The Substance of Christian Religion, Lecture 17
The seventeenth Lords day.
Joh. 10. 17, 18.
17, I lay down my life, that I may take it up again.
18. None taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my self. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority or power to take it up again. This commandment received I of my Father.
SEeing the Text is the same, that it was before, the same analysis, that was there, may here also serve, and be made use of.
Doct. 5. Christ rose again from the dead.
For this is it, that is understood in the Text, by taking up his life again. For this taking up again, is a reunion of things that were separated before: And in this reunion of the soul and body, there was a change or motion from an inferior condition to a superior of that, which was before in a better also or superior to this, from which the change is now: And therefore it is properly called a reassumption, or taking again, and not barely a resurrection. The forme then from which this change was made, was from his state of humiliation; and the forme to which, was the state of exaltation and glory; the subject of this transmutation or motion was Christs humane nature, which had fallen unto the lowest and abjectest condition of his humiliation. Christ's own body arose again from true death, and from the grave: And his soul also is said to have risen again, as it was now restored and reunited unto the body, and so delivered from the state and dominion of death; or as delivered from the privation of its act in the body, wherein there was some diminution in its ralative perfection. There were two parts of this resurrection, revivification or a quickening again of the humane nature, by the renewed union of soul and body; and its going out of the grave, to make it manifest, that it was restored. This resurrection was confirmed moreover by Angells, by the Scriptures, by Christ himself, and by the assent and eye-witness, or experience of many witnesses, in divers apparitions reiterated from time to time during the space of forty dayes.
Reas. 1. Because it was unbeseeming and impossible that the Son of God, and author of life, could be long detained by the power of death, Acts 2. 24.
Reas. 2. That by this means Christ himself might be justified in the spirit, or according to the spirit of holiness, that is by the power of his God-head justified to be God as well as man in one person; justly and fully declared and proved to be God, by his raising of himself again from the dead, Rom. 1. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 16. and might shew that we were justified by him from our sins, for which he died, and rose also again to shew that he had overcome for us, and delivered us from them, Rom. 4. 25.
Reas. 3. That being now alive, he might powerfully apply to us, what before he had purchased by his death, Rom. 5 10.
Reas 4. That he hereby might be the cause, foundation, and sign of assurance, and earnest to us of our resurrection, as well spiritual, as bodily, Rom. & ▪ 1 Cor. 15. 12, 13, 14.
Use, Is of Information, for the direction of our faith, that believing in Christ unto justification and salvation, we may so lay hold on Christ's death, that we still also look upon his resurrection, wherein his victory for us was shewn, and his power over death, and efficacy to work in us appeared, and which renders his death full of comfort to us, Rom. 5. 34. 1 Pet. 3 2.
Doct. 6. Christ's resurrection came to pass by his own proper vertue and power.
It is clear in the Text; I take it up again; and I have power of taking it up again. For this is the difference between Christ's resurrection, and that of others; that they rise again by the power of another, to wit, of Christ, as many, as are his: But Christ by his own power, as Lord of life and death, and therefore hath the disposing of both, as he sees good. Neither doth it make any thing against this truth, that it is often said, that God raised him again from the dead; and the Spirit of God. For the works of the Trinity from without are undivided, common to all the three Persons.
Reas. 1. Because what is thus attributed to God, is therefore also attributed to the Son together with the Father, and Holy Spirit, and is not taken from him, as is clear by our Text.
Reas. 2. When Christ is said to be raised by God, or the Spirit of God, then properly his humane nature is considered, as raised by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, though not alwayes all three expressed; but now one, now another: But when he is said to have raised himself, his divine nature and person is spoken of and considered, as raising his assumed humane nature, together with the Father, and the Spirit.
Reas. 3. Because by the Spirit and glory of God whereby Christ is said to be raised; no other vertue or power can be understood, than that of the divine nature, which was in Christ.
Use 1. Of Information to confirm our faith about the person of Christ. For he that by his own power …rose from death, can not be a bare man onelyonly; but must of necessity be acknowledged to have been God also. For the raising of a dead body, is no less divine a work, than the creation of a live body. He that raised himself from the dead, at the same time while he was dead in one of his natures, yet had life, and the fountain of life in his other nature; to wit, the divine, at his command, whereby he did so great a work, as to raise his other nature to life again. As Christ therefore by his death proved himself to be true man; so also in and by his resurrection, he proved himself to be the eternal and natural Son of God, and true God especially; not by office onelie, and that most manifestly.
Use 2. Of Consolation to all such as are in Christ. For they are in him, who hath vertue and power to raise them again from the dead, and to give them eternal life, Iohn 6. 39, 40
Doct. 7. Christ's resurrection was for us, or to do us good.
This is hence gathered, because in the Text, the common end of laying down his life, and taking it up again for all, is mentioned. For, for such as he laid down his life, for such also he took it up again. Now the resurrection of Christ turnes to our good, in another way than his death doth. For his death hath the account of satisfying and deserving for us: But his resurrection not so, but it hath the place and account of a samplar and efficient cause, and some way of an efficacious and powerfull applier and perfecter.
Reas. 1. Because Christ in his resurrection represented some way all the elect of God, and by a virtuall containing had them all in himself, and brought them all back from death.
Reas. 2. Because the same Spirit, that raised Christ again from the dead, by a certain sort of communicating the same resurrection, quickened as well the soules, as bodyes of the faithfull, that they may be made conforme to the likenesse of his resurrection, Rom 8. 11.
Reas. 3. Because that same Spirit quickens us by the power and vertue of the resurrection of Christ.
Reas. 4. Because the whole reparation of our nature will be after the image and pattern of the resurrection of Christ, Rom. 6. 5.
Use 1. Of Consolation, because in the resurrection of Christ, as brought to pass for us, or for our good, we have our victory over Death, Devill, Sin, and Hell, and all our Enemies, ready purchased and prepared for us. It is not therefore left to us to fight, that we may overcome, but onelyonly in sincerity that we may mind this, to lay hold on the victory already acquired by Christ for us, and that in the same manner we may strive to keep it, prosecute it, and more and more put ourselves in perfect possession of it by faith in Christ.
Use 2. Of Admonition, that by no means we suffer sin to reigne in our mortal bodies, but that we may spiritually imitate such as arise from the dead.