Works of John Bunyan — Volume 01

by John Bunyan

2. As we are said to do by Christ, so we are said to suffer by him, to suffer with him. ‘I am crucified with Christ,’ said Paul. And again, ‘Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin’ (1 Peter 4:1). Mark how the apostle seems to change the person. First he says, it is Christ that suffered; and that is true; but then he insinuates that it is us that suffered, for the exhortation is to believers, to ‘walk in newness of life’ (Rom 6:4). And the argument is, because they have suffered in the flesh, ‘For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God’ (1 Peter 4:1,2). We then suffered, when Christ suffered; we then suffered in his flesh, and also our ‘old man was crucified with him’ (Rom 6:6); that is, in his crucifixion; for when he hanged on the cross, all the elect hanged there in their common flesh which he assumed, and because he suffered there as a public man.

3. As we are said to suffer with him, so we are said to die, to be dead with him; with him, that is, by the dying of his body. ‘Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him’ (Rom 6:8). Wherefore he saith in other places, ‘Brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ’; for indeed we died then to it by him. To the law—that is, the law now has nothing to do with us; for that it has already executed its curse to the full upon us by its slaying of the body of Christ; for the body of Christ was our flesh: upon it also was laid our sin. The law, too, spent that curse that was due to us upon him, when it condemned, killed, and cast him into the grave. Wherefore, it having thus spent its whole curse upon him as standing in our stead, we are exempted from its curse for ever; we are become dead to it by that body (Rom 7:4). It has done with us as to justifying righteousness. Nor need we fear its damning threats any more; for by the death of this body we are freed from it, and are for ever now coupled to a living Christ.

4. As we are said thus to be dead, so we are said also to rise again by him—‘Thy dead men,’ saith he to the Father, ‘shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise’ (Isa 26:19).[5] And again, ‘After two days he will revive us; in the third day—we shall live in his sight’ (Hosea 6:2).

Both these scriptures speak of the resurrection of Christ, of the resurrection of his body on the third day; but behold, as we were said before to suffer and be dead with him, so now we are said also to rise and live in God’s sight by the resurrection of his body. For, as was said, the flesh was ours; he took part of our flesh when he came into the world; and in it he suffered, died, and rose again (Heb 2:14). We also were therefore counted by God, in that God-man, when he did this; yea, he suffered, died, and rose as a common head.[6]

Hence also the New Testament is full of this, saying, ‘If ye be dead with Christ’ (Col 2:20). ‘If ye be risen with Christ’ (3:1). And again, ‘He hath quickened us together with him’ (2:13). ‘We are quickened together with him.’ ‘Quickened,’ and ‘quickened together with him.’ The apostle hath words that cannot easily be shifted or evaded. Christ then was quickened when he was raised from the dead. Nor is it proper to say that he was ever quickened either before or since. This text also concludes that we—to wit, the whole body of God’s elect, were also quickened then, and made to live with him together. True, we also are quickened personally by grace the day in the which we are born unto God by the gospel; yet afore that, we are quickened in our Head; quickened when he was raised from the dead, quickened together with him.

5. Nor are we thus considered—to wit, as dying and rising, and so left; but the apostle pursues his argument, and tells us that we also reap by him, as being considered in him, the benefit which Christ received, both in order to his resurrection, and the blessed effect thereof.

(1.) We received, by our thus being counted in him, that benefit which did precede his rising from the dead; and what was that but the forgiveness of sins? For this stands clear to reason, that if Christ had our sins charged upon him at his death, he then must be discharged of them in order to his resurrection. Now, though it is not proper to say they were forgiven to him, because they were purged from him by merit; yet they may be said to be forgiven us, because we receive this benefit by grace. And this, I say, was done precedent to his resurrection from the dead. ‘He hath quickened us together with him, HAVING forgiven us all trespasses.’ He could not be ‘quickened’ till we were ‘discharged’; because it was not for himself, but for us, that he died. Hence we are said to be at that time, as to our own personal estate, dead in our sins, even when we are ‘quickened together with him’ (Col 2:13).

Therefore both the ‘quickening’ and ‘forgiveness’ too, so far as we are in this text concerned, is to him, as we are considered in him, or to him, with respect to us. ‘Having forgiven you ALL trespasses.’ For necessity so required; because else how was it possible that the pains of death should be loosed in order to his rising, so long as one sin stood still charged to him, as that for the commission of which God had not received a plenary satisfaction? As therefore we suffered, died, and rose again by him, so, in order to his so rising, he, as presenting of us in his person and suffering, received for us remission of all our trespasses. A full discharge therefore was, in and by Christ, received of God of all our sins afore he rose from the dead, as his resurrection truly declared; for he ‘was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification’ (Rom 4:25). This therefore is one of the privileges we receive by the rising again of our Lord, for that we were in his flesh considered, yea, and in his death and suffering too.

(2.) By this means also we have now escaped death. ‘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,’ or for, ‘sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God’ (Rom 6:9,10). Now in all this, considering what has been said before, we that are of the elect are privileged, for that we also are raised up by the rising of the body of Christ from the dead. And thus the apostle bids us reckon: ‘Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ’ (Rom 6:11). Hence Christ says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life,’ for that all his are safe in him, suffering, dying, and rising. He is the life, ‘our life’; yea, so our life, that by him the elect do live before God, even then when as to themselves they yet are dead in their sins. Wherefore, hence it is that in time they partake of quickening grace from this their Head, to the making of them also live by faith, in order to their living hereafter with him in glory; for if Christ lives, they cannot die that were sharers with him in his resurrection.[7] Hence they are said to ‘live,’ being ‘quickened together with him.’ Also, as sure as at his resurrection they lived by him, so sure at his coming shall they be gathered to him; nay, from that day to this, all that, as aforesaid, were in him at his death and resurrection, are already, in the ‘dispensation of the fulness of times,’ daily ‘gathering to him.’ For this he hath purposed, wherefore none can disannul it—‘In the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth; even in him’ (Eph 1:10).

(3.) To secure this the more to our faith that believe, as we are said to be ‘raised up together’ with him, so we are said to be ‘made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Eph 2:6). We died by him, we rose by him, and are together, even all the elect, set down ‘together’ in ‘heavenly places in Christ Jesus’; for still, even now he is on the right hand of God, he is to be considered as our public man, our Head, and so one in whom is concluded all the elect of God. We then are by him already in heaven; in heaven, I say, by him; yea, set down there in our places of glory by him. Hence the apostle, speaking of us again, saith, That as we are predestinate, we are called, justified, and glorified; called, justified, glorified; all is done, already done, as thus considered in Christ (Rom 8:30). For that in his public work there is nothing yet to do as to this. Is not HE called? Is not HE justified? Is not HE glorified? And are we not in him, in him, even as so considered?