what a walk you may have! Conclusion: I have seen boys bathing in a river in the morning. One of them has just dipped his toes in the water, and he cries out, as he shivers, “Oh, it’s so cold!” Another has gone in up to his ankles, and he also declares that it is fearfully chilly. But see! another runs to the bank and takes a header. He rises all in a glow. You Christian people are paddling about in the shallows of religion, and just dipping your toes into it. Oh, that you would plunge into the river of life! How it would brace you! What tone it would give you! In for it. Be a Christian, out and out. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Newness of life
When the gospel was first preached, its novelty must have impressed both Jew and Gentile. Not only was the Christian doctrine something fresh in the history of human thought; the Christian morality was something new in the sphere of the individual and social existence of mankind. The novelty may not strike us as it struck the men of the first century, but still Christianity summons all men to “newness of life.” The new life--
I. Commences with a new birth. Every human life has a beginning, so with the spiritual life; there is what is called regeneration, in which the birth of the body is followed by that of the soul.
II. Is quickened by a new power. Mysterious even to the present men of science is the secret of vitality. We can only account for the new and spiritual life of Christianity by accepting the doctrine that the Holy Spirit takes possession of the nature, vivifying it with a celestial vitality and energy.
III. Is inspired by a new principle. What is it which distinguishes the life of the Christian from that of the worldly, unspiritual man? It is the prevalence and power of Divine love in his nature.
IV. Is perfected in an ever new immortality. The life of the body perishes; but the life of the Christian is renewed day by day; age and infirmity have no power over it; even death fails to destroy it; in fact, its fairest blossom and its richest fruit appear only beneath celestial influences, and when the Omnipotent “makes all things new.” (Family Churchman.)
Newness of life
1. We are called upon this Easter morning to contemplate the master miracle of Divine love as set against and triumphing over the masterpiece of Satan’s malignity. As death must be regarded as the supreme development of evil, so resurrection must be regarded as the highest triumph of good. Now not only does God triumph over death, but He actually employs the enemy to produce this greater benefit.
2. The question of Nicodemus is a natural one. He might well conclude, “I must of necessity carry my old self along with me to the grave.” Not so, “Ye must be born again.” But what form of birth is there for the man grown old in habits of sin? The great discovery was not made until from the womb of death there arose the newborn man, “the first-begotten of the dead,” “the first born of many brethren!” and from that time forward it became possible for the sinner to be severed from the incubus of the past, and to rise into newness of life in virtue of his union with Christ.
3. Now, observe the difference between God’s way of dealing with fallen man, and ours. Nicodemus objects, “How can a man be born when he is old,” etc. A moment’s reflection will show us that the change in itself is exceedingly desirable. But all that we can suggest is to patch up the old creature; but a thing seldom looks well after it is mended, and it becomes less and less serviceable the more frequently it is mended; and the fact of its being patched indicates that it is nearly worn out, and will soon be laid aside. But a man with a new garment makes a fresh start. Now God does not mend--He recreates, and He presses death into the service, and through that we rise to newness of life, in which we are able to stand free from sin.
4. As we go into the country at this springtime, and gaze on the opening leaves and flowers, the newness of everything powerfully impresses us. God might have restored nature by a process of repair; but no! until the withered dead leaf is swept away into the tomb of corruption the new leaf does not unfold itself; but as soon as the old is dead and buried there arises a newness of life. How like the work of God! The most skilful artist who endeavours to imitate nature cannot reproduce nature’s freshness. So there are many imitations of religion, but they are all devoid of that virgin freshness which is only produced by the touch of the Life-giver.
5. As the Lord teaches us this lesson in nature, so He enforces it by the striking symbolism of one of the sacraments. Baptism is not a mere washing; it is a burial and a resurrection. Not that the mere outward observance of the ordinance can ever produce this; there must be faith in the operation of God. When I have this whether it takes place at the moment of baptism, or after, or before, makes no difference. The point is this, that when my faith lays hold on the operation of God, manifested in the resurrection of Christ, and which is symbolised in baptism, then that ordinance in itself is a pledge that the reality of the blessing which the ordinance typifies is actually mine.
6. With these thoughts in our minds, I want you to observe that Paul says that we are buried and raised up again with a definite object, viz., the walk in newness of life. You cannot walk inn place if you do not reach that place; and I cannot walk in newness of life without having first of all been introduced into a condition of newness of life. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, even so walk in Him. And now what are the distinguishing characteristics of this newness of life?
I. The newness of relationship to God. In the old life we felt there was something wrong between God and us; we desired that that something should be set right, and we hoped gradually to win His approval by a life of consistency. Some of us laboured very hard, and yet the end was disappointment. How was all this to be changed, and every barrier to confidence and love swept away? Not by patching ourselves up. We saw ourselves, represented by Christ, as enduring the penalty of the law; and were content to reckon ourselves as crucified with Christ; but “he that is dead is justified from sin,” and so we found that there was now no further condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. From the grave we rose into newness of life, and our first experience was the discovery that God was a reconciled Father.
II. Newness of power. Faith introduced me into this blessed condition; faith is to be the law of my experience in it. There is a power now working within me; the power of God, whose mighty Spirit has taken possession of me, and is working out His purposes within me. Electricians tell us that our nervous system is so constituted that under the force of electricity we can perform prodigies of strength and endurance which would be impossible under ordinary circumstances. We will suppose this book to contain a weight of several pounds. I hold it out at arm’s length. Presently the sense of fatigue comes insupportable, and my arm must fall to my side; but turn on a current of electricity to the outstretched arm, and I am able to sustain the weight indefinitely, without any such sense of fatigue. Where does my part in the matter lie?--not in struggling to force my arm to do what it is too weak to do, but in yielding my member to the power which can enable it to accomplish what is otherwise impossible. I have to see to it that no non-conductor breaks the invisible stream of power; and that is just what I have to see to in my spiritual experience. Am I in full connection with Divine Omnipotence? “I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.” Now do you not see the difference between going about the work of life flurried with anxiety and weighted with care, now straining every nerve in an agony of effort, and now, weary and discouraged, sinking into lethargy, and the quiet, happy confidence of him who is walking in newness of life, assured that, whatever may arise, the new life within him is equal to any and every emergency.
III. Newness of character. I meet with a great many who do not seem to expect this. How many of us are there who have so very much of the old self about us that even our fellow Christians cannot help being distressed and pained at it? “Are we walking in newness of life?” Are the old features passing away?--have they passed away? You who were naturally uncontrolled, are your natural passions well in hand?--not in your hand--in Christ’s hand? You who were ready to say a bitter word without thinking how much pain it might give, who rather plumed yourself on being blunt even to rudeness, is the beauty of the Lord our God beginning to rest upon you? You, whose gifts of conversation were apt to degenerate into idle gossip, have you learned to keep the little member in its place? Are you doing all to the glory of God? What manner of man are we? We are children of the resurrection. When we get down to the exchange, to the workshop, do we forget that? The glorious beauty of the Lord our God is for us; His freshness, purity, the very bloom of newness of life, is ours. Shake yourself loose of every encumbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give yourself over like clay to the hand of the Potter, that He may stamp upon you the fulness of His own resurrection glory, that we, beholding as in a mirror the glories of the Lord, may be changed from glory unto glory as by the Spirit of God. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
Newness of life
I.Its connection with Christ’s resurrection. “Like as”--
1. Material things may be compared to material and spiritual to spiritual; but is not this comparison of a moral revelation to a physical transaction arbitrary and fanciful? The answer is that the source and motive power of the two are the same. The manner and proportion of the Divine action at the tomb of Christ, when they are addressed to sense, enable us to trace and measure them in the mystery of the soul’s life when they are addressed to spirit.
2. Something of the same kind may be observed in the case of the human mind. A mind capable of writing a great poem or history, and of governing at the same time a great country, is not to be met with every day. But when we do find the two things combined it is reasonable to compare the book with the policy of the king or statesman, on the ground that both are products of a single mind; and it is further reasonable to expect certain qualities common to the two forms of work. This is Paul’s position; Christ’s resurrection and the soul’s regeneration are works of one powerful, wise, and loving will.
3. Nature can no more give us newness of life than a corpse can raise itself. Prudence, advancing years, the tone of society, family influences, may remodel our habits, but Divine grace alone can raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. Reflect on that terrible reality--spiritual death. The body is in the full flush of its powers, the mind is engaged with a thousand truths, but neither boisterous spirits nor intellectual fire can galvanize the spirit into life. The spiritual senses do not act--the eyes, ears, mouth, of the soul are closed. Its hands and feet are bandaged with the grave clothes of selfish habit. It cannot rise, and must lie on in its darkness, and the putrefaction of its spiritual tomb. And a great stone has been rolled to the door--the dead weight of corrupt and irreligious opinion which bars out the light and air of heaven and makes the prison house secure. How is such an encumbrance to be thrown off? Even if angels should roll away the stone, how can life be restored, unless He who is its Lord and Giver shall flash into this dead spirit His own quickening power?
II. The characteristics common to both.
1. Reality.
(1) Christ really died. The piercing of His side proves this; and being truly dead He really rose.
(a) Some say only in the heart of His disciples. But supposing such a process of imagination to have taken place in the case of two or three, is it reasonable to suppose that it could have occurred simultaneously to many.
(b) Nor was it a phantom that rose. Had that been the case it would surely have been found out, by the women, by Peter, by the eleven to whom He said, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have,” and by Thomas. Undoubtedly His risen body had added qualities of subtlety and glory; but these did not destroy its reality. “It had been sown in dishonour; it was raised in glory,” etc.
(2) So the soul’s newness of life must be, before everything, real.
(a) What avails it to be risen in imagination and in the good opinion of others, if having a name that we live while yet we are dead? Is it well for a dead soul to be periodically galvanised by unmerited flattery into awkward mimicries of the language and action of Christian life?
(b) What is the value of the mere ghost of a moral renewal; of prayers without heart, actions without religious principle, religious language in advance of conviction and feeling? Ah, the phantoms of a renewed life stalk through the world and the Church--picturesque in the distance, and like waxwork figures hard to distinguish from the living. There is the phantom life--
(i) Of imagination when a lively fancy has thrown around religion the charm of an intense interest without touching religious principle.
(ii) Of strong physical feeling where occasional bursts of religious passion are mistaken for discipline and surrender of the will.
(iii) Of sheer good nature, when however much is done, it is done without inward reference to God and His law.
(iv) Of good taste, where it is simply taken for granted that certain religious properties belong to a particular social position--phantoms each and all; for they melt into thin air under the harder stress of service or sorrow. They may not safely challenge the “Handle Me” of the risen Jesus. So then the first lesson is genuineness. Feel more deeply than you talk--act as you feel in your best moments.
2. Durability.
(1) Jesus did not rise that, like Lazarus, He might die again. “I am alive for evermore.” “Death hath no more dominion over Him.” His triumphant life could not be exchanged again for a life of sin and suffering.
(2) So should it be with the Christian. His, too, should be a resurrection once for all. I say should be, for God’s grace does not put force upon us. The Christian must reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin, etc. And if this seems hard to flesh and blood the Christian will remember that he has forces at his command equal to cope with them. If the risen Christ be in us the body is dead because of sin, etc. Once risen with Christ we need die no more. God will certainly be true, and we have but to cling to Him and keep a tight hand upon ourselves. Nothing from without can avail to destroy our life if it be not seconded from within. Louis XIV went year by year through his Lenten and Easter duties and then fell back into debauchery--a hideous libel on the teaching of Christ’s resurrection. And yet what if we with slighter temptations repeat his experiences?
3. Secrecy.
(1) Much of Christ’s risen life was hidden from the eyes of men. His visible presence after His resurrection was the exception rather than the rule; and by this the disciples were gradually trained for their future. It was a gentle passage from the days of Christ’s ministry to the days of that invisible presence which was to last to the end of time. But who can doubt what the risen Christ was doing? He needed not strength as we need it, but communion with the Father was His one glory and joy.
(2) Who can fail to see here a lesson and a law for Christian life? Much and the more important side of it must be hidden. No doubt our business, families, etc., have their claims; but where there is a will there is a way, and time must be made for prayer, self-questioning, etc. Alas for souls who shrink from solitude and secret communion with God. Does not the forest tree, while flinging its trunk and branches high towards the heavens, strike its roots for safety and nourishment ever deeper into the soil beneath? (Canon Liddon.)
The several degrees of personal religion
Progress in the new life, commenced at the time of the second birth, is more desirable than success in business, or growth from infancy to manhood. It is in this text urged as a duty, and proposed as a favour, in consideration of the resurrection of our Redeemer from the dead.
I. I explain the words of my text. The Apostle Paul, who experienced in his own progressive attainments the influence of Christ’s resurrection, holds it up to the view of the believing Romans as the reason and the means of their walking forward “in newness of life.” “Walking” indicates not only vital action, but also progress from one place to another. That “walking in newness of life” which is urged in the text, in consideration of the resurrection of our Lord, must of course signify both the exercise of the Christian life in all its parts and relations and our progressive improvement in piety.
II. I describe, from the Scriptures, the several distinct degrees of personal attainment in true religion.
1. The state of mind which exists in the earliest stage of true religion is characterised by anxiety to escape from evil and enjoy salvation. The anxiety of the young believer must be distinguished from that of unconverted minds. This is easy in theory, but difficult in practice. When we act, it is with imperfect instruments; with faculties corrupted by sin and disordered by our passions. It is the Spirit, however, that helps our infirmities. The Christian is anxious to be delivered from sin; the unrenewed man cares only for its consequences. The anxiety of the believer if from the Holy Spirit, is exercised with a spiritual discernment of the covenant of grace, and is influenced by an ardent desire to enjoy righteousness, and holiness, and happiness in Christ; the anxiety of the unconverted is a blind, unholy passion, pungent indeed, but indefinite, and equivocal in respect to all these objects.
2. The state of mind enjoyed by the Christian in the second grade of spiritual attainments is characterised by admiration of Jesus Christ and the salvation which He administers. Great power, magnanimity, and condescension are in their own nature admirable: infinite perfection is an object of the admiration of all intelligent creatures; and, in a certain sense, the Divine excellency is admired by the unregenerate. Christians, too, from the very commencement of their new life, and throughout every stage of their progress, feel an admiration for God in Christ: nor does it cease in heaven; but in this stage, after having ascertained their own interest in the grace of God, it becomes the most prominent part of their character. They admire the dignity of the mediatory Person, God manifested in the flesh: the attributes and, especially, the love of God in Him; the wisdom of the plan devised for our redemption through a covenant ordered in all things and sure; and His fitness in everything to our condition, in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell. They admire the tenderness of His compassion, the fortitude displayed in His sufferings, the gracious Spirit which rests upon Him, and which He liberally communicates, grace for grace, from His own fulness to our wants. They admire the place on high, where He is enthroned in light, and into which they have now themselves a sure hope of admission.
3. The third period of Christian progress is characterised by a thirst for religious knowledge. In every art or science, the period most favourable to the ardent pursuit of knowledge is immediately after the habits and the language peculiar to it, and at first strange, have become familiar and easy; after a high admiration of the objects of study is felt by the learner; and before the actual business of life demands his chief attention. There is a similar period in the religious life of man. The knowledge of Divine things, always desirable and useful, is pursued with peculiar ardour so soon as we have attained to that patient admiration of its glorious objects which accompanies the full assurance of hope. Then the speculative powers of the mind, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, search for knowledge, and procure it on account of its own intrinsic worth.
4. The fourth period of Christian progress is characterised by public spirit in promoting the interests of the Church. A benevolent disposition towards mankind, and a special regard for the godly, are coeval with the Christian life; and wheresoever these exist, there will also be some exertions for promoting the good of the house of the Lord: but it requires great progress in the new life before anyone is characterised by self-denial in the Church’s service similar to that of Moses, who chose affliction with the people of God; by an enlightened ardour in the work of righteousness, like Elijah the prophet; and by such disinterestedness as was practised by Paul the apostle. This is not a blind devotion to the interests of party, but a spirit of magnanimity and liberality, fostered and directed by the Word of God.
5. The fifth degree of progress in personal piety is characterised by heavenly-mindedness.
6. The highest rank in personal godliness on earth is attained by those who willingly suffer for Christ’s sake. Voluntary martyrdom for any cause is an evidence of personal resolution and sincerity--the highest which man can give of his attachment to the cause he has espoused. And it is easy to show that the disciple who willingly carries the cross, for which he is misrepresented and maligned by his contemporaries, rises far superior in heroism to the patriot soldier who, encouraged by the honours of a military life, and cheered by the voice of applause loudly raised by his country, exposes himself to danger and to death. Reason, as well as Divine revelation, of course, justifies the Christian in sacrificing cheerfully the honours and comforts of this life, and even life itself, when they come in competition with the honour which cometh from God and with the never-ending enjoyments of the heavenly life. The duty and the reward of such a sacrifice are sufficiently obvious: “Whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it”; but the disposition of mind to perform the duty in view of the high reward is a rare attainment in grace. The Lord Himself will, however, bestow it according to His good pleasure, in those extraordinary times of trial which call for it, upon them whom the King delighteth to honour. (A. McLeod, D. D.)
Freshness of being
1. In everything which is really of God there is a singular freshness; it is always like that “tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month”; there is a continual novelty. And yet some people speak of the sameness of a religious life.
2. Through a new spirit, endowed with a new heart, by a new and living way, in obedience to a new commandment, with mercies new to us every morning, carrying a new name, we travel to a new heaven and a new earth, where we shall sing a new song forever and ever. Well might Christ say, “Behold I make all things new.”
3. If there be a time when we ought specially to study “newness,” surely it is now in this springtime, when the resurrection of Christ is telling us of risen beings coming forth to new affections, and higher enterprises. Therefore let us study “newness.”
4. For who has not a great deal which he would get rid of? Old levels of thought, old appetites, clingings, selfishnesses, prejudices, sins! And may we not be thankful that we have to do with a religion which is always giving grace through new opportunities, for new actions, whose very essence is a daily renovation, and whose keynote all along is resurrection?
I. What is “newness”?
1. It is better than creation. Beautiful as must have been the Holy Child, as He lay a babe at Bethlehem, the same form, risen from the tomb, was lovelier. The heavens and the earth of innocence were fair. But “the new heavens and the new earth” which are to be, shall exceed the glories of Eden.
2. The good that comes out of evil is better than the good which has never been soiled. The old goes to make the new. The old passions, the old bias, the old elements of the natural man, go to make the strength, the elevation of the new creation, the same, yet not the same.
II. Let us trace where the “newness” lies.
1. There is set a “new” motive, “God loves me. How can I show Him that I do indeed love Him who has been so exceedingly kind to me?”
2. Bars and fetters have been falling off from that man’s soul, and he feels a “new” principle. He is emancipated from a long, dark bondage. And he goes forth into the old world, its scenes are just the same, but a “new” sunshine lies upon everything, it is the medium of his “newborn” peace, it is a smile of God. And oh! how changed that world looks to him.
3. And so his standard is always rising. He leaves the past attainments behind, as nothing to the heights which are opening before him. He has ever a new ambition, therefore he enterprises new works for God. And all the while, Christ reveals Himself to him with ever-increasing clearness. Some new view of some old truth, some yet untasted sense of his own pardon, is always breaking upon his wondering mind. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Christianity the renewal of the race
1. Christianity has become to us such an everyday and old thing, so different from the amazing, respiring miracle which once it was, that we fail to realise how Divine a revolution it was intended to effect. Yet Christ and His apostles tried to impress upon us that the gospel was not a slightly improved Judaism, not a mere scheme to produce the average morality of men, but a vast reversal of the past, a fresh beginning for the future. “May we know what this new teaching is?” cried the votaries of obsolete philosophics on Mars Hill. The writer to the Hebrews describes Christ as a new and living way to God. St. Paul describes conversion as putting off the old man, with his affections and lusts, and putting on the new man, and says: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold they are come new.” And St. Peter speaks of “a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” And St. John in the Apocalypse talks of “a new name “and “a new song,” and a “new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God,” and He that sitteth on the throne said: “Behold, I make all things new.” Life from the dead--newness of life--that was the conception which the apostles and evangelists had formed of Christianity.
2. It was not that any ostensible change had taken place in the world around them. Men married, and gave in marriage, and sinned, and suffered, and lied, as before. Heathenism hardly deigned to cast one single glance upon Christianity, or, if so, simply scorned it as an insane enthusiasm or hated it as an execrable superstition. And that despised handful of artisans and fishermen was right, and the world, with all its powers, and splendours, was wrong. Not with the diadem, and the purple, the wisdom of Greece, the venerable institutions of Jerusalem, were the truth, and the force, and the glory of the future. With them was the ebbing, with these was the flowing tide. The peopled walls of the amphitheatre broke into yells of sanguinary exultation when the tiger sprang upon some aged martyr; but the hope and the meaning of all human life were with him, and not with them.
3. “Yes,” the cynic will coldly answer, “the world goes mad at times, and this was one of the world’s strange delusions; but we have changed all that.” Now we have
