Risen
With Christ
From Signs of the Times—1868
“If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
Before we can with certainty determine that we are the people of whom this
apostolic admonition is applied, it is important that we should know something
experimentally of Christ, and of the power of his resurrection, and of the
fellowship of his sufferings, and be conformed to his death. We presume that no
one of all the saints will dispute the necessity of a saving acquaintance with
the crucified and risen Christ, before any sinner is competent even to seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. In
the depravity of our polluted nature we cannot see the
On the first question, we think there can be no doubt that allusion is made to
his resurrection from the dead, and in that resurrection from under the law, to
meet and cancel the demands of which, he was crucified and slain. When he was
made flesh, we are told that he was made of a woman, made under the law. And
being made under the law, he learned obedience, and in obedience to that law
which he humbled himself to come under, he laid down his life, that is, he was
put to death in the flesh, bearing our (all his people’s) sins in his own body
on the tree. This body in which he suffered was a body which was prepared for
the sufferings of death, that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man; for every one whose sins were laid on him. For this mediatorial
sacrifice he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed
of Abraham. Not that seed which is merely the natural progeny of Abraham; for we
are told that the children of the flesh are not the children of God; but in
Isaac his seed should be called. “So then, if ye be Christ’s, then are ye
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” (Gal. 3:29). “We, then, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise.” These, then, which are Christ’s as the
seed of Abraham, were under the law, involved in transgression and guilt, and
required to be redeemed. These were the people of whom it was said, “He was made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive
the adoption of sons,” (Gal. 4:5). In taking them on him he must needs take on
him their sins; but this was done that he might put away their sins by the
sacrifice of himself. It was for this “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us
all,” (Isa. 53:6). And for this great and gracious end, “It pleased the Lord to
bruise him; he hath put him to grief,” (Isa. 53:10) that with his stripes they
might be healed. In this body then in which he was put to death, we see was
embraced all those who by virtue of being Christ’s are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise; and the death which was inflicted on him in that body
was inflicted on him as the seed of Abraham. How could it possibly have been
otherwise? For what else could he have suffered? Had he not taken that seed on
him, no sin could have been found on him; only in his relation to and identity
with them could the sword of justice smite him, nor could his sufferings and
death have effected their redemption on any other conceivable ground. In this
body “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the
suffering of death,” (Heb. 2:9). For this very purpose, for the nature of angels
was not quite low enough to reach our case, he must needs take on him the seed
of Abraham, that the grace of God to usward might abound. In speaking of his
ascension to glory it is said, In that he ascended, what is it but that he first
descended into the lowest parts of the earth? So in that he has risen from the
dead, what is it, or how could it be, except he had first bowed his sacred head
in death?
The resurrection of Christ with which the apostle in our text connects the
children of God, as having risen with him, must be his resurrection from the
dead. He says in the preceding chapter, “And ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh, by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also
ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath
raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having
forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to
his cross,” (Col. 2:10-14). This same apostle, in writing on the same subject to
the Romans, says, “How can we that are dead to sin live any longer t herein?
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; 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. For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection;
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Now if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being
raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in
that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God,”
(
Now, in the light of these Scriptures, shall we inquire, first, Was Christ
buried (or immersed) into death when he died on the cross for the redemption of
his people? Second, Were all the seed of Abraham which he took [with] him, and
for whose sins he was delivered up, buried with him by that baptism into his
death?
Both questions seem to us to be clearly met and settled in what we have copied
from the apostle in the foregoing quotations. But in addition, let us accept
what further light is given in the Scriptures on this subject.
First. That Christ’s baptism into death was accomplished by his death on the
cross is still more fully confirmed by his own application of the figure of
baptism. “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and now am I straitened till
it be accomplished,” (Luke 12:50). This baptism was prospective, and could not
mean his baptism in
Second. Were the seed of Abraham, embracing all who are Christ’s, baptized with
him into this death? No person of common intelligence, we think, will understand
us to inquire if we were all literally and personally put to death with Christ
when he suffered on the cross. What we mean is, were we as the seed of Abraham,
which he took on him, embodied in him, so that the sins which he bore were our
sins; the flesh in which he suffered the just penalty of our guilt was our
flesh, or, in other words, was that our flesh against which the wrath of the
divine law was poured out? If this question be answered negatively, how shall we
understand the express declarations of the Scriptures already quoted?
How, on any other ground, were we buried with him by baptism into his death?
Jesus said of the sons of Zebedee, “Ye shall drink of my cup, and be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with,” (Matt. 20:22; Mark 10:38; Luke 12:5).
Paul says, “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto
God,” (Gal. 2:19). What! Dead; Paul? When did you die to the law? “I am
crucified with Christ.” Paul did not mean that his earthly body was defunct; for
he adds, “Nevertheless I live.” But does he mean that his fleshly body is, or
was at the time when he made this declaration, animated by the resurrection life
and immortality of Christ? Certainly he did not; for lest he should be so
understood, he says, “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I
now live in the flesh” (not the life of the flesh, but that living Christ which
was in him) “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me,” (Gal. 2:20). This death with Christ for him was indispensable
to his salvation, that he might live unto God; being redeemed from the body of
the sins of his flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, and his relationship to
the law of sin and death annulled, and he “dead to the law by the body of
Christ,” (Rom 7:4) that he might be married to him that is risen from the dead,
and partaker of his immortal resurrection life; that in this new, regenerated
state he might bring forth fruit unto God. “If one died for all, then were all
dead,” (2 Cor. 5:14). And henceforth it is said of all who are buried with
Christ by baptism into death, that the body is dead because of sin, but the
spirit is life because of righteousness.
As we cannot think any of our brethren will dispute the position of the apostle,
that the saints were buried with Christ by baptism into death, we will now
inquire, were they also raised with him by baptism into life? We say by baptism,
for that word signifies not only immersion, or burial, but resurrection, or
rising again. No one will deny that Jesus rose again from the dead on the third
day; but did he leave those for whom he suffered still under the law, under the
curse, and in the dominion of death? Or did he not rather destroy death, and him
that had the power of death? The trump of triumph proclaims a victory over
death, hell and sin, and loudly heralds forth the triumph of him who has
abolished death, and hath brought immortality to light through the gospel. Hence
the words of our text have meaning in them. “If ye then be risen with Christ.”
And those in the context, “And you being dead in your sins,” etc., “hath he
quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” This accords
with the testimony thus stated, “According to the working of his mighty power,
which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his
own right hand in the heavenly places;” “and hath put all things under his feet,
and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body,
and the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” This fullness of the body of
Christ, we are told, he hath quickened from a state of death in trespasses and
sins. And let it be observed, this quickening is given by the apostle as
exemplifying the mighty power of God in raising Jesus from the dead. There is a
deep meaning in the words of 1 Peter 1:3, when read in connection with Paul’s
testimony in the first and second chapters of Ephesians, showing how “God, who
is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved) and
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus,” (Eph. 2:4-6).
We are not disposed to dispute with brethren in regard to the application of the
words washing and regeneration, as used in Matthew 19:28, and Titus 3:5. But
certainly, whether these passages refer to it or not, baptism, to our mind, not
only implies, figuratively, death, burial and resurrection to newness of life,
but also a washing, cleansing and purging, by putting away the body of the sins
of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, and also a regeneration or
begetting of a new, spiritual and immortal life. If in the flesh and nature of
the seed of Abraham Christ died, and that seed was buried with him by baptism
into death, it was also quickened and raised up in new, resurrection life by his
resurrection. Therefore, as Peter affirms, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, from whom this immortal resurrection life proceeds, hath begotten us by
his resurrection. That immortality which came from God the Father, and quickened
and raised up Jesus from the dead, entered the body, the church, in the
resurrection of Christ, just as sin had entered the posterity of Adam by the
transgression of one man. Thus the
Resulting from the begetting of the Father, by the resurrection of Christ, and
the conception of the same in his mystical body, like leaven hidden in three
measures of meal, until all is leavened, this river flows, broad and deep,
excluding all gallant ships and galleys with oars, imparting immortal life,
first, in the new birth, by which we receive the first fruits, and finally in
the resurrection of the bodies of all the saints from natural to spiritual
bodies, from corruptible to incorruptible, from mortal to immortal bodies, from
terrestrial to celestial, and from the image of the earthly to the image of the
heavenly Adam. “For whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many
brethren,” (Rom. 8:29).
We see no cause of strife or contention on this subject. All sound Old School
Baptists believe that the children of God, in the regeneration, are begotten of
God the Father, quickened and born by his begetting power by the Spirit, and
that our new birth seals and secures to us our final deliverance from all
corruption and corruptibility, in a glorious resurrection of our bodies, in
which they shall be made spiritual, pure, holy and heavenly, and capacitated for
the immortal joys of God’s right hand. In a subsequent number, we propose to
urge on all the children of God, being the children of the Resurrection, the
admonition of our text, “Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God,” etc.
RISEN
WITH CHRIST: THE HIGH VOCATION
“If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not
on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4
Having dwelt somewhat elaborately on the resurrection of our divine Redeemer
from the dead, and of that immortality which he brought to light for all his
members when he abolished death, and when he, having spoiled principalities and
powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Rising from the
dead, he ascended up on high, bearing to the realms of glory the life and
immortality of all his members, having obtained eternal redemption for them, is
sat down on the right hand of God, angels and principalities being made subject
to him. Fully accepted in the courts of glory in his mediatorial work, he
forever lives as the Resurrection and Life of his people, all of whom, having
part in his resurrection, in him have reached their heavenly places, are
presented in him, are in him accepted of the Father; as under the law the whole
harvest was accepted in the acceptance of the first fruits, or first ripened
sheaf, so his people are in him presented without spot or blemish, and their
resurrection, their life and immortality within the veil is hid with him in God,
and so perfectly identified with him that when he shall appear they shall also
appear with him in glory.
We will in this article attempt to urge upon the consideration of the saints the
admonitions of our text as based upon these divine assurances. “Seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” In
perusing this subject there are several inquiries suggested requiring to be
answered, and among them,
·
First, The place or seat which is occupied by our risen and exalted Prince and
Savior, on the right hand of God.
·
Secondly, The things which are with him, and after which we are to seek, and how
they may be distinguished from the things which are on the earth.
·
Thirdly, Why we should seek the things which are above, and why we should not
seek the things which are on the earth.
·
Fourth, How, or in what manner we are instructed to seek the things which are
above, by setting our affection on things above, and by repudiating the things
which are on the earth, and by mortifying our members which are upon the earth.
First. That our Lord Jesus Christ ascended up into the heaven of eternal glory,
where all the glorified saints and holy angels dwell, and where all his children
shall ultimately find the consummation of their happiness, the sacred Scriptures
do not allow us to doubt. But still the seat which he now occupies at the right
hand of God the Father is the seat of his Mediatorial glory. That seat is upon
the throne of his spiritual kingdom. The inspiration of the Holy Ghost has
testified through the apostle that God has “raised him from the dead, and set
him at his own right hand, in the heavenly places, far above all principality
and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in
this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his
body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all,” (Eph. 1:20-23). It is as the
Mediatorial Head of the church that he is thus “exalted to be a Prince and a
Savior, to give repentance unto
In this spiritual kingdom are the heavenly places, or the many mansions, to
which our exalted Savior has raised his people, and in which he makes them sit,
in him. All whom he has redeemed and raised up have in their earthly relations
occupied earthly places, legal places, places of pollution, sin, condemnation,
wrath and death; but in him who is our Resurrection and our Life, we are raised
up from under the law, from guilt, from wrath, from death and from the grave,
and with him we now occupy the place of his feet, which he has made glorious,
the place where his honor dwelleth; these, in distinction from our places in the
flesh and under the law, are truly heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All the
vicissitude of the children of God, in being changed from glory to glory by the
Spirit, all our spiritual emotions, enlargements and abasements, in the
spiritual life, are heavenly places. In the closet, or in the banqueting house,
in songs of praise, in the fellowship of the saints, in communion with God, and
in all the order and ordinances of the gospel we find and fill our heavenly
places in Christ Jesus now; and when we shall quit this militant state we hope
to sit in heavenly places of more unmingled and uninterrupted bliss, and to be
perfectly released from all the trials, sorrows, tribulations, doubts and fears
to which we are now subject. But what pen shall describe the heavenly places of
our final triumphant state, when leaving the streams which now make glad the
city of our God, we shall bask in the fullness of immortal joys at the Fountain
Head above? It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear we shall be like him. Then shall we reach the mark of the prize of
our high calling in Christ Jesus our Lord to which we now are pressing forward.
This heavenly kingdom where God has set his King is on the right hand of God.
David in spirit saw the Queen, the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, brought to the King,
all glorious within, with clothing of wrought gold, and shining in raiment of
fine needle work, and standing at the right hand of the divine majesty, in gold
of Ophir, (Ps.45:7-14). The seat of Christ on the right hand of God shows that
all the perfections of eternal deity approve the Mediatorial work and government
of our heavenly King, and where he is, there shall his children be.
Secondly. We are to speak of the things which are above, and after which we are
exhorted to seek. What things are they? First of all in the order laid down, our
Lord has instructed his disciples to seek the kingdom itself, and God’s
righteousness, and leave it for God, who knoweth all our need, to supply all of
earthly comforts that in his wisdom we require. We have shown that the
“Nothing in your hand you bring
Simply to his cross you cling.”
Nothing short of God’s own righteousness can justify us in his sight; and the
more you accumulate of your own to prepare you for his kingdom, the worse off
you will be. Cast from you all the filthy rags of your own righteousness, and if
you be risen with Jesus, seek his kingdom and his righteousness, and strive to
enter in, and to abide within her gates; for Jesus has said, Many shall seek to
enter in and shall not be able. But, “Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city,” (Rev. 22:14). The things which are above, and which all who are
risen with Christ should seek to embrace all spiritual things, the bread of
life, the waters of salvation, the light and liberty of the gospel, the
fellowship of the saints, the laws, ordinances, and institutions of the house of
God, the doctrine, discipline, walk and deportment enjoined upon the saints;
these are all spiritual, and all pertain to the kingdom of heaven which is
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Finally, all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus are above. And “Every good and
perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no
variableness, nor shadow of turning,” (
To the people thus described by our Lord, he gave the gracious assurance, “Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened,” (Matt. 5:3; 7:7). The things which are above are essential to our
comfort, and to God’s declarative glory; they are worthy of our highest
aspirations; so that to seek them is a duty as well as a privilege to all who
are risen with Christ. But those who are not risen with him are still among the
dead, and have neither the desire, knowledge, life nor ability to seek;
therefore, to them no such command or encouragement is given. Thirdly. Why
should we seek those things which are above? Some of the reasons given are
these: “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,” (Col. 3:3).
In what sense are we dead? We have not yet laid off the body of our flesh, for
we are still subject to the strife and enmity of our fleshly passions, lusts,
affections, and the vain desires of our old carnal and depraved nature, and
still find a law in our members warring against the law of our mind, bringing us
into captivity to the law of sin which is in our flesh. If we were delivered
from this, and our mortality were already swallowed up of life, we should no
longer require to be admonished to mortify our members which are upon the earth,
or to crucify the old man with his affections and lusts. When freed from the
body of this death, we shall require no exhortations to seek the things which
are above.
Still, those who are risen with Christ are dead in the sense of what the apostle
is dwelling in the context. They are crucified with Christ. “In whom also ye are
circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him,” etc. “Wherefore if ye be dead with
Christ, from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are
subject to ordinances, which all are to perish with the using,” (Col.
2:11,12,20,22). Elsewhere the same apostle has testified that the saints are
dead to the law by the body of Christ, and married, and now under law to him
that is risen from the dead; and now as risen with him, we are not to dig up
Moses, the dead husband, whom God has buried, nor touch, nor taste, nor handle
those ordinances which belonged, in their time, to a worldly sanctuary, as
carnal ordinances, which all were to perish with the using. Dead, henceforth and
forever to the law, and risen with Christ to a higher and more exalted state, we
are above the rudiments of the world, and are to count ourselves dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto righteousness. By the circumcision of Christ, the flesh
is cut off, and we who are of the circumcision are to worship God in the spirit
(not in carnal ordinances), rejoice in Christ Jesus (not in Moses, or the law of
carnal commandments represented by him), and have no confidence in the flesh.
“Ye are dead,” possessing no quickened principle, faculty, or element of our
fleshly nature by which it is possible for us to serve God acceptably; for the
body is dead because of sin, and is put off by the circumcision of Christ.
Without this circumcision we cannot arise with Christ into his spiritual
kingdom; for with our flesh we always serve the law of sin; and “This I say,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
Fourthly. We close this extended article with a few remarks in which we call the
attention of the saints to the manner of seeking, as marked out by the apostle.
Both affirmatively and negatively, we are instructed as to the course enjoined.
Affirmatively, “Set your affections on things above.” On the very things which
we are commanded to seek; things pertaining to the kingdom and exaltation of
Christ, the things of the Spirit, in the enjoyment of which our carnal or
fleshly nature cannot participate; cherish an affectionate regard for them;
count them your peculiar treasure, more to be desired than choice gold. Bind
them to your heart; let not the remembrance of them slip from your mind, or be
displaced by the cares, trials, reproaches, crosses or persecutions which may
intercept your pathway. Like Moses, choose rather to suffer the afflictions with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin; and esteem the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures of
“Not on things of the earth.” If we love the world, the love of the Father is
not in us. True, we have a nature which is of the world, which has not risen
with Christ, and which loves the world, and would allure, captivate and draw us
away from God, and from the contemplation of those heavenly things which are
above. But these are the vile affections of the flesh; and the love of the
Father is not in our flesh. The carnal (fleshly) mind is enmity against God, it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Hence the Christian is
admonished to put off the old man, crucify, mortify, and resist all the carnal
propensities of our fleshly nature, deny ourselves of all ungodliness and
worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
The things of this life which are needful, we should receive from the hand of
God with thanksgiving, and use them in his fear, as not abusing them, knowing
that their fashion passeth away. But we may not make idols of them by bestowing
our affections on them, so as to neglect our high and holy vocation, or sell any
of our birthright privileges in the house of God for their tempting pottage.
How is it with us, brethren? Are we walking according to this divine rule? Are
our affections withdrawn, as they should be, from the world and its vanities? Do
we never neglect our spiritual privileges to secure some earthly object? Let us
heed the admonition of the word, “Forsake our vain delights, and bid the world
farewell.” Renounce it with its alluring charms and vanities, and see that our
affections rest on things which are above.
How desirable the state suggested by our subject. Our affections withdrawn from
the earth, our conversation in heaven, swerved by no worldly attraction or
allurement, from the pathway of holiness, and saying in our hearts,
“Our joys are all packed up and gone,
Our eager souls would follow them To our eternal home.”
Middletown, N.Y. June 1, 1868.
