“Jesu, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.”
To be found in Christ means more than mere shelter, more than external fellowship. It means a union as close and vital and abiding as between the members of the body and the head; a union effected by the Spirit, and being the very Spirit of Christ dwelling in us.
II. The believing life consists of righteousness, not self-acquired, but Divinely inspired through faith.—“Not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ” (ver. 9). The apostle now touches upon a theme—justification by faith—which he has argued out with a clearness and fulness unequalled by any other New Testament writer. The righteousness which was his own was out of the law, or originated by the law, and was acquired by his own effort; but the righteousness which he finds in Christ is not his own, but God’s, and is acquired, not by his merits or efforts, but by faith in Christ. “This righteousness, Divine in its origin, awful in its medium, and fraught with such results, was the essential element of Paul’s religion, and the distinctive tenet of his theology.” When a friend happening to say to the Rev. John Brown, of Haddington, “I suppose you make not your labours for the good of the Church the ground of your comfort,” he, with uncommon earnestness, replied, “No, no no! it is the finished righteousness of Christ which is the only foundation of my hope; I have no more dependence on my labours than on my sins. I rather reckon it a wonder of mercy that God took any of my labours of my hand. Righteousness belongeth unto Him, but unto me shame and confusion of face.”
III. The believer’s life is the creation of Divine power.—1. It is a life communicated by the exercise of the Divine power that raised Christ from the dead. “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection” (ver. 10). The power exerted by Christ’s resurrection is exerted in raising the Divine life in the believing soul, and raising it to still higher developments of power and enjoyment. The aspirations of the soul after Christ are aspirations to know more and more the power of His resurrection.
2. It is a life that will be consummated by the ultimate resurrection of the body.—“If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (ver. 11). Towards this consummation the apostle yearns with intense desire. All his hopes, all his soul longed for, seem gathered up in this: perfect freedom for ever from sin and sorrow; knowledge of Christ up to the fullest measure of his capacity of knowledge; perfect experimental acquaintance with the power of His resurrection, through perfect fellowship of life with Him; the ineffable and everlasting blessedness of being with Him and like Him; to rise out of the ashes of the tomb and assume the glorious body of the resurrection. We can never forget a corridor in the Vatican Museum, exhibiting on the one side epitaphs and emblems of departed heathens and their gods, and on the other side mementoes of departed Christians. Face to face they stand, engaged, as it were, in conflict, the two armies clinging to their respective standards; hope against despair—death swallowed up in victory. Opposite to lions seizing on horses, emblems of destruction, are charming sculptures of the Good Shepherd bearing home the lost lamb—a sign of salvation.
IV. The believer’s life is in sympathetic fellowship with the suffering Christ—“And to know the fellowship of His sufferings” (ver. 10). The sufferings of Christ are not ended—they are prolonged in the sufferings of His people—and of these the apostle desired to know the fellowship. He longed so to suffer, for such fellowship gave him assimilation to his Lord, as he drank of His cup and was baptised with His baptism. It brought him into communion with Christ, purer, closer, and tenderer than simple service for Him would have achieved. It gave him such solace as Christ Himself enjoyed. To suffer together creates a dearer fellow-feeling than to labour together. Christ indeed cannot be known unless there be this fellowship in His sufferings (Eadie). An intimate friend of Handel’s called upon him just as he was in the middle of setting the words to music, “He was despised,” and found the great composer sobbing with tears, so greatly had this passage and the rest of the morning’s work affected the master.
Lessons.—1. The soul finds its highest life in Christ. 2. Life in Christ is secured by the co-operation of man’s faith with Divine power. 3. To live in Christ is to share the fruits of His mysterious passion.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 10. Knowledge of the Power of Christ’s Resurrection.
- To know Christ includes a clearly defined conception and familiar acquaintance with the special characteristics and unrivalled excellencies of His person.
- To know the power of His resurrection.—1. As it is a public and universal vindication of the proper dignity of His person. 2. As it seals the doom of human sin. 3. As it ensures the destruction of pain and death, and provides for the perpetuation of the believer in a state of immortal felicity.