Brethren, we have now shown forth the Lord’s death. Death at all times and inall forms is a solemnising thing. How especially so is the Lord’s death. It isthe death of Him who is the Life, who remained the Life even in dying, and whoby death became to us the Resurrection. “O the depth of the riches both of thewisdom and knowledge of God!” (Rom 11:33). The Life becomes by death theResurrection. This death we have been showing forth. Is it not worthy of ourhighest efforts to show it forth well, and now to show forth in ourselves its sanctifyingpower? For if we have intelligently shown it forth for what it really is, thedeath of Him who is the Life, and who has by death become the Resurrection,then surely that animating call of an Apostle is to the point, “If ye then berisen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth onthe right hand of God.”

The Apostle does not mean by the word “if” to cast any doubt on whether thosewho believe on Christ now are risen with Him. He has, in the former chapter,absolutely asserted, “Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operationof God, who hath raised him from the dead” (2:12). This is the value and thepower of His resurrection, even that it is the resurrection also of Hisbelieving people, according to His own word, “I am the resurrection, and thelife: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (Jn11:25). While this is the sure fruit of faith, it indicates one very solemnground of our obligation to believe, to be always believing, on His name. Forotherwise we incur the fault of doing what in us lies to make His resurrectionfruitless. By union with Christ through faith the power of His resurrectionenters into us and quickens us to newness of life. The privilege of Hisresurrection also becomes ours, and we stand before God related to Him now evenas the risen Saviour does. Mark well what that privilege is—the fundamentalprivilege of Christ Himself in His risen life. For what right Jesus assertedand made good, claimed and had the claim thereof acknowledged in Hisresurrection, that most surely and first of all must be ours if we are risenwith Him.

Consider, then, that in rising from the dead, Jesus divested Himself of thecovenant of works, purged His relation to the Father from every element ofobligation, and claimed His Father’s love and promises as all most fullyearned. He had nothing more to suffer now in order to the covenant assurancebeing fulfilled unto Himself, “He shall see of the travail of his soul” (Isa53:11); or the covenant assurance being fulfilled to His people: “I will put mylaws into their mind, and write them in their hearts… and their sins and theiriniquities will I remember no more” (Heb 8:10, 12). He had nothing now tosuffer and nothing now to do in order to obtain the ends of His covenant withthe Father. All the stipulated service, the obedience unto death, had beenrendered; all the legal element removed by the law’s being wholly satisfied. Itremains now for the Father to be ever fulfilling unto Him the now sealedpromise, to divide Him a portion with the great, and that He should divide thespoil with the strong (Isa 53:12). He enters on the Father’s unclouded favourand unconditional love.

And so also do ye if ye are risen with Him. Like Him and in Him you divestyourselves of the covenant of works. You take the promise “their sins and theiriniquities will I remember no more” as being free to you without money andwithout price, without condition or works on your part, as much so as the risenChrist at God’s right hand is free from obligation to suffer any furtherpenalty or pay any further price for the glory in which He dwells with theFather. You too, like Christ, with Christ, in Christ cast out the element oflegality. You enter unconditionally into absolute and free favour with God. Youenter freely on a covenant with Him ordered in all things and sure.

And you do so because you rightly understand, appreciate and personally embraceChrist as the Resurrection. You feel that by not believing on Him so as to risewith Him, you make His resurrection void. You reduce it to an empty pageant.You make it powerless and profitless to you. For this and this alone can be itsprofit and its power, namely that, in virtue of it, you cast off that covenantof works which makes you guilty and cast out that legality which straitens youwith the spirit of bondage. You are no more now a servant, a slave or acriminal but a child, accepted and adopted of the Father, declared to be, not aservant who trembles at a hard taskmaster’s tasks, but a son of God with poweraccording to this resurrection. For the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christhas begotten you again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from thedead, to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled and fadeth not away (1Pet 1:4). And if so, how powerful is the call to seek those things which areabove!

Those things which are above are now yours. This is the privilege of the risenlife. It is a life in which a right to the things above has been made yours. Itis not a life which is spent in seeking to make good a title to the thingsabove, but a life to be spent in seeking them and enjoying them as your own.

Do not think that your having to seek them is inconsistent with the truth thatin Christ they are yours. They are Christ’s by purchase, a purchase mostcomplete, ratified by His resurrection, yet He seeks them: “I will pray theFather, and he shall give you another Comforter” (Jn 14:16). And listen to theoracle that assigns to Jesus the very course that is assigned to you, “Ask ofme, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermostparts of the earth for thy possession” (Ps 2:8). No, your seeking the thingswhich are above is not inconsistent with the privilege of claiming them asyours. It is in prosecution of that privilege, it is in actual acceptation ofit that you seek.

What shall you seek above as yours?

(1) First of all the Father, at whose right hand Jesus sits. It is true thatthe Apostle’s phraseology, when translated into our language literally, doesnot seem to include persons at all. It speaks of the things thatare above. But the usage of the original makes it quite admissible to includepersons, for in John 8:23 Jesus, speaking of His own divine origin and heavenlyhome, says, “I am from above.” This is literally, “I am of the things above.”Let this then be your habitual course. Be it yours to seek the Father who isabove; our Father which is in heaven. Seek the Lord and His strength, seek Hisface evermore. Seek the Father’s love, the love that gave the Son and with Himthe Spirit, yea, and with Him freely all things. Seek filial fellowship withthe Father, and do so in the constant faith that Christ sits at His right handas your advocate, maintaining the permanence of your adoption and theperpetuity of your peace with God, that you may enjoy with Him a truly risenlife. This is a life of filial confidence and filial security, even such lifeand fellowship as you may anticipate with One who has begotten you to a livelyhope by the resurrection of His Son from the dead, who rejoices over you withsinging, saying, “This my son was dead and is alive again” (Lk 15:24) and whohas declared you to be His with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, bythe resurrection from the dead. Seek the Father in the faith of the resurrectedChrist who is the Resurrection. In spirit may it be yours to say with the risenforerunner, “I ascend to His Father and my Father, to His God and my God” (cf.Jn 20:17). In so ascending you shall share in Christ’s ascension even as youshare in His resurrection. For He ascended on high carrying captivity captive,receiving gifts for men. Your ascension in spirit to the Father shall burst thebonds of all your captivity, secure for you enlargement and liberty in theSpirit of adoption and communicate the very gifts which Jesus has received foryou.

(2) Seek the Lord Jesus Himself. It is His own express assertion, “I am of thethings above.” Seek ye the Lord Jesus; seek and ye shall find. Being risen withHim, living the same life with Him, living in the same world or sphere in whichHe lives, your seeking Him surely will be a successful seeking, for Jesus fillsthat sphere or kingdom with Himself. He ascended far above all heavens that Hemight fill all things with Himself. Every where, in the sphere of risen life,you meet with Him, Jesus Christ, the all in all. Surely your seeking must befollowed with finding. To others indeed, to those who believe not on His name,it cannot be so. “Ye shall seek me,” He said to the unbelieving Jews, “andshall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come” (Jn 7:34). Theirunbelief put a fatal gulf between Him and them. Unbelief is from beneath; Jesusis from above and faith is from above. It is of that new birth which is fromabove. Hence to them that are of faith Jesus says, “Whither I go ye know, andthe way ye know” (Jn 14:4). The way was by the manger, the cross and the emptygrave, and the path of life which, at that empty grave, He saw stretching outbefore Him, on even to the Father’s presence where there is fullness of joy,where He now sits above at the right hand of God. By this way your faith seeksand finds, seeking by no deceitful light but by the light of the Word and Spiritof the Lord. And your hope thus enters within the veil, whither Jesus hasalready entered as forerunner. Your faith and hope enter there and you findJesus. “I found him whom my soul loveth… and would not let him go” (Song 3:4),and even as anew you find Him, you will find something more in Him. You willfind Him something more to you than you ever found before. For out of Hisfullness have we all received and grace for grace.

(3) Seek the Spirit. If ye be risen with Christ, seek the Spirit who is fromabove. It is a risen Saviour who has received the promise of the Father, thepromised Spirit, and who sheds abroad the life of the Spirit on the Church. Asrisen with Christ you specially share with Him the promise of the Father.Declared to be the son of God, according to the Spirit of holiness, by theresurrection of the dead, you have a personal and acknowledged interest in theoutpouring of the Spirit. He is the seal of your adoption, the earnest of yourinheritance (cf. Eph 1:13–14), the first fruits of your glory.

(4) Seek the wisdom which is from above, for “wisdom is the principal thing;therefore get wisdom” (Prov 4:7). In one view, wisdom embraces the entireChristian character. It is the embodiment of all Christian graces. Study thatwisdom that is spoken of and so highly and variously commended in the book ofProverbs and seek to be able to manifest in growing measure its variousexcellencies. It is the wisdom which comes from above. It is the wisdom whichChrist is made by God to them that believe (1 Cor 1:30). Oh! if being risenwith Christ you seek the things that are above, give a first place to thatwisdom which comes from above and which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle,and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,and without hypocrisy” (Jas 3:17). Well may you seek that wisdom if you arerisen with Christ. If you are risen with Christ you need wisdom. You need to“walk in wisdom toward them that are without” (Col 4:5), those that are notrisen, wisely remembering that they may yet rise with Christ, and wiselyseeking that their intercourse with you and your bearing towards them maycontribute to their being led to count all things but loss that they may winChrist, the Resurrection and the Life. If you are risen with Christ, you needmanifold wisdom to walk worthy of your high calling from above, which is ofGod. Your being risen with Christ renders this wisdom in a thousand lightsabsolutely indispensable. Your being risen with Christ brings it within your reach,places it at your full disposal by faith.

(5) If you are risen with Christ seek the good of Jerusalem—that Jerusalemwhich is from above and which is free, which it the mother of us all, named theChurch of Christ, the Kingdom of Christ, the city of the great king, of whichglorious things are spoken (Ps 87:3), the one family in heaven and on earth.Seek the good of that portion of it which our prayers or services may profit.Specially as risen in Christ may we do so. For being risen with Christ we mustnaturally and inevitably feel a world like this to be a foreign shore, a landwholly uninhabited save for what of the Jerusalem which is from above is in it,and feel the hope of being at last translated from it to Jerusalem above. Aworld of sense and sin and sorrow and separation surely cannot be a home to onerisen with Christ. “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” but, saith Jesus,“In me ye shall have peace” (Jn 16:33). By sense you dwell in the world, thereis tribulation there. By faith you dwell in Me, the Resurrection, in Me and inyour new home, the home of your risen spirit, in Jerusalem to which, risen with Me, you ascendand have peace. For there is no cause for sorrow in the kingdom of Christ.All sorrow is from that outer sphere from which you are not yet whollydisentangled and emancipated. In the kingdom of Christ there is noadversity, no evil, no death, no bereavement, no separation. In Jerusalem thereare included all the faithful of every age, the whole family in heaven and onearth, an innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men madeperfect, and God the Judge of all, and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,and the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel; andall who by that new and living way have found boldness, though tabernaclingstill on the earth, to enter into the holiest. In this church of theResurrection and the Life, there are no real deaths, no real separations, noreal bereavements and no real losses. There are transpositions, transferencesand translations. But bereavements, strictly speaking, and in the language offaith, which is the language of the kingdom and the Word of the Lord, there arenone. “He shall not return to me,” said David, therefore his heart was heavy. “ButI shall go to Him,” therefore his glory rejoices and his flesh shall rest inhope.

Oh, if you are risen with Christ seek first the kingdomof God, seek the good of Jerusalem, bind in yourheart the church of the Resurrection and the Life. You will get nothing thereto wound your heart. Jerusalemis the mother of us all, full of consolation, even as one whom his mothercomforteth.

Brethren, we are led to draw upon consolatory reflections such as these at atime when it has pleased God to deal solemnly with us as a congregation. TheLord, who giveth not account of any of His matters, has been pleased verysuddenly to take away from among us one whose position among us was veryprominent, his character very exemplary, his services very valuable and his desirefor the welfare of his congregation very great. We mourn not on his account,because we mourn not as those that have no hope, for we know Him that has said,“Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Thes 4:14), and weknow that our departed friend was a man of faith and prayer. On his account wemourn not, not even because of the swiftness of the last messenger’s flight tohim, nor the haste with which the earthly house of this tabernacle was takendown. Why mourn for the righteous being swiftly rapt away into their Saviour’srest? Shall we complain because their journey through the valley wasabbreviated and they found a joyful surprise in crossing Jordan at astep?

But while we mourn not on his account we may rightly mourn on our own, forsurely this solemn dispensation carries somewhat of chastisement in it towardsus. The less cause we have to mourn on his account, the more have we on ourown. The more the Lord hurried the last messenger and cut his work short inrighteousness and love to His servant, the more startling is the voice of theswift rod to us. Brethren, let us try to lay it solemnly to heart when we aredeprived so unexpectedly of one who went out and in among us in all theconfirmed appearances of fullest health and vigour; of one so valuable to hisown home circle, now grievously bereaved and yet so greatly sustained andcomforted; of one so valuable to us in this congregation and also to this greatcommunity in which on all sides and with such depth and unanimity we hear hisremoval deplored. Surely in all this a lesson is read to us of the utterlyuncertain tenure by which we hold this present perishable life and how solemnlyit behoves us, if we would not perish in very folly, to see to it first of allthat we be found in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. For when we seethat in the midst of life we are in death, what possible comfort can we haveunless we are seeking to be able to add the glorious counterpart andcounteractive, “In the midst of death we are in the Resurrection and the Life”?Secondly, how impressively are we warned, in the words of our Lord, “Be ye alsoready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Mt 24:44; Lk12:40). “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there isno work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thougoest” (Ecc 9:10). We have reason to be grateful that not the departure only ofour friend but his life and example also enforce this solemn exhortation.

This is not the place for eulogy. We are showing forth this day the Master’sdeath, not His servant’s. But in the Master’s death, in which the Life becamethe Resurrection, we see the bond by which the Master’s brethren, whether inearth or heaven, are beyond the power of death to separate them from Him. Wehave shown forth the Lord’s death until He come (1 Cor 11:26). His coming willbe the coming of His saints also. Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring withHim. That forms part of our high anticipation concerning that blessed hope andthat glorious appearing of the Lord. Oh! brethren, if we share in Christ, inHis death (and we have been professing communion therein), if we share inChrist, in His resurrection, let us share with Him in His ascension. “If ye be risenwith Christ, seek those things which are above.” Let our conversation be inheaven. Forget the things that are behind, reach forth to those that arebefore. Press toward the mark for the prize of the calling which is from above(Phil 3:13–14). Purge away from your souls the wisdom that is from beneath.Keep yourselves unspotted from the world. Be not of it. Live above it. Andhaving fellowship in Christ, in His death, in His resurrection, in Hisascension, ye shall have fellowship with Him in His appearance: “When Christ,who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also,” and all your brethren inJesus, “appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4).