Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9)
We shall not be able to raise
ourselves any more than we can crucify ourselves, but we must recognize that the
Lord's dealings with us are with that in view. In order to display the power of
His resurrection, He will very often have to take the attitude toward us of
letting things get well beyond all human power to remedy or save, of allowing
things to go so far that there is no other power in all the universe that can do
anything whatever to save the situation. He will allow death, disintegration to
work, so that nothing, nothing in the universe is of any avail, except the power
of His resurrection.
We shall come to the place where Abraham came, who became the great type of
faith which moved right into resurrection: "He considered his own body now as
good as dead" (Rom. 4:19). That is the phrase used by the apostle about Abraham:
"as good as dead." And Paul came into that: "We had the sentence of death in
ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead" (2 Cor. 1:9). Whatever else men may be able to do in the realm of
creation, they stop short when death has actually taken place; they can do no
more. Resurrection is God's act, and God's alone. Men can do very many things
when they have got life, but when there is no life it is only God who can do
anything. And God will allow His Church and its members oft-times to get into
such situations as are altogether beyond human help, in order that He may give
the display, which is His own display, in which no man has any place to glory.