The Doctrine of Christ

31/95

LESSON TWENTY-EIGHT Raised with Christ

1. Those who believe on Christ share with him in his resurrection. Romans 6:5, 8, 11; Ephesians 2:4, 5; Colossians 2:12, 13. TDOC 75.1

2. As the result of this union with Christ, his resurrection, a new life is imparted to the believer. Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:23; Colossians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 4:10, 11. TDOC 75.2

3. This gift is manifested in a devotion to heavenly things. Colossians 3:1; Philippians 3:20. TDOC 75.3

4. The power of Christ’s resurrection is thus made’ available to the believer. Philippians 3:10; Ephesians 1:19, 20; Hebrews 7:16. TDOC 75.4

NOTES: He is risen

“Art thou a Christian? Wilt thou roll back the stone upon the, sepulcher, and make the world believe that Christ is still there?” TDOC 75.5

The resurrection life

“Christian experience is that of resurrection life. Two great analogous events are set before us in the New Testament, and declared to have been accomplished by the same power, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the quickening of souls to newness of life.” TDOC 75.6

Christian experience a proof of the resurrection

“The resurrection of Christ is established by stronger evidence than exists for any other historical fact; but apart altogether from the historical evidence, the entire experience of God’s people goes to show that Christ, as the mediator between God and man, as the representative of God and the channel of his influence upon us, must be now alive, and must be in a position to exert a personal care; and a personal influence, and to yield a present and inward assistance.” TDOC 75.7

“Our personal experience of this quickening of the soul, and this liberating action of the Spirit of life is a witness to the reality of Christ’s resurrection, an inward witness of which no argument can rob the believer. He knows he was once dead in sin; he knows that he is now alive to God and spiritual things. He feels the workings of the old nature in him and of the new, of flesh and spirit, and the warfare which exists between them; that he is crucified with Christ, and that Christ lives in him. He knows what it is to walk in the Spirit by which he lives; and he knows that this is life in a risen Savior, the risen Christ who sent forth the quickening Pentecostal Spirit, and maintains by that Spirit the life of his church.” TDOC 75.8

Another rising from the dead

“When a human soul awakes from its trespasses and sins, when the love of God is poured into a heart that was cold and empty, when the Spirit of God breathes into a spirit lying powerless and buried in the flesh, there is as true a rising from the dead as when Jesus our Lord came out from his sepulcher.” TDOC 76.1

The Spirit’s quickening

“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the ‘dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quickened your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.’ Romans 8:11. TDOC 76.2

It is not our dead bodies which are here spoken of as the objects of the Spirit’s quickening, but our mortal bodies—bodies liable to death, and doomed to death if the Lord tarry, but not yet having experienced death. Hence the quickening referred to has to do rather with the vivifying of, the living saints — than the resurrection of the dead saints.” TDOC 76.3

Verifying our expectation

“The resurrection is promised to believers. It is promised to arise to them in sequel to a certain course-a history of redemption, made good in their lives. How shall the disciple verify his expectation of this final benefit? Not surely without verifying the intermediate history. The way must point forward the end-at least, must point toward it. A resurrection state, if it be like Christ’s, how much must it include! What purity, what high aptitudes, what delicate congenialities. The desires of the true Christian life, its aspirations and efforts as well as the promises which animate and the influences which sustain it, all point in this direction.” TDOC 76.4